Slight Detour: On a Rainy Day

There's no better place to spend a little time when it's raining than the Three-Mile Antique shop on HWY 2 near the stoplight north of Bonners Ferry.

While strolling through the store and viewing the displays, both inside and out, you can go on your own wonderful, nostalgic adventure.

We stop there two or three times a year, and the place, which is filled to the brim, never fails to evoke memories dear to my heart.

Bill likes looking at the newest offerings of antique fly rods and other fishing equipment, while I like it all.

Yesterday, one of my little mini-mind trips awakened Christmas memories when Mother would make her Christmas fruit cookies, filled with colorful candied fruits and nuts.

She used the same kitchen tool for grinding up the ingredients as she did while making homemade mincemeat.

Her cookies were bar cookies, so once the ingredients had been ground up, she spooned them into a cake pan for baking.

One time I remember, in particular, she placed one of her fingers too close to the grinder and peeled off a portion of it.

I can remember nibbling on cookies from that particular batch and always wondering if we would be biting off a piece of Mother.

I can't really remember all the details, but I knew that the instant her injury occurred, we all knew. Mother was often a bit demonstrative when trouble occurred.

On the good side, those cookies were always beautiful and tasty if ya liked candied fruit.

I still have Mother's meat grinder and have used it a time or two with apples. Never once has part of one of my fingers gone into the mix.

The grinder I have in the cupboard is a bit of an upgrade from the one pictured below.

While moseying through the store, eyeing the offerings with much better vision than usual, I recorded a mental note that never until yesterday had I seen a clock in a pistol.

I should have bought it for that grand price of $10.95.

I also regretted not purchasing the Christmas Express for $12.95. It seemed to me when I saw the price, while editing the picture last night, that the cute and colorful train had been underpriced.

So, if you need a train, a clock pistol or more "stuff" for your house at Christmas time or any time and it's a rainy day, you might drive up there and do a little shopping.

We always enjoy our time there.

Yesterday, after visiting the antique store, we also spent a little time at Sharon's Country Store a, mile up HWY 95, before going next door to the Bread Basket and ordering sandwiches for dinner.

Sharon has a nice array of neat items, which would make neat Christmas gifts, including those comfortable wooden rocking chairs AND a beautiful full-color book of Idaho photography just published this year.

After ordering our dinner sandwiches, we drove along a country road which goes through the woods and past some farms before coming out on the east side of the Kootenai Valley.

By the time we reached the valley, the rain had stopped, so we just enjoyed sight seeing for the rest of the trip AND I'll attest to the fact that sight seeing is a whole lot more fun with one new eye.

Can't wait to have two.

Today, no rain. Just crisp and clear AND with thoughts of another Gonzaga basketball game tonight, it's gonna be an upbeat day, even if I do have to look at the growing pile of leaves.

Enjoy the photos.

Happy Tuesday.

GO, ZAGS.