ALL PIPE PHOTOS CREDIT CAROL A. STEPHEN

Today’s challenge from The Daily Post on WordPress is a photo challenge from Ben Huberman. Share a photo of something rare, a family heirloom for instance. I first thought of a wonderful honey I had back at least two decades ago, blackberry or blackcurrant, from Chilliwack River Valley in B.C. We brought it home to Ontario and I hoarded for at least 10 years.  We were on the last jar when we headed west again, and managed to find the seller at Granville Island Market.  I also picked up some Fireweed Honey and a couple of other flavours. More recently I’ve been able to order online, but the flavours are different. Still wonderful, but with honey bees in danger of disappearing, truly a rare treat. These are not blended honeys, and they last a very long time.

Honeycomb of Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) with eggs and larvae. (Wikipedia)

Ben posted about sour cherries, and that brought another memory: driving from Montreal to Kitchener Ontario AND back to Montreal the same day, about 13 hours total, to buy buckets of sour cherries, not available at the time in Quebec.  My late husband bottled them in brandy. They too lasted for years.

Then I remembered something else that John left me when he passed. Two smoking pipes. They’re quite old, and rather interesting, although the market for them is certainly much smaller than it used to be. One is, according to what I was told, a lady’s pipe, and the other is a devil’s head.  Although neither is worth a fortune, they would sell for a few hundreds each. But perhaps only in the U.S. market.  I did not sell them though, and they are a bit of a conversation piece. On the lady’s pipe, you can see the ribbed stockings.  She would have been smoking a cigarette or cigar, but that piece has unfortunately been broken off.