Contemplative Gardening Monday, Oct 1 2012 

gardening acairfearann 15:47

I am currently blessed with too much free time; this gives me the opportunity to garden at a slower pace.  I could have  cleaned/weeded the currant bed with a hoe; it would have been marginally faster.  I am sure I could buy some sort of obscenely loud and expensive equipment to do it even better…

Doing it by hand though…I observed the root systems of various weeds, sorted out some baby foxgloves and mulleins for transplant when it is raining, avoided a young dogwood seedling (also to be moved), considered the repulsive but compelling scent of some sort of morel type fungus growing in the bark mulch, watched the chickadee watching me, avoided harming the salamander that I disturbed (he thought my warm hand was rather nice when I picked him to move to an already worked spot), and so forth.

The currant bed isn’t a just a piece of work or a piece of landscaping to take pride in (or not as the weeding goes).  The image in my mind is far deeper, far wider than that.  It encompasses a summer’s growth and decay, dozens of plant and animal species, scents, sounds, textures.  What’s not to like about that?

 

Random guest book entry Sunday, Sep 30 2012 

Historical Events , acairfearann 12:08

“‘That though I come

In winter’s guise

The flight of years

Has left me wise

Oh Carey! Choose

The glance of truth,

Ripe age prefer,

To heedless youth!”

This decidedly enigmatic poem was written in the by Annie Elliot Trumbull, from Hartford in 1880.  Enigmatic because of the allusion to ‘Carey’; who is it?

Annie was born in 1857, died 1949, and was the daughter of James Hammond Trumbull, Connecticut’s first State Librarian, noted philologist, and antiquarian.  Annie was an author, writing short stories and taking a definite interest in Hartford/Connecticut history.  That she knew Julie and WWE comes as no surprise.

 

Fall colour Friday, Sep 28 2012 

Landscapes and Trees acairfearann 12:44

I’ve never quite figured out why leaf peeping is big business, though it is always a major conversation topic even amongst those with no aesthetic or financial interest in it.  Odd.

Still it is a spectacular sight!  This year the ashes just sort of dropped.  Some years, they are beautifully shading of purple/bronze amongst the still green maples.  The black birches are coming into their own though.  The two behind the big garden are a glorious golden canopy.  The woodbine is starting its creeping blaze, see yesterday’s photo.  The big woodbine will eventually turn the interior of the eighty foot hemlock by Minnietrost scarlet.  A few red maples have started to turn, a dull silvered red.  The silver maples are picking up caramel highlights.

 

Old Door Thursday, Sep 27 2012 

Esperanza and Modern Photos acairfearann 11:15

 

Chaotic natures Wednesday, Sep 26 2012 

Esperanza acairfearann 12:18

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the house is its chaotic nature.  Unlike a museum, there is no attempt to have things of one type all grouped together.  I should say, unlike a modern museum, for if one is familiar with the glorious whirl of the old British Victorian/Edwardian collections, then one has a sense for the interior of this house.  That Cuban sea shells ought to be next to rocks from Ontario, against Chinese pottery, against Victorian romantic art, against….well why not?  Children’s books shelved next to philosophy next to noir novels?  It tends to offend the modern desire for externally constructed and imposed order, full of divisions, walls, and credentials.  The British collections of a century ago reflected a polymath approach to the world.  Natural science and culture were not antagonists but part of a whole.

I got to thinking of this while dusting a room in which this approach is especially apparent: a carefully labelled (in Latin) shell collection interspersed with a range of decorative arts.  Science and art together, why not?

 

Photo of the Day Monday, Sep 24 2012 

gardening and Modern Photos , acairfearann 10:40

What one does with a badly broken jar; the flowers are blue lobelia, white wood aster, black-eyed susans, and coneflower

 

Of weddings Sunday, Sep 23 2012 

Esperanza and Historical Events and Landscapes acairfearann 12:02

Esperanza has seen several family weddings, though none in living generations.  It has also seen its share of funerals.  Equal measure.

From September 1906, a newspaper clipping describing the wedding of Lucy Morris Ellsworth and George Mason Creevey:

“One of the most elaborate out-of-door weddings to take place in this State that has taken place for some time…Lucy Morris Ellsworth, daughter of William Webster Ellsworth of the Century Company of New York, was married to Dr. George Mason Creevey of New York. The wedding took place under the trees fronting the house on Esperanza Farm, Mr. Ellsworth’s summer home….. (genealogy)…(guest list)…the wedding was perfect in every detail. The house was draped with greens, with here and there decorations of goldenrod.  The trees were hung with gaily coloured ribbons of many different hues. An orchestra occupied a retired spot on a side veranda and furnished the music. The ceremony took place in a small wooded bower, twenty bridesmaids lining the pathway from the house….

so forth through a description of the dress, list of bridesmaids, gifts etc.

The bower is still there in part.  Of the two massive Norway spruces that made the front frame, only the south one survives at 109 feet in height.  Beyond though is a veritable cathedral grouping of several more Norway spruces and pines, all at well over 80 feet in height.  Now if only I could get rid of the road…

 

 

The refinishing of floors Thursday, Sep 20 2012 

Esperanza and Modern Photos and Projects acairfearann 11:42

I am actually not the person that did the work, Jamie did it and well; I just ran off with the rug that was in desperate need of repair…thereby exposing a section of the floor.

Hard to say what the wood is, it may be hard pine.  Originally coated with shellac, making restoration fairly straight-forward.  Shellac is suspended in alcohol (you can actually get shellac in flake form).  Clean it, then rub it down with denatured alcohol which re-amalgamates whatever shellac was left, then two coats of shellac with some areas needing three (heavy traffic, sun, water, or tape from a taped down rug).  No sanding required.

This photo is about as close as we come to a ‘before’ image: the floor on the right is not yet done, the light mark is a where a rug was taped down.  You can see the difference in the quality of the color/light.

The floor refinished.  The circle in the center is a floor outlet.  This picture is also a nice illustration of the standard tendency for old houses to be built less than straight: look at the wall, the plaster is not cracked, the ceiling height really is that different!

 

Photo of the Day Wednesday, Sep 19 2012 

Julie's Pond and Modern Photos acairfearann 10:08

Taken at the outflow of Julie’s Pond last year; this year there is no flow.  The green stuff is duckweed, the bane of people with ponds around here.  It is a floating plant and can’t survive even moderately rough water with any success; but if the conditions are right it can completely blanket a still pond during the summer. If I have to choose between it and algae though, I will take the duckweed any day.

 

Year of the spider Tuesday, Sep 18 2012 

Esperanza acairfearann 12:25

Old houses tend to develop their own little ecosystems.  Esperanza has bats in the roof, salamanders in the basement, red squirrels and chipmunks in the walls, and so forth.  This freaks out most people.  Perhaps the largest, visible population is the spider one.  For the most part, I have a love/hate relationship with them.  On the ‘hate’ side, I really would prefer to stay far away from them, especially the occasional massive wood spider.  Spider droppings do not come off of things, unless you use sand-paper.  Spider webs tend to illustrate, graphically, my cleaning skills.*  On the other hand…well, they are predators.  Presumably a healthy spider population helps to control the other insects.  Of course, a healthy predator population means a healthy prey population…. 

I practice survival of the fittest with the spiders.  If they can outrun the vacuum cleaner, they live.  Unless they are in a truly wrong spot (bathrooms, kitchen, beds/chairs) or they are setting up long-term living/breeding quarters, in which case I chase them down with said vacuum.  I prefer the minute green/gold spiders that don’t make real webs over the wood spiders though. 

This year though, the spiders really have been out of control.  Currently all spiders are being sucked up by the vacuum.  Interestingly, other people have commented on having way too many spiders as well.  Possibly last year’s very mild winter?  The hot, dry weather? Hard to say.

*This is actually not all bad, it serves as motivation.

 

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