Summer Dishes, Summer Roses

For the Labor Day family cookout I used my summer china with the roses and lilies called Tuscany Rose, made in Indonesia. When it is only Jesse and I at the table, I unwrap only a few place settings. This gathering required rummaging through the boxes and papers in the shed to unearth the lot.  Despite having to carry everything to the pergola and back to the kitchen for the cookout--no breakage! So much better than paper plates.

Jesse redesigned the patio this summer, laying more pavers, adding a canopy and table umbrella for more shade. He's thinking of adding a roof to the pergola.The trumpet vines have grown thick, screening the 11th Avenue side. He worked sheep manure into the soil, and the zinnias and marigolds on the Danny's Ccourt side of the corner are still, at the beginning of October, mutant giants.The dahlias, Russian sage and yellow rose bush climbed the fence between us and our neighbor Esther.

Back to the Tuscany Rose dishes.

I found them at a yard sale on a side street a few blocks off Ninth Avenue, over by the Longmont high school, from a little old lady who was downsizing, soon to move. She said she was happy to be getting rid of mystery boxes from the basement, though gently regretting moving away from her rose bushes. I told her about the gorgeous pale pink rose we bought last year for 'Mother's-Father's Day-anniversay, which matched the pink rose pattern on my mom's wedding china which remain safely tucked into a glass cabinet, rarely used. Jesse waited patiently as the lady and I visited.

She sold me 24 dinner plates, 18 dessert plates, one serving bowl, two sugar bowls with lids and one creamer, two giant platters, 15 salad plates, 17 bowls, 22 saucers and 20 cups: $10. She hugged and kissed me and threw in two sets of place mats and two chargers. Whenever I get out these dishes I ask God to bless her. 

The summer dishes are put away now and the sober brown pottery dishes with the thin turquoise stripe will grace our table until Thanksgiving. Yesterday I cut all the pale pink roses, as snow is in the forecast.