Ladies at Large

Last Thursday my friend Jo and I spent a wonderful day just on our own. We left the kids with Jo's husband and took off. First we went to a huge thrift store of the Salvation Army where we rummaged through piles of stuff for  almost three hours. We tried on shoes and hats, looked at furniture, walked through rows of bookshelves, contemplated the purchase of a purple ladder as decoration for the garden (we didn't buy it) and just this and that - dishes, vases, purses, knickknack -; it was delightful.

Of course we were hungry after that. Since it was a gorgeous day we drove to the Jimtown Store in the beautiful Alexander Valley - this old red truck parks right next to the store and you can get a glimpse of the beautiful area in this picture.

We had just parked the car when we saw this barn overgrown with trumpet vine and all the other beautiful details:

The Jimtown Store houses a deli - the sandwiches are delicious. We shared a grilled cheese with eggplant, provolone, prosciutto, basil, arugula and olives - oh yummy! The homemade lemonade was flavored with lavender, what a treat.

Of course we also looked around the store after we were done with our sandwiches. It offers all kinds of stuff - picnic dishes and baskets,

and wonderful cookbooks.

I had to laugh about these tins - my maiden name is Schilling.

And here are the two lovely ladies at large:

At the thrift store I had bought a vase and this decorative head (how do you call those in English?). I cut some branches of my buddleia, I think they fit perfectly into the vase. The head probably will eventually find its home in the garden.