There. That picture is for Ms. Debby at Life's Funny Like That who asked to see it. She said I'd probably posted it before and I have but a good Talavera sink is always worth another look. We got that in Mexico a long time ago and Glen put it in the...what IS that thing I have in my bathroom that's neither a counter nor a cabinet nor a vanity? I don't know. Some old piece of furniture that was repurposed. You can clearly see it in yesterday's post.
I know I've posted about this too, but I call my beautiful bathroom "the bathroom that Oprah built."
There is a reason for this. The man we bought this house from had been married to a writer named Connie May Fowler and they lived here together for quite some time but according to my across-the-street neighbors, one day she showed up when he was gone with a moving van and hauled everything out that she wanted and took off, never to be seen in Lloyd again. They divorced and we bought the house.
The funny thing is, I had read and truly enjoyed several of Ms. Fowler's books. The first one I read was "River of Hidden Dreams." I thought it was a beautiful book. To this day I think it is my favorite although she wrote a nonfiction book called, "When Katie Wakes" which literally kept me up and reading until about four o'clock in the morning. I'll never forget that. We were on Dog Island and not too long after that, she actually wrote a book which mostly took place on a barrier island with a different name but which was, in fact, Dog Island. "Remember Blue."
There were lots of mentions of places in Tallahassee and down on the coast which was interesting but I had to say that the novel did not light my fire.
She even wrote one about living in this house. "How Clarissa Burden Learned To Fly." It is...well, interesting. I was SO excited to read it but it was just a little too odd for me. She mentions the Hilltop which is cool and her philandering husband, which she really did have, (I found proof of that when we moved in), and okay, a dwarf circus. In Lloyd.
But Ms. Moon- how does Oprah come into this story?
Well. Connie May Fowler wrote another book which was published in 1996 titled, "Before Women Had Wings." Oprah read this book and decided she not only wanted to make a movie of it, she wanted to be in it. And she did and she was.
I have no idea how much Ms. Fowler made from this whole thing but I have a strong feeling that some of the money, at least, went to building that bathroom.
Both the book and the movie were gritty and filled with domestic abuse, alcoholism, child abuse, poverty, and suicide.
Not a beach read, y'all!
But I can definitely see why Oprah wanted to be involved with the making of a movie from it.
WHAT IN HELL WAS I TALKING ABOUT?
Oh yeah. My bathroom.
Here's another photo from my annual series of what the shadows and the light look like in the morning through the east-facing window of my bathroom. Those shadows are mostly made by the sun shining through bamboo and although I curse and revile it constantly, I look forward every year to this particular time when that curtain becomes a screen behind which the bamboo creates shadows which dance and sway and bring animation and life to what is usually one of the most pragmatic and utilitarian rooms in a house.
Not my house, though.
I am grateful to Connie May Fowler and Oprah Winfrey too for this room which I consider to be the best room in this house.
So what else? I didn't get the kitchen mopped.
Oh well.
I did get the garden more thoroughly weeded and the last of the lettuce picked, washed, bagged, and put in the refrigerator. I also mulched using not only bags of leaves that Mr. Moon's friend gave him but also leaves that I raked in my front yard and toted to the garden. It's really so easy. I just lay down an old sheet and rake the leaves onto it and dump them in the garden cart.
Here are a few pictures from the garden today.
Here are the rattlesnake beans, snaking their way up the fence and trellis. I see buds on them. Soon I will be picking them and the canning jars will be put back into use.
Garden roses.
Big Boy tomatoes coming along nicely.
Black cherry tomatoes. I can't wait to taste these.
Snow peas illuminated like stained glass, only you can eat them.
And I guess that's all.
Tomorrow I shall surely mop the kitchen. Right?
Oh, and by the way- guess where Connie May Fowler moved some years ago?
Cozumel. Where Mr. Moon and I bought that sink. A place I love with all my heart.
WTF?
I have no idea if she's still there or not.
And to add just one more little tiny detail- Hank was once on Oprah too. Unfortunately, she did not make a movie about his life.
Life is funny sometimes. Life is odd. And weird.
So what else is new?
Love...Ms. Moon







Those connections are really weird. But what a story!
ReplyDeleteShe's the one with the real story. She's had a life...
DeleteWhy was Hank on Oprah?
ReplyDeleteSoon to be revealed.
DeleteYes please why why why? -sarah in VT
ReplyDeleteSee above.
DeleteI love your story about the history of your bathroom!
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting story, isn't it?
DeleteEvery time I see your Talavera sink I sigh with pleasure. I would love to have such prettiness and colour in my bathroom. Your garden is going well, yummy tomatoes and beans coming on.
ReplyDeleteI feel pretty certain the beans will be prolific but as to the tomatoes? Who the hell knows?
DeleteI love your Oprah bathroom. We had a collection of Talavera we bought in Mexico at different times when we lived just across the border in San Diego. We left it all behind when we moved here and I sure do miss it. Friends of our did decorative painting and actually flew to Chicago to paint Oprah’s kitchen in the 1980s.
ReplyDeleteAnd what did your friends say about Oprah? That's so interesting! And of course she flew decorative painters in to paint her kitchen.
DeleteI bet you do miss your Talavera. It's happy stuff, isn't it?
I don’t think they even met Oprah. She had “people” for everything. That Talavera was joyful. What I especially miss is a huge handled platter. We had it on a table in the garden, but it would be up on a wall here.
DeleteYour house has a fine and colorful history. Fowler walking out of a bad marriage and filing for divorce brought the house to you bringing a happy result for you and Fowler.
ReplyDeleteYour bathroom sink is wonderful and very custom. Didn't you recently find a second similar sink for the lake house?
I am amazed at the size of your tomatoes. They look mouthwateringly good. Now I want a BLT sandwich.
I wonder so much about all the parts of the history of this house of which I know nothing about. That part about Connie and Oprah I do know.
DeleteGood memory, Susan! Yes. We did buy another Talavera sink supposedly for the cabin but Glen is unsure of whether he wants to use it up there now. It's a pretty thing and I think we should surely use it for something.
I think the photos just made the tomatoes look big. They're really not. Hopefully they will be soon though.
That bathroom cabinet looks like an antique sideboard or buffet to me. It works so beautifully with that sink.
ReplyDeleteI also want to know why Hank was on Oprah. I used to watch Oprah every morning but I'm a little angry at her now for making Dr. Oz popular and didn't she also give us Dr. Phil? Ugh.
Yeah. That's what I was thinking too. Sideboard or buffet. It does work nicely with the sink.
DeleteOprah has been pissing me off regularly for years. I mean- we all love her for her story, of course. And she deserves that. But Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz? And those stupid "Oprah's Favorite Things" list? And remember when she got totally into The Secret?
Dear god.
Love love love your bathroom...and it's not just a pretty room! It has its own story! Wow!
ReplyDeleteI bet you that every room in this house has more than one story to tell.
DeleteI love your sink and your vanity. I wouldn't mind something like that but I would require a very handy husband:) He did a wonderful job.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting about that writer and it is a small world. I also want to know why Hank was on Oprah. What did he think of her?
Your garden looks lovely.
I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have such a handy husband. I swear- he really can do anything.
DeleteI'm going to talk about Hank on Oprah this evening.
Life is definitely odd and weird, and those are some fascinating stories about your house and Connie May Fowler! I remember you saying once a famous author used to reside in your house, but don't remember you saying it was her. Pretty cool. And that sink is beautiful, yes. -Nicol
ReplyDeleteI was a little freaked out to be honest when we first bought this house due to the fact that a fairly famous author had lived here. At that time I had an agent who thought she could sell a novel I wrote so that's another part of the story.
DeleteAll talavera is wonderful but your sink is exceptionally talavera wonderful.
ReplyDeleteAll I know about my old house is that is was one of the first built in that area and the old woman I bought it from was the wife of the son of the man who built it. and either the man or his son divided the property and built the house next door for his daughter, which house we eventually also bought which was my studio and Marc's office since we needed the whole shop for production until Sarah already had one baby and was pregnant with twins and they lived in a tiny apartment so we let them move in and so my grandkids lived next door. The old woman was selling the house to move to Arizona to live with her daughter. She had a house full of lovely antiques and I heard that the moving van was in a wreck on the way and turned over. If I'm remembering all this correctly. It's been 50 years after all and my memorey has never been really great.
That's a lot to remember! Isn't it funny how we can remember such random and odd things like that moving van being in a wreck?
DeleteGlen and I bought a house once that wasn't very old but the owner's wife was what I would have called an antiques hoarder. Well, she sort of hoarded a lot of stuff but most of it was at least vintage. You absolutely could not walk through some of it. Willow Ware china stacked everywhere. Shelves and shelves of quilts. An entire huge area in the basement with neat stacks of old magazines that I never even saw the full volume of them because there were so many. Furniture galore. The laundry room was filled with old laundry stuff. It was insane. I have no idea how they packed up that house and moved it all nor how they managed to fit it into another place.
Hank was on Oprah?! Now THAT's a story I don't think I've ever heard. You are just two degrees removed from Oprah, and one from Connie May Fowler! Those are some pretty impressive celebrity credentials. You gave me a copy of "Remember Blue" and I didn't go for it either, but I remember really liking some of her other books.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Connie May has ever seen your blog? She might be interested to see what has become of her Lloyd home.
It IS a beautiful bathroom. And yes, I'd be enthralled by those shadows too.
As I said, "Remembering Blue" was not her best. There may still be some leftover copies of that book in the library.
DeleteI think Connie may have read my blog a few times. We met and recognized each other when we ran into each other like at the seafood market in Panacea. One time she emailed me to ask if I thought this house was haunted. That was when she was writing about how Clarissa Burden learned to fly. I told her that no, I did not think it was haunted or at least had had no feelings that led me to believe that but I did believe that the house and the trees around it may have spirits in them that whisper stories of the past.
Or something like that.
Your sink reminds me of a similar one a friend of mine bought in Mexico for the bathroom in her DC condo. She brought it back wrapped in bubble-wrap, along with a massive number of tiles and put it all in the overhead bin of the airplane (back when you could still get away with stuff like that--the 90s). Surprised the whole thing didn't collapse from the weight alone Consider the flight attendant's usual line, "Please be careful when opening the overhead bins as items may have shifted in flight."
ReplyDeleteOh my god! Those things are heavy as hell! I was trying to remember how we managed to transport that sink and I simply cannot. It was a LONG time ago.
ReplyDeleteBut yes. A Talavera sink could easily kill a person if it fell on their head.
LOL.....when I first saw this post and read the header.....I read it as *The Stimulation Theory*.....and I thought.......shoot yes....if I had a Talavera sink in a bathroom that looked like THAT....of course I'd be stimulated! LOL
ReplyDeleteYour chuckle for the day! And mine...one I saw my error in interpretation
Susan M
That Sink is lovely. I have Talavera Pots with my Herbs in them. We had a Talavera Sink once but never got it installed before we Sold that Property. And your Garden, as always, is a thing of Beauty and abundant future Harvests.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh ! What a lovely sink! Thank you for the closeup.
ReplyDeleteBut...I gotta know: what was the evidence you found in the case of the philandering husband?