Corn and Coco

Fresh, "Incredible" variety corn from Casey County, Kentucky.

This kind of photo opportunity doesn't happen every day. I'm not into labels, I'm into quality. I'm sure that designer clothes are well made (I should hope) and tailored to justify their pricing, but, like the decorating industry, there is a lot of "The Emperor's New Clothes" pretense and inflated values, along with bizarre design standards of acceptance (the more expensive, the better?).

I do have pearls, from my grandmother, but I rarely wear them.
And I like lipstick, too: my only makeup indulgence.
And if only my bob would coif like that!
Like Coco, I used to smoke: a nasty, yet delicious, habit.

My standard uniform in summer is
a v-neck T-shirt with a skirt,
flip flops or garden clogs,
and just a smidge of lipstick.

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971) was raised in poverty and lost her parents at the age of 12 after which time her brothers were sent to work on a farm and she was sent to a French orphanage. What grit it must have taken to have become a fashion icon. You have to admire any person for being able to come from such misfortune and then transcend it. I'm sure Chanel clothes are lovely. I'm just not that into fashion––high or low. Just as long as it wears well and looks decent enough. I'd wear a uniform if I could and practically do most of the time around the farm.

Butter and salt is all corn needs...
and it's all we had for dinner tonight!

So image my squeal of (ironic) delight when our friends, Melvin and Anna (Old Order Mennonites), gave us two dozen ears of corn yesterday in a black Chanel bag. They have no idea the origin of this bag and certainly had not heard of the designer. "We live a rather sheltered life," chuckled Melvin. I think Coco Chanel might have chuckled, too. I don't know how she'd feel about her ripped, well-recycled store bag being thrown into the burn barrel. But she would have loved the corn.

You come back when you're ready!

Catherine