{Our Fragrant Hoya Carnosa - Wax Plant}

A treat for the hummingbirds is our fragrant, honey dripping Hoya Carnosa or Wax Plant. Husband Pieter did capture them on camera for you to enjoy. Does any of you also keep this lovely plant?

You can find a variety of Hoya carnosa plants at Logee's  by just typing in this name into the search box.

My husband Pieter captured this photo on June 17. Our Hoya Carnosa is outdoors so the hummingbirds can freely feast on their sticky honeydew.

Side by side with our Orchid Cactus on their pedestal...

Indoor plants are nice but being able to have them outdoors is even better!

Here they are on July 20, in our gazebo on the railing where they can trail freely as well.

This is hummingbird domain...

Enough sticky honeydew drippings for their daily meal...

Have you ever caught on of these sweet honeydew drippings with your finger to taste?

It sure tastes sweet!

{Identifying Silver Grape Scissors from Sweden}

Yesterday I did show in my post the tiny, sweet Champagne grapes with silver Grape Scissors in a Rose Pattern. They also are often called Grape Shears.  

Mind you, they are actually not THAT large.

Do you see to the left where a space is cut out for placing the grapes' stem?

That way you easily can snip off a section of a larger bunch of grapes.

One person in her comment asked: 'How do you know the Scissor is meant for grapes?' This was Marianne from the blog: BiebKriebels or Library Jitters, if I translate this from Dutch. So as promised I will get back to the subject.

I learned that I made a spelling error myself, as scissor should be written in plural as scissors.

On my blog post, I've corrected that but in the URL it still shows as scissor.

English is NOT my mother tongue and overall, I guess that my English will be better than your Dutch...

Now let's look at the meaning of this silver TABLE SERVING or DESSERT SERVING piece.

In my book: FORKS KNIVES & SPOONS by Peri Wolfman and Charles Gold I found a nice mention of the silver grape shears. Read more about this Manhattan Design Guru below post...

At the bottom left you can read: One of life's little niceties -- sterling silver grape shears.

From one of Christie's auctions you can find above: A VICTORIAN SILVER-GILT DESSERT SERVICE

Just click the above hyperlink to go to the actual page.

 It shows dessert pieces like forks, knives, spoons, cheese knives, and one pair of grape scissors.

Again from Christie's: A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT DESSERT-SERVICE

just click on above hyperlink

Now, how did I identify my silver grape scissors as being from Sweden?

You can read here: the Maker's Mark:GRWR - City Stamp: M - 3 crowns and an S for Silver and Date Letter: R9

So what does this tell us?

On page 142, of The Book: Rosen-Bestecke (Rose Flatware) by Johanna Gehrlein from Silber-und-Rosen-Shop I found the marking from Sweden in the form of 3 crowns (seen in Abb. 2).

Johanna is a dear friend and her hardcover book with excellent photographs has proven to be invaluable!

Sure enough the Swedish Mark with 3 crowns and the S for silver is still being used.

Just click and scroll from link above.

The letter M I found here: Swedish Hallmarks and City Stamps and it stands for the city of Malmö in Sweden.

And my Silver Grape Scissors from Malmö in Sweden were made in 1967 according to the R9 hallmark...

This table you find from the very same link in the above City Stamps, just scroll down.

Hope this did answer Marianne's question!

Related links:
{Table Setting versus Table Scape} | previous post by me
{Silver Grape Scissors with Roses and Champagne Grapes} | previous post by me
Organizing Secrets from a Manhattan Design Guru Peri Wolfman | Peri is the writer of the book Forks Knives & Spoons and is now tableware designer for Restoration Hardware after she had been vice president for product development at Williams-Sonoma.
Less to Mess | interview with Design Guru Peri Wolfman from The New York Times, May 2013

{Silver Grape Scissors with Roses and Champagne Grapes}

On August 22, I was finally able to make some outdoor photos, using our Silver Grape Scissors and the Champagne Grapes that we found at Trader Joe's the week before. I had not seen them in quite a while... 

So it's off to our balcony, the new polyurethane balustrade and railings are not yet painted but nevertheless.

Here they are... Silver Grape Scissors from Sweden, on our silver gallery tray.

Again it is shown with two gifts that I received from blogger friend Susan, the author of Ava Grace's Closet; the filet lace hand crocheted doily that lines the tray and the very finely crocheted lace table topper.

On the silver gallery tray are two Baccarat Champagne glasses...

Susan's Mama did such an excellent job on crocheting these pieces.

Thanks again Susan!

Have you ever tasted Champagne Grapes?

They are so sweet and a lot tinier than regular seedless grapes.

Here you can see the roses and leaves on the Silver Grape Scissors.

Some sweet golden wine is poured into the Baccarat champagne glasses.

Some laughing cow cheese and crackers from Costco, to go with the grapes and wine.

Mary's Gone Crackers are ORGANIC • GLUTEN FREE made with Whole Grains & Seeds and contain no added oils or trans-fats, sugar or dairy.

Why don't you join?

China is French GIEN ROSE.

For the moment, the sun is shining...

Related link:

What are Champagne Grapes? Champagne grapes are the name given to a specific type of grape, the Corinth. They are also being used for black currants.