feels like spring out there, but with this winter…who knows. The horse is starting to shed though,the birds are in full voice, and a few early crocus are sitting in wait with just the tips showing. Time lapse on a crocus would be interesting. So the seasons are changing.
Sometimes, though, less change is, if not better, pleasant indeed. Had a lovely dinner last night in what has to be one of the more nicely kept examples of Queen Anne architecture in this town. (Sibyl and Lee, thank you, and my deepest apologies for the rudeness of nearly falling asleep, it wasn’t due to the company!) Nearly unmodified in any substantive ways since its construction in the late 1800’s, when it was built for a foreman in one of the town’s major industries, the house nicely shows one of the characteristics of the Queen Anne style: ‘look what we can do with wood’ Not in the over the top fashion of the true Victorian with an abundance of curlicues, but in the neatly turned and sawn trim and moldings.
Stone*, glass, wood, and iron. With those four, the 20th century was built. With those four* every century of mankind built, till now. The 21st century is built of carbon, polymers, and things undreamed of in nature….do we really appreciate just how major the change is?
*that includes plaster, which is mostly stone.
*I know, copper, lead, tin, etc as well. But four sounds better.
Acair Fearann 
thanks for the lovely compliments. it was wonderful to see you last night. just out of curiosity, what is our “competition” in the Queen Anne architecture category? Sibyl
Sibyl,
Competition? I don’t know all of the town of course, I can think of two Shingle Style houses (not Esperanza) that are unaltered and have a similar quality of woodwork. But the vast majority have been, at very least painted if not altered. Your village if the major collection of Queen Anne in the town.
Yes, almost spring. Sibyl and I went for a short walk – short because of poor shoe choice on my part – by the Farmington this morning and the snow and ice are hanging on but loosing and birds are arguing in berry bushes. The Equinox is less than a month!
Thank you so much for joining us with Jamie and Holly last night. Great fun, and I found the conversation about forest management and water quality very enlighening. We take water for granted. If you look at the nutrition label on bottled water it would appear that it contains nothing that we need yet we can live longer without food than water. Thank you also for sharing your knowleged of the history of this beautiful part of the world. Living in the present does not require us to forget our past.
Stone, glass, wood, and iron built human civilization. I suppose we could say “formable metal” instead of “iron” but that would just be engineer speak. The hydrocarbon age has provided some new and interesting materials but much of the time we choose it because it is different, not better and the age is still built on the anchoring feet of stone, glass, wood, and iron. But truthfully, the real wonder of our age that allows us to communicate, analyze, create, control, and maybe even think is a stone – silicon – and its ability to control the flow of electrons..
It is a beautiful part of the world. I am blessed in slowly finding the small group of people who really do think that this area is a beautiful one to live in!
Silicon is a wonder of the age, I hadn’t thought about it before, but of all the elements it is the most human. Human in the sense that its purpose, for us, is communication; and communication is a core part of the definition of humanity. Yet, it seems more alien than iron, is it the lack of familiarity with it? Perhaps.
Thanks for the thoughts!
Don’t know what they’re like to live in, but Queen Anne houses are lovely to look at. I did a blog story last summer about a Queen Anne house and the family who lived there. Both were interesting and nice.