Botanical Art Thursday, Sep 12 2013 

Esperanza and gardening and Genealogy and Historical Events , , acairfearann 14:42

Again from the guestbook, this time by a cousin.  I use the term loosely, I have yet to understand how all the Smiths relate to the Palmers relate to the Websters relate to the Ellsworths relate to the…  Is Julia a closer cousin to Morris Smith than to William Webster Ellsworth? Possibly, possibly not.  In any event the genealogy is not my forte; I do know that there were any number of cousins living in NYC.  It is somewhat interesting to note; until recent times* Esperanza has been solidly Hartford/NYC/Hudson River/Adirondacks in orientation.  The 1870’s-1930’s group has not the slightest interest in points further south on the coast nor on points further north.  They are quite happy to jump to New Orleans, California, Europe, North Africa….but Boston and Washington D.C.? Different planets.

Anyway, botanical art:

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*recent = last three generations.

 

Nasturiums Wednesday, Sep 4 2013 

Esperanza and gardening , , acairfearann 09:46

From the guestbook, August 1878 by Louis Goddard

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Guests Sunday, Aug 25 2013 

Esperanza acairfearann 20:26

Apologies for the light blogging this coming week.

One of the awesome things about Esperanza is its ability to absorb guests.  The house was designed for handling upwards of twenty house-guests for months at a time during the summer.  Plus dinner parties coming closer to forty. Hence the guestbook featured in previous entries.

Some of these guests would have stayed in the cottages and many of the them probably doubled or tripled up in bedrooms.  Still there is quite a bit of space.

We can’t manage that these days; but when it is all set up, the house’s infrastructure can easily handle a fair number.  Currently there are, in addition to the three people always here*, we have another six (and another tomorrow) spanning four generations from ages 3 months to 95 years, plus four cats, two of which are guests.  Not bad.

*Due to touchy, prima-donna systems for heating, plumbing, and light along with basic common-sense security, there is always at least one person here, 24-7.

 

From the Guestbook Saturday, Aug 24 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events , , acairfearann 08:42

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“This diagram is intended to convey a faint idea of the manner in which Mr. Carleton’s bedroom door was barricaded on the morning of July 31. The Besieging parties being Miss Nellie Rounce and her fellow conspirator Miss Nellie Yale.” July 1876

We don’t do that to our guests these days!  Mr. Carleton was Julie’s publisher and frequent summer guest.  I suspect that the ‘Miss Nellie Yale’ is Helen Yale Smith, not her namesake Helen Yale.  The latter was a close friend, but was not referred to as ‘Nellie’.  So, two teenage girls cheerfully making Mr. Carleton welcome!  It is the plethora of bottles that I find most interesting in that sketch…

Note that the door trim matches the Little Parlor, nice confirmation that the trim on that room was not modified when the fireplace was redone at the turn of the century.  The trim also suggests that Carleton probably had the long vanished bedroom where the main hall now is (as the only other possible bedrooms upstairs have plainer trim).  The main hall and the north end would not be built for another 17 years.

Note too our mysterious bird signature once again.

 

The Old Wall Wednesday, Aug 21 2013 

Esperanza and Landscapes and Modern Photos , acairfearann 10:02

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The West Meadow wall, a view looking along the top.  And yes that is poison ivy!

 

Contemplations on a Chambered Nautilus Tuesday, Aug 13 2013 

Esperanza and Modern Photos , acairfearann 10:28

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I know, an overly grandiose title for a picture that I could Not get to work.  Still, the empty room (which won’t stay empty, but that is what it is) does put me in mind of Wyeth’s work.

 

Balancing Acts Friday, Aug 9 2013 

Esperanza acairfearann 15:19

In a house such as this, filled with the oddments of six or seven generations, most of whom died here or, if they died elsewhere, their belongings returned, finding space for a new order is difficult.  One of the charms of the house is that one never knows exactly what a drawer will hold.  Yet, when one is entirely reworking an attic room for another sort of work space; those oddments are probably in the way.

So one balances the charm of the room essentially untouched for decades (just quietly getting more and more stuff….) with a working space.  How? In this case, a drawer got reserved for the cleaned oddments that would be left: maybe a strange candlestick, a massive square nail, some old painted tin boxes, a toy, an odd bottle…that sort of the thing.

The rest get used for saner, sorted storage which will relate to the room’s new use.

The dust goes.

More importantly, my tame electrician spent the morning rewiring a wall sconce…We’ve had problems with that particular style, the wire is bent over a sharp point and after ninety years the insulation fails.  This one did not blow fuses, this one simply arced, and arced, and burned through the sconce plate.  God loves fools.  It could have burnt the house down.

 

Vegetable Garden Tuesday, Aug 6 2013 

Esperanza and gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos , acairfearann 10:31

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That is the peach tree with the lettuce box in center of the photo. Our chimney swift colony lives in the chimney which is in the center, a good location for them!

 

Fun and Games Thursday, Aug 1 2013 

Esperanza acairfearann 14:16

If anyone has been trying to get hold of us…we apologize profusely*.  The good news is that the phone company has finally conceded that there might in fact be multiple problems, and that they are under contract for the inside as well…

I don’t think they were expecting hundreds of feet of copper wire, however.  The phone line is very solid wiring, put in place by Alexander Bell’s assistant, Frederick Shand Goucher, who was a relative by marriage.  (if not by Bell himself)  It isn’t the first telephone line in town (that belonged to the textile mills down in the valley) but it is certainly one of the first lines.  It has some quirks, one of which being that you really can’t disconnect it entirely; the big bells are literally hard-wired to the copper line.  Which explains why they ring when a lightning strike hits the line somewhere on the hill.

So far, the interior problem is an errant staple in the basement.  I bet the exterior problem is somewhere down the hill in the switchgear, again…

*Yes, I have a cell phone, it is five years old, I don’t use it, I don’t know what its number is; I carry it only when travelling, because you try finding a pay phone to call a tow truck in this day and age!

 

Architecture that didn’t Friday, Jul 26 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events acairfearann 12:52

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“Our artist, on hot, hotter, hottest afternoon in July, after a mild claret punch under the trees, dreams that a Swiss chalet sort of roof like the above would look rather nobby on the little Bow Window to the library”

From the 1879 guestbook. The bay window and the library (it would cease to be the library in 1893, when the present library was added) are on the second floor at the south end. The bay window is a simple one, in keeping with the classical lines of the rest of the house.  It looks exactly like the window in the sketch, minus the Swiss chalet top which was Not added!  The question is, ‘nobby’ is that a good or bad adjective?

 

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