Mystery dedications Tuesday, Mar 25 2014 

Esperanza and Historical Events , acairfearann 09:54

One of the more amusing points about having a massive library is stumbling across truly odd things, such as this:

Here is the dedication:

“To Alice: When the golden sun is setting and your life is free from care, When over a thousand things you are thinking, Will you some times think of me. There are few friends in this wide world that love is fond and true, But friend when you count them over place me among the few.”

A lovely dedication, yes? (aside from a ‘that’ which grammatically ought to be a ‘whose’)  Presumably on a book of poetry or maybe on a novel?  Er, no.

Rather it is found on the fly of: ‘The Legislative Manual for the State of New York. 1859’  A drier tome cannot be found, it is essentially an address book listing such gripping items as all the current postmasters for the state, population tables for towns, updates on law cases, and so forth.

Who was Alice? Furthermore, who wrote the dedication, and why? Were they copying it from something else in haste because they liked it? The cover of the book is stamped: H.R. Selden from A. Perry.  If A. Perry is Alice, why is the dedication on a book she gave?  Who is H.R. Selden?

The emotion is known, the reasons will be forever unknown.

 

Success in gardening Monday, Mar 24 2014 

gardening , , acairfearann 09:45

I think a point in the ‘success’ column ought to be awarded for last night’s supper.  The parsnips overwintered out in the garden quite happily;* the parsley (a main component in the omelette)  came out of the freezer green and crisp; the frozen snow peas from last year also came out tasting, if not like fresh peas, certainly close to it.  I could have used our own onions, but we are down to the last midget sized shallots which are a bore to peel (shallots are overrated, next year it will be just straight onions).  Oh yes, and the peaches in the cobbler? Last year’s crop, canned.

Now about those eggs….  though I think the ham and the potatoes will remain store bought.   As will the milk.

*most of the row is still out there, still buried in the snow, which is ridiculous.

 

March Wedding Sunday, Mar 23 2014 

Uncategorized acairfearann 12:17

March Wedding

In March’s sudden snow

The ice rode the south wind

And a diamond veil lay on the land

Let the sun lift it

Let the bride’s kiss

Blossom

 

140 Characters Saturday, Mar 22 2014 

Genealogy and Historical Events , , acairfearann 11:57

We tend to think of tweets as a new idea; they are in some ways, but messages of great brevity aren’t new:

‘Item. Ranch house and contents burned last night. All safe. Don’t worry. Helen’

That, of course, was a telegram message.  Actually a fairly long one, sent from Vorden, Sacramento County, California to New York on November 18th, 1909.

The sender was Helen Adelaide Ellsworth van Loben Sels to her parents Helen and William Webster Ellsworth.  It was chased by both a postcard and a much longer letter of several pages.  The house in question was ‘the White Home’ the main house on their ranch.

She writes in her letter, “Dear Family don’t worry about me. I wanted thrills of course. It is hard luck but I never can say I’m not getting them. How those flames did lick things in, Glory! Nell was sleeping on the porch (outside) under me. If she hadn’t been there there might have been no more us. She was awakened by the crackling in the office, had time enough to run up to call me, and that’s all, and if the office door had been open there wouldn’t have been time for that. “life, Genevieve, is a dream, Genevieve” with some nightmare mixed in for good measure.

I’m considering whether to telegraph or not, and I’m going to, just so that you will be sure that I will always let you know when things happen. It is a satisfaction that goes both ways. Excuse its going C.O.D. but silver nor gold have I none, at present writing!”

 

(for the confusion of most of my readers, Helen A.E. van Loben Sels and her husband Maurits had a major ranch operation in the Sacramento valley, known as Amistad, the western counterpart to Esperanza and on a much bigger, more successful scale.  The ranch is still in operation as far as I know)

 

 

The Stillness of the woods Friday, Mar 21 2014 

Landscapes acairfearann 13:14

I haven’t been getting out in the woods as much as I would like recently.  Yet, whenever I do, I am reminded why I value them so much.  It is there that I can regain some sense of center, where internal conflict drops away.

Following a sharp lesson in why politics and pleasure should never enter the same room, I was glad to take half an hour and go for a quick scramble down a portion of the south line.  The snow is still deep in places and beneath it the complex of streams, springs, and soggy ground are thawing.  Where there are true seeps or springs, the water is running and the mosses are full of life.  Some of the waxy evergreens, such as partridge berry and laurel, are clearly waking up as well, no longer brittle or easily torn.  Plenty of deer tracks of course; but no sign of Mama Bear this year.  I did feel bad about spooking a dozen plus ducks off the pond, I didn’t see them there when I came up over the western edge of the dam.  They were sheltering in the open water of the back cave and the spring.  Probably migrating.

It is rugged terrain in the micro-sense that southern New England specializes in.  You aren’t climbing mountains around here.  It is just loose rocks, soggy ground, trees, and lots of underbrush to duck through.  Up down  around and mind that widow-maker.  I can’t imagine how I will manage to shepherd a Land Trust walk along it!  It should be fun though.

 

Iris Thursday, Mar 20 2014 

gardening and Modern Photos , , acairfearann 09:12

IMG_5364

Your random photo of the day, standard Siberian Iris and an unnamed gold German Bearded Iris, it also looks like there was a set of unopened buds of a bronze German Bearded Iris in front.

 

Projects Wednesday, Mar 19 2014 

Projects acairfearann 17:37

It is always astonishing how quickly something can happen when everyone puts their minds to it.  The picture project has taken another step forward with the creation of a double rack against one wall of the room. In theory, this should mean that I can fit all of the pictures into that space….

It was a bit of trick to get an eight foot long, two and half foot tall, two foot wide rack up the stairs.  It took a bit of a circuitous path through various rooms as well.  The same path a sideboard took, zig zagging through the house.  Each door, of course, is a slightly different width, or should I say: ‘narrowness’?  So far, we have not had to chop a hole in a wall for any furniture, unlike previous generations.  Thank goodness the rack was light enough to be easily rotated in the stair well. Mind the corners, and china, and the glass, and the lantern!

This project has only been in progress for several years, maybe by the time spring gets here (ha!) it will have come to some sort of conclusion.

 

My Friend Tuesday, Mar 18 2014 

Esperanza acairfearann 11:19

(Digging through a clipping book by William Webster Ellsworth, a bit of poetry.  It is unclear if it is his, or if it is a translation that he did.  However, since everything else in the book is work that he did, it is likely that it is his.  It appeared in Scribner’s Monthly, later known as the Century Illustrated Magazine in 1875-76.  He did write some poetry when he was young, but then turned to working primarily as an editor, feeling that he didn’t have what it took to be a creative writer.  His standards were rather high…)

My Friend

(After the German)

The friend who holds a mirror to my face,

And hiding none, is not afraid to trace

My faults, my smallest blemishes, within;

Who friendly warns, reproves me if I sin,

Although it seem not so, he is my friend.

 

But he who, ever flattering, gives me praise,

Who ne’er rebukes, nor censures, nor delays

To come with eagerness and grasp my hand,

And pardon me, ere the pardon I demand,

He is my enemy, although he seem my friend.

 

Inner Workings Sunday, Mar 16 2014 

Esperanza , acairfearann 19:19

The primary piano in the house is an 1898 Model A Steinway.  It has, since 1898, always been in the corner of the big Keeping Room.  It possesses a classic Steinway tone and quality that, in my biased opinion, is hard to match.  (but loyalty to pianos is rather like the traditional Chevy/Ford/Dodge rivalry)  Admittedly, it does have a few quirks in its temperament making it very unforgiving for people who don’t have strong hands and control.

It had developed a rather disconcerting, barely audible, high frequency ring on certain notes due to some misbehaving dampers.  This meant that the action got pulled out today, which gives one a very different look at a typical grand piano:

025

 

027

024

At the time that this piano, no.  94008, was built and when it was first played here in this house, the Steinway Company was making pianos for: the Queen of England (Victoria), the Prince of Saxony, the German Emperor, the Queen of Spain, the King of Sweden and Norway, the Emperor of Austria (also King of Hungary), the King of Italy, and the Emperor of Russia.  A different world…

 

 

 

Almost Tragedy Saturday, Mar 15 2014 

gardening acairfearann 16:15

We have a little garden fish pond, with a great many fish in it.  Several dozen at last count, your standard run of the mill goldfish, none of which are gold….  Some are blue, some harlequin, many are born purple/black and slowly turn red, and some slowly turn white.  Anyway, fish.  Fish utterly, totally reliant on us.*  The pond is about six feet long and three plus feet deep and has a recirculating pump and waterfall. It has neither a natural inlet nor outlet, aside from seasonally boggy ground.  In the winter, we remove the filter, put a heater in, bury the line, and let it keep running.  We don’t always check it every day in the winter.

By sheer good fortune, it was checked on yesterday.  The fish were down to a little huddled puddle in the bottom, the pond was for all intents and purposes nearly dry.  After some hasty work with the hose, attention turned to the likely culprit: the waterfall.  It would appear that one of the stones got shifted, probably in this fast freeze/thaw cycle we’ve been having.  Almost certainly, the ice built very quickly two nights ago when the temperature dropped.  The combination of a shifted stone and ice build up redirected the water out of the pond.  This has happened once before, but not quite so dramatically.  I suspect, when it warms up enough that fiddling about in water is no longer agony, we will contemplate changing the rocks a bit.

The fish appear to have survived.

 

*I have always been really bothered by the ‘what if man suddenly disappeared’ scenarios (there was a TV series on that awhile back, a badly researched one).  Not, I confess, because of the people.  But because of all the animals that would be doomed to rather nasty ends.

 

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