Francisvale and Saint Basil's Cemeteries

  Available as an e-picture book on Amazon, soon to be released in paperback Francisvale and Saint Basil's Cemeteries are a couple of more cemeteries in the Philadelphia area. Francisvale is an old pet cemetery on a wooded hill, and Saint Basil's is a Ukrainian convent. 

Francisvale and Saint Basil's Cemeteries

 

Doc Holliday Portrait Wooden Print

 

Doc Holliday Portrait Wood Wall Art
by dollsandmagic

Happy New Year!

 

Pennsylvania Calendar
by dollsandmagic

The Letitia Penn Doll Club Christmas

  We started celebrating the holidays all December years ago when it was just us. We have our regular go tos: Joanna and Cornwall furnaces and Bethlehem, but Ron is full of surprises and certainly out did himself this year with the Schoenhut event sponsored by the Letitia Penn Doll Club at The William Penn Inn, (1714). Over the Moon does not describe it. I am seriously considering joining The Letitia Penn Doll Club now. They could use me, I'm so crafty. I made a couple of videos for you to watch afterwards, for sights, but let me tell you all about it. I took Frannie, my Schoenhut, she was a big hit. Looks like my table, the last, thirteen, was the only to bring their doll friends along as Frannie met her sister, Nadjia, and her Japanese friend. I made so many new friends. Funny but Bev, the festive martini lady, was telling me how they love young people, she was referring to me. 🤣 Well, my hex used to say the only difference between me and a seven-year-old is that you can beat the seven-year-old and send it to bed. There were so many gorgeous dolls there, but Ron got Red Witch a tiny handmade wooden doll from Marjorie that I've been eyeing up at The Lancaster Doll Show for years for my stocking. The centerpieces were precious, and wouldn't you know, Ron won one. He deserves it: full of handmade wonders and a Ginny doll from the fifties. The food was fabulous. You have your choice, and I was the only vegetarian of the table and so happy for it: a mushroom quiche and a sweet fruit salad. We had a waldorf salad first witch' was so special as Ron had wanted his mother to make him one after watching My Dinner with Andre as a kid. She would not. Think I'll be making them from now on. The triple dessert was too much, and I brought two-thirds of it home. Frankie loves the cheesecake. He was good only pulled Miss Hickory out of The Collins Port Inn while we were gone. He also upset Bob, the cactus. Anyways, Ron did not only win the darling centerpiece, but I also won a loaf of nut bread from The William Penn Inn. It means more than you know as my mother always made nut bread. The favors, the catalogs and adorable wooden Schoenhut alphabet dolls are enough to make any antendee feel fortunate whether or not you scored one of the fabulous prizes. The maker of the precious alphabet blocks was wearing a groovy seventies Christmas blazer. I have one in orange that I wore as a child that somehow came back to me that a Himstedt is wanting. What a charming way to celebrate the holidays! 

Video Part 1: Prizes

Part Two

 

Letitia Penn Doll Club Christmas

A Schoenhut Christmas at The William Penn

  

   

Frannie, my Schoenhut, and I are excited, Ron is taking us to A Schoenhut Christmas at The William Penn Inn! I've never been there, but it is from 1714, and is the oldest operating inn in Pennsylvania! Frannie and I are going to get dressed up. Ron has the best ideas. He didn't even know that I had a Schoenhut. Of course I do! She is very special to me too. 

 

Schoenhut Christmas

The William Penn

 

Laurel Hill Cemetery: Picture Paperback & Ebook

  Available in paperback or ebook, Laurel Hill Cemetery is another Pennsylvania picture book with 107 color photographs of a late autumn day in an old Philadelphian cemetery. The paperback has a new poem on the back.

Laurel Hill Cemetery

Laurel Hill Cemetery

  Paperbacks and ebooks ought to be available soon. I'll keep you posted. 🍂🍁🍂

 

Ghost Stories XVII

 Posted on November 2, 2010 at 1:10 AM

I'll try this again. Just once more. I had only just completed this story, to have it vanish into thin air, which is always annoying. I'm relentless, I know it, but Fort Mifflin is haunted too. It was bone chillingly cold; my teeth wouldn't stop chattering. I was dressed warm enough too. First stop on our tour was the house with the biggest fireplace and the cauldron. Upon entering, I heard somebody clambering around upstairs, although, supposedly nobody was up there. There was a girl standing in front of me, only every time out of the corner of my eye, I'd see a heavy -set man with a beard at her back. When I'd look straight at her, he was gone. At that same time I was watching out the window, towards one of the casements, the old Hobbit hole prisons. A large group had just entered the hill, but I could see something going on just outside the entrance; something like a flickering mist, but with human motion. I tried to take some photographs, but they'd turn out black. In fact, all of my photos of the casements, and a lot of other pictures would just come up black. Out of curiosity, after getting home, I enhanced these black pictures. These are the pictures of the colored orbs. My camera did seem to be acting up, but I don't have any orb issues with it. They look more like bubbles and lights. And, the lights were there. I doubt these are all dust and insects. Anyways, I think that ghost would come out of the hill just to avoid getting squished by the crowd. I did get the sense of a little girl out on the grounds, but this could be pure suggestion. I did think I saw something cloudy mussing about just beyond the big wooden doors near the flag as well. Some people report bad feelings from the old cells. I didn't have any, but there were bad smells; easily attributed to any of the large tours shuffling around. The Ghost Hunters said a light came on upstairs in the officer's quarters. Perhaps, but that well may have been due to an airplane, as an airport is next door. The lights from the planes are so bright to light up the windows. I think that's why The Screaming Lady still screams.
Still, besides, the orbs, if You look closely, you can see lots of ghosts picked up by night vision camera that deceived my eyes. First, the pictures of the big white house, there is a lady in a long white nightgown on the far right end of the top balcony. She looks candlelit. She was not there. Nobody was on the top balcony, but the crowd on the porch are all breathing. Also, the cannons, in front of the same house, look closer to the snouts, between them a somewhat transparent man in Civil War uniform is standing. He's wearing a cap and his arms are crossed or something. The dark head and shoulders visage as approaching the fort cannot be mistaken and is very scary, as he was not there either. Nobody was. The lady shows herself again in the front right hand side of the picture of the long single storied house. She's in the nightgown again, candlelit, this time more transparent; looks as if she's crying. Her hair looks unwashed, as if she'd been in bed a long time, maybe. The photograph of a large white orb in front of the blacksmith's shop is definitely interesting. That was not a plane. I know, because I had waited for the planes to pass to take that picture. It's like a huge ball of energy or something... This one did not turn out black originally either, and it's not The Moon. Besides the flag, the other dark orbed photos are of the casements, for the most part. I find them intriguing. You may think what you will, but I think Fort Mifflin is haunted.

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