Neighbor's Estate Sale

 You may remember that I had neighbor who died from complications from surgery for a brain tumor this spring. She was a single lady, a retired school teacher. I had known her thru involvement in the literary club. I served election board duty with her one year, too. She volunteered for Grace Village to deliver the announcements and internal mail to the condo mailboxes for several years. More recently, I would see and greet her as I walked past her house.

Her family hired an estate sale company to clear out the belongings from her house that they did not want to keep. The sale started this morning at 11 a.m. When we came home from church we drove by and could see a fairly large crowd of people. The street was parked up with vehicles. We decided to go ahead and eat our Sunday dinner.

Around noon I walked over to the sale. I had looked at the company's website (given in the ad) and was interested in getting one of the glass paperweights shown in a picture. The site did say that they would only be allowing small groups of people to enter at a time. 

I had to sign my name on a list of people waiting to go inside. They were at number 80 when I arrived and I was at about 130 (the overflow pad was unnumbered). At 12:50 they announced that the rest of us could go inside (maybe 40 people). I didn't see the paperweights, but was happy to find some placemats and kitchen towels marked $1 each.

These two mats still had the manufacturer's sticker attached. Had never been used.

Only one of this butterfly mat but I may use it to place decorative items on.

There were two of these autumn leaves placemats. One has a slight stain which I think I can spot clean.

Two autumn towels just in time for the coming fall season. I noticed while waiting in the yard that a tree a few blocks over had already turned red. I am noting undertones of yellow in other trees.

 I bought a very nice Vera Bradley eyeglass case for $3.

The top red diagonal line trims a pocket in front of the glasses section. Perfect! My old case with a pocket was fraying and getting dingy. Now I have a new case where I can store my cough drops and clip a pen to the edge. Not sure I will use the pen much now that we are attending a different church that has no bulletin on which to make notes. Always good to have a pen handy though, and since I need the glasses for reading I carry the case in my purse.

 The potpourri jar was an impulse buy as I stood in line to pay. The line circled back through the living room. I might use it to display sea shells if I find many on our 2022 Florida winter trip. 

 Then I spied what I had really wanted: a little blue paperweight. I had totally missed it the first time through the house (or it was moved from some other location). This would make a nice lasting memento of Judy. 

Do I need this stuff? No. But they brightened my day. The towels and placemats will wear out, but the little paperweight will be around a long time.

Tomorrow the sale continues with half off of the prices. I thought most of the things were reasonably priced. I did see a little reading lamp that I might go back and seek out. My cleaning lady won't finish until 10:30 so it will probably be 10:45 or 11 before I get over there. There were some lovely furniture pieces, but I don't really have room for those. I might look through the box of needlework kits. I didn't want to pay the full price, but at half off I might find something to keep me occupied during colder days.

Shops at the Sanctuary and The Church Cafe

I saw in the Fort Wayne newspapers that a new shop was opening in Columbia City in August. Actually this is a location for multiple vendors to sell their wares in an old church.

 The Shops at the Sanctuary has one major drawback. It isn't navigable by those who have mobility issues. Even the cafe whose door opens at sidewalk level has 6-8 steps down into a basement. I wonder if this might be the reason that the Presbyterian church that formerly occupied the building moved elsewhere. Perhaps an aging congregation found the steps too hard. 

The items to purchase range from handicrafts to furniture to decorative items to clothes. Some are "antiques"; I found most of those to be priced rather high. 

I would describe most of the furniture, signs, decorative items as Farmhouse style. In fact, one of the side rooms was named the Farmhouse. 

I did find one booth whose items I liked and thought were reasonably priced. 

Some of this decor can probably be purchased at Hobby Lobby or big stores like that. The pillows were mostly homemade though.

In the store there was a plate with a rooster for $2.50 to a raw-edged table for $3,500. 

There were unique items like the barn.

It was a lovely setting with the high ceiling and stained-glass windows of the sanctuary. 

The Church Cafe being in the basement did not have the same pleasant ambiance though efforts were made to spruce it up a bit with flowers on the table and some easy chairs in front of a "fireplace".

Most of the sandwiches were $9. My husband had a blackberry jam and bacon panini that included cheese and jalapenos. He said it was delicious. There were various entree salads. My slice of quiche was $4 and very tasty. Eating a smaller main dish meant I had room for a piece of peach custard pie.

The crusts of the quiche and the pie were flaky lusciousness. There was a whole page of the menu which was just specialty coffee and chai drinks plus smoothies. Stopping in for a piece of pie or cake with a hot drink would be fun.

It is only about 20 minutes from our house. Just a few blocks away is the county courthouse which has a farmers' market on Saturdays. A nice little outing.

Winona Lake Family Festival

 

Traditionally, the town of Winona Lake has held a community dinner each autumn to bestow the Reneker Award to a person or persons who have added value to the town. A few years ago this recognition dinner morphed into a family festival in the park in the summer. Better participation by all ages (no need to get a babysitter) and a time of relaxation, fun, and interaction.

Yesterday's festival ran from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. by the shores of Winona Lake. Thankfully there was some breeze as it was very hot and humid. We arrived about 4:40. We parked up the road from the activities near the town maintenance building walking along Cherry Creek and past summer cottages.

As we ambled through the park we were able to enjoy scenes of children having a good time petting animals, using the bounce house and slide, having pony rides, and driving a race course. 

At 5 p.m. after a blessing was said for the food, we joined the serving line. The meal was free provided for us by the town. We had BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, mac and cheese, chips, sliced apples, and a giant chocolate chip cookie. A large tent had been set up to provide seating in the shade.

Near the end of the meal a special award was presented to Terry White. Terry had won the Reneker Award a few years ago, but they had a special surprise for him yesterday. He was given the Circle of Corydon recognition not by the town, but by the state of Indiana. The document was signed by Governor Holcomb. Mr. White researched and published a book Winona at 100 several years ago for the centennial. He is "Mister Winona". He can answer questions about the town going back to its founding. He has worked tirelessly to promote the town and region.

The event ended with the distribution of door prizes. I really wanted to win one of the gift cards for the local restaurants, but instead I got a scented candle from the Mercantile Store. Since we are not allowed to have "live flame" in our leased condo, I will need to bestow it upon someone else. 

Before heading to our car, we took time to eat a dish of free ice cream donated by Kelainey's. 

Discoveries

 I walked up the berm behind my house this afternoon to look at the large saucer-shaped blooms on the bush. Last night I searched the internet to see if these were hibiscus. Yes, it appears they are. They are so much bigger than the hibiscus that grew outside the kitchen window of my childhood. I should have photographed them 2 days ago as now many are shriveling up. The blooms last only a few days. 

Most of the flowers on the front corner of my house finished blooming weeks ago. Now what is left is rudbeckia. They have new buds coming on and should last a few more months probably.

We were asked to introduce ourselves to a new couple that moved into a condo down the street and serve as a "resource" for them. They are former missionaries with UFM that served in the region near Lyon, France. Today we drove them to the Robin Hood lunch in a nearby restaurant. My husband asked the wife if she had adopted French cooking/preparation styles. She said that she had and as a result most of their meals are made from scratch. I didn't think to ask what happens in the winter when fresh produce and herbs are unavailable. She did not make everything herself. She relied on bakeries and pastry shops and markets in the plazas, but the emphasis was on fresh.

This afternoon on Cafe Farine Sucre the blogger Chris finished her description of their two-weeks stay in a small village in the French alps near Chamonix. She told about the food they bought in the marketplace as well as trips to the mountain meadows. It gave me a case of wander-lust. 

I think it was on Ann Voskamp's blog that I read about Psalms of Lament by Ann Weems. I wasn't quite sure what I was ordering, but I found an inexpensive copy on Better World Books. These are poems written in the style of Biblical lament psalms. It is not the kind of book one would read straight through, but rather dip into slowly to read and reflect. I had assumed these poems were written in response to the loss of her husband; instead they flowed from grief on the occasion of the murder of her 21-year-old son. I shall start dipping over the next months. 

I am in a quandary about how to go about life now that our county has moved from high to very high risk COVID level. That risk is mostly relevant to unvaccinated people. We have a case of COVID in our Robin Hood neighborhood now. The woman was unvaccinated because her medical providers advised against getting the shot because of her existing conditions.

 I mostly do my grocery shopping online with pickup, but if I go into a store I might start wearing a mask again. It appears the delta variant causes break-through cases at times. If most of my county was protected, I would continue without a mask, but less than half of the residents have been vaccinated. Many of those are children who cannot yet receive a shot and with whom I have little contact. I don't know what to do about church attendance though. Attendees at churches in our area do not wear masks, yet I know they are not all vaccinated. I am still undecided about what steps to take as I interact with people in my community. My sense of protection has been eroded.