A Christmas Present

I told you that there was a present I have become deeply involved with.  It is a children's book, "Miss Hickory".  You know I collect nut-head dolls.  So far I have never made any though.  That is about to change.

Here is the book.

Here is Miss Hickory in her little corncob house, with her own little stove and bed and tea kettle.  I am smitten!

Here is a little handmade stove Bill found at the Seventh Street Mall.  The miniature bucket and basket came from the Miniatures shop in Nashville which is now gone.  The hickory nut is one I selected from a bunch Eliyah and I picked up on the road.  The little broom I made myself.  I am searching the yard for suitable twigs for Miss Hickory's arms and legs.  I can hardly wait!


Another present is a biography about Tasha Tudor.  I am confused about her.  She seemed implacable with her family but I so admire her dedication to doing exactly what she wanted.  No matter the consequences.  She wanted to live in 1830.  So she did.  She lived without plumbing, central heating, shopping malls, even the telephone, at least for a while.  She raised the food they ate, made fabric and clothing, cared for animals and children under these circumstances and illustrated and even wrote numerous books while doing so.  
I too was fascinated by a time period, and by Pioneers.  When I was 4 or 5, my Mother remarried and we moved to rural south-central Kentucky.  They bought 8 acres of land.  The neighbors came and put up a log cabin for us.  I remember the day very well.  It was a nifty cabin. I helped to chink the logs with cement.  Then Lloyd Floyd came and put in a brick fireplace  sidewise in the middle of the single room.  Near the back.  Now the room was divided into two.  On the back of the chimney was a hole in which the stove pipe from the cooking stove was inserted.  A rough counter made of 2x4s at the front window on the left was for washing dishes on.  A table attached to the wall under the right window.  There were three chairs and an Army cot.  My bed was a pallet in the loft.  Eventually we got an icebox and the iceman came twice a week.  Though I have lived in expensive houses and cheap ones, in big cities and small towns and in the country, no place has matched the perfection I found in that small cabin when I was a child!