{My White Schwinn Bike}

For Mother's Day, Pieter did buy me this nice white 7 speed Schwinn Bike. It works so much better than our heavy old 3 speed Dutch bikes. Georgia is hilly and those hills kill you when going uphill... In The Netherlands it is real easy as the country is as flat as a pancake, except for a little part in the very deep south.

November 4, nice and sunny, like today.

Next to our magnolia tree on the driveway.

Perfect weather for a spin on the bike...

Come up partner...

Let's roll!

Pieter often goes by bike to the store; his way of exercising.

Together we bike in our Holly Hills area...

{French Vintage Emile Monier Angels Brooch Plated Bronze}

For YOU I found a rare French Vintage Emile Monier (1883-1970) Angels Brooch in Plated Bronze. It is rather large with 3.2 cm or 1.3 inch and it does have the cornucopia hallmark in the back, next to the letters BR, indicating that it is silver over bronze. The perfectly working pin has a unique safety catch. As usual, this piece is available at my Zen Cart powered on line boutique: Mariette's Back to Basics. 

Lovely Angels!

Emile Monier (1883-1970) was a great artist.

His signature on top of the Angels' heads and next to their wings...

Perfect working order pin with unique safety catch.

French Cornucopia (horn of plenty) hallmark with letters BR meaning it is silver over bronze.

Below I show you an identical French vintage silver plated bronze medal from a different artist.

Just came across this one, when doing some research on mine...

Ruby Lane.com
Just click on the above hyperlink for checking out the exact same cornucopia hallmark.
They do list it as being from 1930.

Sorry Sold out...

Does any of you have some silver plated bronze brooches?

{Our Japanese Diospyros Kaki Persimmon}

Have to share with you our once delicious Japanese Diospyros Kaki Persimmon... We did plant an exotic tree and it was November 8, 1999 that we took these photos of an abundant harvest. They were so sweet and firm like an apple. Sure, Diospyros is Greek and meaning Food of the Gods. We had a total of no less than 105 fruits, so many that we took them also with us to work in Indonesia. Funny, nobody there had ever seen or tasted them. The second year we only harvested a good 30; WHY? Because all the critters in the area, like raccoons, or THE BANDITS as they also go by, had discovered them too. Pieter became 'smart' the third year and put plastic bags around the little fruits and stapled them. So they could not get to the fruits. Guess what? The neighbor's yards were full of plastic bags with branches. They had chewed them off regardless. We felt embarrassed so the Japanese Diospyros Kaki tree is no more... We gave up on it. But it was sad for having to do so. 

Still on the tree... perfect orange fruit!

They don't have a long stem and are not that easy for harvesting.

At least not for humans; a raccoon seems very apt in removing them or chewing off part of the branches.

Part of the harvest. To the right you see another persimmon variety we had behind our greenhouse.

LOVED the Japanese Diospyros Kaki Persimmon which you see to the left!

Now we only do have: Our Diospyros virginiana L - Eastern Persimmon and we leave them ALL to our  Wild Life... You can click the hyperlink.

Do any of you have a Japanese Diospyros Kaki Persimmon tree?