Mr. Ling has married. The bride, as you can see, is the lovely Shu Shen. She is very pleasant and mild mannered, quite the match for Mr. Ling. The other man in the center is her escort Mr. Hui Peng. Mrs. Ling's father hired Mr. Peng to escort and protect his daughter on her journey to America. The orange container Mr. Peng is holding was a gift for the married couple from Shu Shen's father and mother, it's an incense burner. (part of their religion or something like that)The Elder Shen's also sent a box each of nuts, pears, and sweetcakes. They were lovely and served at the wedding feast.
Mr. Ling closed his shop for the wedding and the couple took a short trip to visit with relatives and will be home this weekend. No photos were allowed at the wedding ceremony so these will have to do.
For those of you who have emailed me with offers to help find Mr. Ling a wife, we thank you. As you can see he's happy with his new bride and she is quite content with our Mr. Ling.
I'm hosting Mr. Peng until the newlyweds return. He's an interesting character, he's gone through four bags of rice and spits on the floor. (is spitting a custom in their country??)
He takes his job as escort and protector seriously. Yesterday at the market the produce man approached rather close to me and Mr. Peng went into warrior stance and gave the man the 'evil eye'. I felt quite safe. If I can just get him to stop spitting on the floor I might keep him around for trips to the big city.
Another interesting tidbit about Mr. Peng...he's as curious as a cat. Let me explain...He had never seen a gas stove before and and kept turning the burners on and off. He got so close to the flame the other day he burned off one side of his mustache. As you can see in the photo we had to shave the other half off as well. He was mortified to have his picture taken without his mustache. I really don't know why because it was a runty little thing.
Anyway, we're getting on famously (albeit, the spitting) and looking forward to the newlyweds arriving home.
Have a lovely evening wherever in the world you are.
I wanted to share a few things I've picked up the last few weeks. The baby quilt on the back of the loveseat cost $1.05. It had dark stains all over it and I decided I could spend a $1.05 to see if the stains would come out. Most of them did and the darkest one lightened up to a pale tan. it was worth it, it's hand pieced and hand quilted.
After our town-wide-yard sale anything that isn't wanted is set out to the curb. This is where the sugar bowl and gravy boat came from. They'll make nice planters.
Hurricane lamp for candles $1.00 and a plastic coated wire basket .25. 
Wood and wire birdcage with finials, $2.00.
