Anna Jane's Blue Bouquet Story.

I think, I inherited one piece from my mother, the all popular and ever present when you go look for Blue Bouquet, French Baker.  Honestly, in my house it was referred to as the "mashed potatoes bowl."  It's amazing how much a few kids can go through, especially when two of them are pretty good sized boys.

(As a side note, my brother inherited a small bowl that we discovered was Autumn Leaf.  It was appropriately called the "peanut butter and jelly bowl" since that was the one he always used to mix his "PB & J" for a sandwich.  That bowl has lead to a very nice collection of Autumn Leaf.) 

However, back to the Blue Bouquet, I found that my search for Blue Bouquet after my mother's death was a very good source of recovery.  I think it was a mixture of actually finding the pieces, the focus on the search, and some time that could be spent  alone.  Although my close friend and husband were quite often on the search with me I very much enjoyed the alone time.  There are several times I am sure my success was by divine intervention. 

One time, I received a letter in the mail from a gentleman who lived across the country from me, and we had never met or spoken. In the letter, he said that he was selling his collection and enclosed a list of pieces.  After a very brief conversation with my husband and a promise to "pay back" whatever it might take, I phoned this gentleman (totally forgetting the time difference so that it was a bit late to be politely calling anyone) and told him I would love to have almost everything he had for sale.  The search lead me to meeting many very nice and charming people, several of whom are frequent and knowledgeable posters to this bulletin board.  We can laugh about it now, but it also lead me to one "character who shall remain nameless" who was unfortunately a real scoundrel.