May 5 - May 11, 2013

There are many good things about rainy days in the Springtime.... The grass greens up, the flowers get fed, the car gets washed for free. It's been a sunny week so I've been flying by on my bicycle, but on Friday walking home in the rain I stopped and smelled the flowers on so many trees and shrubs. Glorious!

And speaking of glorious, merci beaucoup M. Gustave Eiffel for my Tour.

If you ever go to London, England, go to the Tate Modern. Fab, fab, fab! (yes, tis  another one of our vacation picture brooches)

This is the twinkliest of my twinkly brooches. So, I've pondered why - is it the cut, is it the glass, is it because I haven't had it for long so it hasn't mingled with many of my brooches yet. I ponder still.

A very little Union Jack pin. I expect it was worn as a lapel pin. I wonder if the flag would change if any of the 3 countries separate from England. I'm of two minds about it, well actually three because I'm from the British melting pot of Scotland, Ireland and England (sadly, no Welsh).

A battered but well-loved brooch from my childhood. The glass eyes, some legs and both tails are missing from the critters, the cowboy is now one-armed and no lasso, and the steer ran alongside the horse instead of  now running downhill. But, the spring is still intact joining the two together so the steer still "runs" when you tap it. Surprisingly, I have fared better than this brooch. And I just realized as I was wearing this brooch that it is at least a half century old. YIKERS!!!!!!!!!

Back-to-back cowboys, tres strange, must be something in the air. I've never seen The Calgary Stampede - been there on the Fair Grounds but didn't get to see the cowboys strut their stuff. And this guy is strutting real fine.

I like the funkiness of this pin. It almost looks like something you would have made at camp. I like the "I don't care that the stitches aren't all even around the border and that's OK with me" quality.