Hanging Nana

"Once more into the breach," is how I felt this week as I woke up my sourdough starter to make bagels again.

I made sure the starter had tripled so there would be plenty of rising action, and the dough rose!

There is rarely just one thing going on in this house.  My bagel baking was interrupted with a special delivery.  Some background is necessary, and that is the purpose of this photograph.  After the recent death of Aunt Janet, I inherited Nana's love seat.  I have always loved this piece of furniture.  Always.  I once spent an entire evening sitting right where Sammie is sitting, trying to read Daddy Cannon's French novels.  The books had cartoon pictures or I would have been completely lost.  I showed Jacob this picture.  After a minute, he was surprised to recognize his dad!  He knew the other two kids had to be Uncle Jeff and Uncle Sammie, but he got them mixed up.  I pointed out my Grandmother Cannon and I told him a little bit about her.  We called her Nana, and she didn't have any toys.  Thus, my attempt at French novel reading.

The love seat needed some repair.  I found the best man for the job in Springville, Mr. Hansen.  He is certain that this piece of furniture is at least a century old.  Aunt Joan doesn't remember this being in their home until World War II, so I'm guessing Nana bought it used, maybe when she and Daddy Cannon went to Belle Fourche, South Dakota, during the War.  

Mr. Hansen was certain the love seat has been recovered at least once.  Notice the difference in the placement of the nail heads between the photograph with Nana and this picture.  Mr. Hansen thinks that during the War, gimp, or the fancy braid the nail heads are pounded into, could not be obtained.  Instead, the nail heads were placed next to each other to hide the absence of the gimp.

Mr. Hansen gently refinished and lightly re-stained all the wood.

He also increased the depth of the padding behind the tucks.  He believes this is how the love seat was originally built.

Dad gave me this rocker when he moved to Idaho Falls.  This was part of Nana's wedding furniture, but Dad inherited it when she died.  Dad recaned the back (Mr. Hansen was impressed with that). I had recovered the seat twice, but I was never happy with it.  Mr. Hansen recovered the seat of the rocker at the same time he worked on the little sofa, and it looks great.

Ben and I weren't sure how this was all going to work, but we like the new look.

Jacob immediately fell in love with the sofa.

Dad had given Aunt Janet a portrait of Nana as a young woman.  That portrait came to me with the love seat.  This afternoon, Ben got out Dad's tack hammer and hung the picture in our family room.

In thinking about the hammer, one of my prized possessions, I realized that only one child has requested anything from me.  That would be Sammie, who asked for my cooking fork, which originally belonged to Mom.

Wait. I'm remembering that Corinne asked me for this tea cup.  When Mom was about 8, her older sister Gladys gave this to her.  Shortly after that, Gladys died.  Mom kept the tea cup and saucer through her entire life.  I asked Dad for it when Mom died.

I don't think anyone besides Corinne and me knows the meaning of this cup.

Nana's picture looks lovely on the wall, across the windows from Kofi.

My bagels came out of the oven.  They felt light.  They looked great.  Unfortunately, while cleaning up the kitchen, I realized that I had not held back any starter for next time.  Uh oh.

Ben, Jacob and I had lunch together and enjoyed some mousse cake.  We discussed the Ghirardelli chocolate again.

Then I popped Jacob in the car and we went tramping.

Papa Ben contributed some red socks for this activity.  They have grips on the bottom.  Jacob loves the socks.

Unfortunately, the socks don't have grips on the toes, so Jacob was forced to switch out for the orange ones.

Jacob's toes occasionally make contact with the trampolines.

Not too often, but you can see why he likes the toe grips.

But you can also see my point that this isn't always necessary.

On our way home, we stopped to feed the fish.

Jacob likes the koi.

They like him.

I had a bagel for dinner.  The flavor is good.  The texture, well, it's simply not as good as my normal bagels.  If you are thinking I'm stressed about not having any more starter, don't give it another thought.  Some things are meant to be.