The Old Mississippi House, Shaws Flat (Sonora) California

I found this original painting recently of the Mississippi House:

It's very nicely framed, but I was unable to find any information on the artist.
The signature appears to say "J. Canale".

I found some other images of it online; the postcard below gives a little bit of history about the place
I found this great photo with some information at malakoff.com:

Charles F. Surendorf , who had a gallery nearby in Columbia, painted it as well:

Another great old photo, here:

A good shot showing the old gas pumps:

When I found the Mississippi House painting, I also found this one:

I'm thinking that one may very well also be from a local site, but I have no way of knowing.

I love finding original paintings.
I actually sold the two you see below recently; they were in our booth at Mountain Treasures.
This pretty scene with deer at water's edge:

And this sweet little shed or barn:

And I'm always on the lookout for more of the same!

Lounge Chair Road Trip No 19. Death Valley Scotty's Castle

Well, It's Wednesday, and I'm Tina, and I'm hot, and so I'm going on a road trip to Death Valley because the weatherman/person/devil says it could reach 111 degrees in Sacramento tomorrow so why not go to the desert?  And stay in style?

I have been to this sprawling desert compound before with my husband on a winter's day and even explored the outside where there is a gigantic pool that you can go below and watch swimmers' legs through windows (mermaid shows. anyone?) - except it was empty - and a bell tower (I think), lots of interesting things to see.



I should have been ready for this post with lots of info about Scotty but I wasn't. Sorry.

He must have had a lot of money, and a lot of friends, and a love of the desert!



I enjoy the rustic furniture and the natural wood and the beautiful use of tile and I would love to have the stove in this kitchen!



 

Death Valley has very, very hot days, but it also has some cold nights, so I guess a two story fireplace makes sense. And check out those candelabras! They add some heat of their own!

Okay, next year I think I am taking over this dining room for Thanksgiving (I would do it this year, but my sis-in-law in Denver already invited us to come for dinner). We can fit all of the Gold Country Girls and the extended families in here and sleep them and we will even fill the pool and everybody bring their mermaid costumes!

A whole entire gigantic room just for music! I could have kept my other upright piano! Heidi could move in and keep both her spinets! Lori could have kept her baby grand! We could have lots of Chic Jams here and many house concerts! Just a dream because I still won't live in the desert. No, it's plenty hot here in Kelsey, thank you very much!

Okay, before we leave, we settle down to listen to a piano solo in a plain old sitting room that is comfortably furnished and we might just have some sun tea because that is what is outside, a lot of sun. What a great home.



We don't have to leave, you know. There is a large guest house just waiting for us. At least until we take our next lounge chair road trip! See you then!

Lounge Chair Road Trip No. 18: Newcastle, California

Good morning, Tina here.


Heading out (in my mind) to the north of us to Placer County to the charming Railroad burb of Newcastle, which I will show you through a few postcards.

I remember this little town near Auburn fondly since a childhood friend of mine moved there while I was still in grammar school and we went to visit. We had so much fun!

I remember feeling like we had the run of the town, which was dirt streets, packing sheds, a railroad depot, small stores, and my very favorite of all... old Victorian houses (one which was rented by my friend's family of nine kids).

Here is one of the long packing sheds. Debbie's dad had a business making oak briquettes coated with wax to barbecue with, which I think was very forward thinking for the 'sixties, and packed them for sale in one of the sheds. We thought it was great fun to ride down the bumpy conveyor belts in the old wooden fruit boxes!



I haven't been to Newcastle in a few years, but now it has a couple of stores and a few restaurants and the long sheds hold commercial efforts of various sorts, changing now and then.

Oh what fun it would have been back in the day to ride the train to or through Newcastle!

I guess maybe I should have called this post a Lounge Chair TRAIN Trip...

Because, although the postcard above, the newest I have, is from the 'sixties. just like Mr. Bumpus's briquettes, the train still runs through the historic town of Newcastle.



New Years Greetings from Tina and Jac



Good morning! Tina here. I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

I am going to share my present to myself which I just purchased from ebay. The seller purchased it at a garage sale, and lucky for me listed it just after Christmas as a buy-it-now. I could not resist.



This is a self portrait watercolor by Jac Turner, one of my very favorite local artists, who has been gone now for over twelve years. This was painted in April 1991, not long before I met him. Longtime readers of the blog might remember my post in August 2014 about Jac, and mentions of his art in March 2011 in my post on the Gutenberger house, and the May 2011 post about the M. E. Church in Coloma.

I want to wish all of you a very nice New Years, and I can't think of a better way than to show you than an antique (1909) postcard with my favorite flower, the nasturtium!

 May your wishbone always break in your favor, and may your New Year be bright!

Lovely California Christmas Postcards Sending Greetings!

Good morning, Tina here.


As a California girl who has lived in the Northern California Sierra foothills for close to sixty years, I have always celebrated Christmas while enjoying the winter weather here. It can be warm and clear, perfect for a game of football on the lawn; rainy and blustery, best viewed from the fireside next to the sparkling Christmas tree; snowy and sharp, an expansion of white to rush through on a sled; foggy and mysterious, hiding views of our river below off and on with wisps of creeping misty coolness; or crisp and frosted, iced puddles calling to children's boots everywhere.


California vintage Christmas postcards usually celebrate our weather from the Southern California point of view, which is warm and citrus scented, colorfully flowered, and with a backdrop of lightly frosted mountains. Sounds good to me!

When winds are howling 'round your doors and frost is creaking through the floors,
just pack your grip, for nature stores a wealth for you on other shores;
Her sunny smiles await you here with all the Golden West holds dear.

The wide, warm west sends greeting, for the best of Christmas Cheer,
May the coming year be one of gold, like the orange pictured here.

Old King Cole is a cranky old soul, because he can't live out here,
for we're warmed with sunshine - don't need any coal, for Christmas or Happy New Year.

Snow capped mountains and orange grove. When I was a very little girl we lived in one of those orange groves with mountain views.

Palm trees and poinsettias. This postcard below reminds me of Santa Monica and the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean.

Date and fan palms on Palisade Drive. We painted our home a beautiful mellow green which was called Palisades Park, I love green houses and it seemed such a perfect California color choice!

Poinsettias at Christmas. The bracts which form the "flowers" only turn red when the days are short. I have a poinsettia which lives in the dining room in winter. It doesn't get a lot of light in there and will show us a bit of red by Christmas most years.

Private garden in what mansion? I will take that for my Christmas present!

Some California sunshine from 'neath her skies of blue. How I would love to stick my nose into those orange blossoms!

Our garden in midwinter. In our Kelsey winter garden we do get a rose to bloom once in a while. My son has a single blossom on his little pear tree, a little bit of nature's Christmas decorating.

California Christmas Greetings from Gold Country. Merry Christmas to all!

California Looks Good to Me - Roses in Midwinter

Good morning, Tina here.

Years ago, I gave Heidi a present. It was a beautiful postcard that had been framed.

It showed some gorgeous Victorian homes with a rose hedge.

I loved that postcard, and ever after looked for one to keep for my own.

I looked in antique stores, at postcard shows, on the internet at postcard dealer sites, on ebay.

I found roses and old homes abounding on postcards, just not "the one". But I never gave up.

Two days ago I looked at my email and there it was, for sale on ebay with a Buy It Now tag, for a whopping $2.49!

My very own "California looks good to me. Roses in Midwinter." postcard. It was mailed in Pasadena to New York in 1910. And it's mine, all mine. I am going to frame it and no longer will I need to envy Heidi her lovely postcard.

Vintage California: A Couple Of Special Finds

Vintage finds make me smile.
Getting good deals on them makes me pretty happy, too!
And these two finds featuring my home state are special ones for me.
A vintage, unused linen tea towel from KayDee Handprints with California landmarks including Disneyland!

You can see everything they included on the towel in the photo below.
 I'm happy to say that I do believe I have visited every place or area depicted on this towel, and many of them are surely some of my favorite places:

 After all, I was born and raised here, and I've had a LOT of years to visit locations all over our beautiful state!
The Golden Gate Bridge, Mt. Shasta, the Giant Redwoods, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe - and there's even a gold panner for the Gold Country Girls!

I also found a neat postcard booklet recently that was mailed from Los Angeles to Lodi in 1946:

"The Land Of Oranges" - we've got Santa Fe's  Super Chief "traveling thru the orange groves" and Main Street in Riverside...

A palm tree and more orange groves:

It says here that the Los Angeles County Fair is the "Most Beautiful Fair In America".

I wouldn't know, because I haven't been to all of the fairs in America, in fact, I've only been to a handful, but the picture on the postcard sure is pretty!