old and new

Timon's parents visited us this weekend - a lovely time. They are just finishing the long and sometimes sad process of cleaning out the condo of Timon's grandfather nearly a year after his passing. We were blessed with some nice things - most notably Maxwell's car and his set of china. He and his wife (who I never met) used this beautiful pattern as their everyday plates! They also had just about all the serving pieces you could want, down to the egg cups. We haven't decided how we'll use it yet... I'm not nearly as fastidiously careful as Maxwell and Gamma were with their dishes, and so I'm afraid I'll be clumsy with them. But we'll see. Here's the pattern:

That's pretty much the worst picture ever. But that's all Google image search came up with, unfortunately. And since I had to part ways with the fabulous camera I'd been temporarily using, that's the best I can do for now. Rest assured, the pattern is much better looking than the photo suggests. The plates aren't pink at all. It's way better looking than the silly Ames plates I've had since my first apartment seven years ago. Some of you might remember the loveliness that was Ames. Such a clean store, with such high quality merchandise.

Anyhoo, that's it for today. OH!! OH!! I haven't written about Planet Earth in a couple of weeks - the series continues to amaze and captivate my attention. Last night was "Jungles" and "Rivers". The last two episodes are on next week, "Forests" and "Caves". Catch it on the Discovery Channel Sundays at 8.

And one more thing... Leah, the daughter of Rachel Coleman, creator of Signing Time, won her school spelling bee last week! To help you understand what a big deal that is, I hope you'll go to Rachel's blog and read her post and watch the video. I was in tears - that girl is phenomenal.