About once a quarter I discover a store that is way beyond cool, so it’s unusual to find three cool stores on the same day within a block of each other. All three stores are in Julian, California, a mountain community founded around 1850. Gold was discovered in 1869. Perhaps Julian is best known now for its apple pies; I can highly recommend any pie by the Julian Pie Company. Julian’s Apple Days Festival, held last weekend, is why I was exploring Julian.
The first, and the largest, of the cool stores I found is The Warm Hearth. My wise old grandmother always told me that a house is just a house until you make it a home. So many goodies at The Warm Hearth that can help make my new house, or yours, into a home.
Near the front entrance, and what immediately caught my eye, was a huge display of hot sauces, some of which I have never heard of. Considering that I have been hot saucing for 51 years, that’s quite unusual for me.
I stood there making mental notes of each hot sauce, and salivating. I know it’s not nice to salivate in public, but, oh well. What Hot Saucer could refrain from salivating over a hot sauce called Devil Drops, or Pain 100%? I don’t think anyone saw me….
Across from the hot sauces were all sorts of other sauces. Rattler BBQ Sauce piqued my interest.
As many of my readers know, when I find trains of any sort, I get kind of excited.
I have never had an appreciation for wine, not that I didn’t try when I turned 18 (would have to turn 21 in today’s world). The only wine I wound up liking is Zinfandel. However, I have a lot of friends who are wine connoissuers so whenever I find cool wine necessities, I think of them.
There were coffee and bacon necessities, too.
Many readers know about the dysfunctional family I grew up in, so this one really hit home with me:
My wise old grandmother had several interesting clocks in her home, including an old railroad depot clock and a grandfather’s clock. Clocks have always fascinated me, and at one time I had a huge collection of clocks. They got left behind in April 1993 when I escaped Texas.
When I was 10 and being bullied in sixth grade, my wise old grandmother counseled me with her wise words of wisdom: “Ten percent of the people will hate you because that’s the kind of people they are. Ten percent of the people will love you because that’s the kind of people they are. Eighty percent of the people will hate you or love you based on your actions and words. So be nice.” I thought of her words when I saw this:
Of course, there still are witches (and warlocks), and there are good reasons to be one of them:
An interesting assortment of books for the kids and cards for every occasion:
There were gifts for our fine, furry, four-legged friends, too.
Lots of other make-a-house-a-home stuff, too.
I think I found my next water fountain at The Warm Hearth. Hopefully it will still be there when I return.
Chris is the owner of The Warm Hearth. He graciously gave me permission to take all these interior pictures for this blog post. Thank you, Chris.
I liked The Warm Hearth so much that I offered to let Chris adopt me and I would work at The Warm Hearth. Since I come with an endowment, he wouldn’t even have to pay me. Just consider it family child labor.
Russel Ray Photos 