Happy Friday! I’ve been loving all the coincidence stories from my giveaway! Yesterday, I was admiring the peonies you see here — I received them from a friend recently and remembered that her husband had the most extraordinary coincidence story: many years ago, he went to Kyoto, Japan via a research grant or some such (he’s an art history professor). He was wandering around alone one day and wanted to experience the non-touristy side of Kyoto and there, tucked in a quiet and obscured area, he found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Alas, his Japanese skills weren’t up to snuff so he couldn’t read the complicated menu. But lucky for him, through a lot of gestures and fragmented Japanglish, the restaurant proprietress informed him there was someone who spoke English in the restaurant at that moment. The English-speaking Japanese woman and my friend started chatting and a version of the following conversation ensued (he told me the story a while ago, so I’m paraphrasing):
Her: Where are you from?
Him: Oh, originally from Holland, but I live in Washington.
Her: Washington! That is where Seattle is?
Him: Yes! That’s the city I live in.
Her: Amazing! I am visiting Seattle very soon! I’m going to be staying with a friend’s sister…I haven’t met her yet, but she sounds very kind to let me stay with her and her family.
It turned out that the woman was, in fact, going to be staying at HIS house because the “sister” she was referring to was his wife (aka my friend who gave me the peonies – is that confusing?). How’s that for a remarkable coincidence?
Oh, before I forget, the giveaway winner is Arianna, who had run into an old friend in a rest stop hundreds of miles away from her home. Congrats!
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Mentioning worker bees/worker sows earlier this week and the peonies reminded me that I took this photo a couple of weeks ago. Busy little tikes, those bees were. I’m off to take a leaf from their book (flower?), and go meet some more deadlines.
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Wishing you a fabulous weekend, friends! I feel like I’ve flooded you with words this week, and will just leave you with this very cool image above that my father-in-law sent me recently. This photo is from about 1920 and represents four generations of K’s lineage on M’s side of the family. Hearty German stock that diligently toiled on farms. Clockwise from top: Luella Louise, Johanna Louise Hedwig (born 1832), Mildred Louise (born 1917) and Emma Louise. They all have the same middle name, and three out of the four lived well into their nineties. In my father-in-law’s words: “From the date of the oldest lady’s birth in 1832 until the death of the youngest girl in July of 2013, one or more of these ladies were alive, continuously, for about 181 years.” The youngest, Mildred, looks a tiny bit like K. So fascinating!
Now I want to search
for photos of ancestry
kimono-clad folks
That was lovely! I love peonies and they remind me of my grandmother, who grew them. And the story of the four women in the picture. At times I miss having all the pictures to look through because now they are on our computers. And that particular pic is very special.
Peonies are one of my favorites! They’re just so lush and decadent, no? I agree that it’s so different to look at digital vs. analog photos. I used to work with photographs at one of my many jobs, and the historical ones were just fabulous and magical.
Hearty German stock, I like that 😉 I am not so hearty right now, but in bed with tonsillitis, so I am enjoying your blog even more and especially the pretty peonies! (My favorite flowers! Oh, the smell!) I would love to see some ancestors of you in kimonos. Happy Friday and Happy weekend to you and – go for the deadlines!!!
Oh, I hope you’re feeling a lot better, Ute! I need to get my mom to send me some photos of my family. Apparently I come from quite scandalous roots. 🙂
love those ancestral names! so much heritage there:)
Enjoy those lovely peonies – mine are blooming this week as well! A brief but very welcome bloom time. Best of luck with deadlines and such this weekend! Don’t forget to have a little fun too:)
Luella is my favorite name out of the lot, though Hedwig is unexpectedly delightful too 🙂 My peonies are already looking faded and yellowed, like vintage paper. Still beautiful though. Hope you had a wonderful weekend, Lucinda!
Hello::
I want to say thank you for your blog. I’m grateful you write it and for the things you write and the photographs you post. I enjoy all of it. I sew, a lot, but do not blog, but I read many blogs and feel they all add to my sewing life and abilities and evolution. I am enjoying the current blog debate on pattern testers and sewing bloggers and indie companies, and while I see how sponsors can be of significant help, especially for bloggers who have a business, I see also how a blog sponsor or many sponsors, can remove some of the purity of the blog. In fact when a blog has more than a few sponsors I often just stop reading. Somehow the language changes, and the focus is less on the content but on the presentation. Sometimes it is very subtle but there is a change.
Anyway, I love your honesty and your style!
And the peonies on the East Coast are out now too!
How wonderful — thank YOU for this, Annelieke! I have no plans or intentions to incorporate advertising or sponsors (I occasionally get inquiries, which never fails to surprise me. A tissue company — as in the kind you blow your nose with — contacted me once, and I shook my head at the weirdness). I love that this space is mine, all mine, and I can do whatever I want with it 🙂
I’ve just discovered the pattern testing debate, and have found it intriguing. I’ve only read a couple of posts so far, but I’m interested to see how this all shakes out.
Thank you again!
That is an absolutely amazing coincidence story!! I love it.
Mind-blowing, right? It makes me re-think the whole universe, to be honest! Thanks Sarah – I emailed you back! xo