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Posts by mjd  

Joined: 15 Mar 2013 / Male ♂
Last Post: 31 May 2013
Threads: Total: 2 / In This Archive: 1
Posts: Total: 3 / In This Archive: 1
From: USA, NorCal
Speaks Polish?: No
Interests: Genealogy

Displayed posts: 2
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mjd   
15 Mar 2013
Life / Where, Oh Where Do Poles Get Their Dogs? [18]

This question caught my eye because I know a tiny bit about it. My wife and I have a friend who, although without any Polish ancestry, has spent a lot of time in Poland, where she discovered, years ago, that rare Polish breed, the Cocker Spaniel Angielski. She has had at least three over the years we've known her -- when one is getting up in years, she will come back home with a puppy under her seat on the airplane.

She gets them from the same breeder, a lady serious enough about it to have printed a glossy four page brochure featuring the breed in general and her kennel in particular. I think somewhere near Warsaw. But not a volume breeder. All three have had great temperaments, and have been healthy and long-lived. They look a little strange here because their tails are not docked, as is typical for bird dogs.
mjd   
15 Mar 2013
Life / Polish religious decor for the home. Sound familiar? [3]

Every so often a vague memory from my youth will surface and bother me until I track it down. So hopefully this sounds familiar to someone:

When I was a kid, so let's say the 1950s, we would visit my Great-grandmother on Sundays. She would have been born in southern Poland in the 1880s.

On one wall in her house was a piece of what I can only call religious decor. It was not a painting, but it was in a frame. The art itself was covered with a piece of glass such that there was maybe a centimeter and a half space between the back of the art and the glass in front. I forget exactly what the image was. It might have been the Holy Family, or just a house and garden. But the image was enhanced with what I believe was dried plant materials: straw flowers and the like. I remember there was a motto on the inside, that included the word "Bog." That's why I think it was religious.

Does this sound familiar? Some sort of "God Bless Our Home" skinny diorama to hang on a wall? Is this a familiar art or craft in Poland, and if so, where is it practiced? It might have been factory produced, for all I know, but I can't picture any machinery to put it together.

Thanks for any help.