On Vegetable Gardens Thursday, Feb 27 2014 

gardening , , acairfearann 10:50

There are plenty of reasons to have them of course; but one particular point has been on my mind the last few days.

Along about September, I am begging for a frost: the bugs are having a field day, I can’t go away without mutant squash sprouting, there is an overall sense of rot and decay…and the freezer is in decent shape.   But then comes the end of February: the snow is still snowing, cold enough that where it isn’t ice it is drifting, there isn’t a green thing in sight, my car is grey*…and the freezer…

Well, it isn’t just the freezer, it is also the jelly cabinet.  I am charged with shopping and keeping the dinner budget within shouting distance of inflation.  But, the wealth of a garden is beyond measure.  This week I was playing around with some pork chops and chicken thighs.  One night: pork chops braised in a sauce of elderberry jam and mint vinaigrette; another night pork chops in a strawberry/fig (thank you Betsy!) with sage (freshly frozen) and onion; another night, a bit of apple butter, or maybe some tarragon butter for the baked chicken, or maybe a winter squash as a side dish, or some frozen green beans, or some parsley on the the top….  Now the pork chops and chicken don’t come from here, but elderberry jam and mint vinegar?! You can Not buy that.  Not here anyway.

February and the vegetable garden more than answers the need.  Maybe we couldn’t live off it year round; but we certainly couldn’t eat the way we do unless it was there.

*It is grey anyway, but it is Grey-er.

 

From a letter 1860 Wednesday, Feb 26 2014 

Historical Events , acairfearann 14:45

Still poking around in the volume of letters* between Julie and Morris in the late 1850’s and early 1860’s, mostly concerning parenting trials, i.e. four young daughters.  One would not know of the brewing national storm going solely on their letters.

Late winter 1860:

“In the morning the first I heard was an out-cry from Lottie, “I don’t want this old cradle! I want a bedstead and some candy!” As I had a bedstead in the house, I substituted the one for the other…and in about ten minutes she said, “I wish I had kept my cradle!”

Today I have been to church and Jamie Smith dined here, on soup, cold boiled chicken and pork, currant jelly, bottled cider, and Baked Alaska. Lucy is asleep. The other barbarians are down stairs. The room is cold, there is a hole you know in the window by the desk, and though there is a bright fire in the grate, I am none the warmer.”

*There are plenty of others, it’s just that’s the one on the desk.

 

The Ginkgo Tree Tuesday, Feb 25 2014 

gardening and Historic Photos and Modern Photos and Trees , , , acairfearann 11:59

The big one that is, as opposed to the other one, which isn’t small but is smaller.

Here it is in 1905-1910* on the right hand side of the picture, standing out nicely against the dark conifers behind it.  You can see that it already has a very upright growth pattern rather than a spreading one.  I believe that it was planted in 1893-94, when the north end of the house was completed.  WWE and family were, at the time, living in New York City. The ginkgo was a commonly planted tree in Central Park and along the streets; to stretch for meaning a bit, it was a tree that signified a modern and cosmopolitan culture along with an interest in exotic botany.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was the first ginkgo planted in the town, though how I’d go about finding that out…

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Here it is in 2013, the size has changed, but the growth pattern has not:

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*I have an exact date, but like an idiot I didn’t put it into the computer…

 

 

A few recent photos Monday, Feb 24 2014 

Landscapes and Modern Photos acairfearann 09:18

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The old cut leaf Japanese Maple and a particularly fun early morning shadow beneath it.

 

 

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The shadow without the tree, not sure which is better.

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Sunset from the attic stairs landing. A typical sunset, not incredibly flashy, but still worth watching.

 

First Thunderstorm of the Year! Friday, Feb 21 2014 

Uncategorized acairfearann 20:22

In February? Really?

I’ll admit, snow, fog, and lightening make for an elegant scene; as do the clearing clouds with a flash of pink/gold low on the horizon at sunset. But, really?

I like thunderstorms, it’s just they are such an inescapable demonstration of how powerful we aren’t that I find them sobering.  The town’s sirens are almost always set off in the immediate aftermath, one always wonder what, if anything, has been damaged…*

They’re here and gone though. Can you imagine what the storms on other planets. those that last for centuries, must be like?

 

*I’d like to know what the electrical flash on the other side of Jones Mountain and the immediate set of automated sirens in the town center last night was.  I’ll never know, but it does make one curious, I’d never heard that set of sirens before.

 

My version of climbing the walls Wednesday, Feb 19 2014 

Esperanza , acairfearann 13:29

(it is raining, or snaining, or ice at the moment) is to start cleaning the walls.This is not as odd as it sounds.  The house’s walls are almost entirely plaster (a few wood paneled and wallpapered rooms aside).  Most of this plaster is either original horse-hair plaster or restored plaster, all genuine plaster on lathe, no sheet-rock or plasterboard in this place! In many of the rooms either the plaster is, itself, colored or the paint job is custom.  Consequently, you cannot put another layer of paint on the walls.*  Partially because it would be a horrendous job and partially because the visual texture of the plaster is important.

The importance of texture should not be underestimated.  Most of the walls are a very rough plaster, almost nubbly.  The ceilings are smooth plaster, this creates a nice contrast.  It also creates a wall that doesn’t have any reflective qualities, and a wall where a crack caused by settling doesn’t shout. I would estimate that a room with painted plaster can probably take another two coats before you lose the texture for a total of four coats.  That isn’t much, since it needs to last indefinitely, (the previous job lasted about a century) and you really can’t strip paint from plaster with any ease.  But rough plaster catches dirt.  A decade since the restoration/repainting and the dust starts to show.  Especially on the two areas with particularly rough plaster, high traffic, and light blue and rose colored walls….  It sort of creeps up the wall above radiators and near doors.

So washing walls.  But how? You don’t want to actually get it wet.  It turns out that a certain sponge (Magic Erasers) work quite well with minimal water.  I can’t take credit for this discovery, but it works.  Thankfully, there is essentially no grease/oil in the dust so it comes off quite easily.  The only drawback is rough plaster makes sandpaper seem smooth.  I go through a sponge to the square yard.  There are a lot of yards of wall….

 

*In the Keeping room and Yellow room the walls are a rough plaster that used a small amount of mica mixed into the sand. A paintbrush in those rooms would be grounds for violence.  All the other plaster walls were originally painted/colored in 1893/94 and repainted in 2000 onwards.  Several rooms are oddities: in Green Room, the walls were given a smooth finish/float coat of green tinted plaster.  In other rooms grey, rough plaster was painted, in others it was painted and then wallpapered, and so forth.

 

Targeted Advertising Tuesday, Feb 18 2014 

gardening acairfearann 14:33

Several plant companies are going to drive me nuts.  It is snowing, there are several feet of snow on the ground, and it is cold.  So, of course, my email keeps getting inundated with spring sales pitches, attractive ones with interesting plants from companies with good quality stock.  Nice full color photos of lovely, lush plants in full bloom.  It is very hard to resist buying a plant under those conditions.  And they Know that! Grrrr.

(And it isn’t just my email…thanks for the banner ads and pop ups on my news sites!)

 

Not related to Esperanza specifically Monday, Feb 17 2014 

Historical Events acairfearann 12:02

Unrelated to the house, family, or gardening.

A Federal Holiday that really ought to have more thought given to it: George Washington’s Birthday

His Farewell Address, often commented on for the foreign relations aspect (perhaps an eighth of the length) but generally not read:

http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3462

 

 

Connecticut Hills Sunday, Feb 16 2014 

Esperanza and Landscapes and Modern Photos , acairfearann 08:53

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Pushing the camera rather too far. The light in the trees is actually ice on the highest branches. Taken from the attic landing porch.

 

Winter 1859 Saturday, Feb 15 2014 

Historical Events , acairfearann 11:57

From a letter by Julie to Morris, she in Hartford with the girls and he in New Orleans:

‘I took a carriage Saturday, or a sleigh rather, and took the four young off shoots out sleighing upon which the ‘flambergasted’ young ladies took the opportunity to acquire the snuffles….

Lucy grows every minute, she looks like you I think….I hope you will enjoy member four (Lucy) next summer. Nellie (Helen)’s last mode of computation is ‘fourteen, nineteen, eleventeen!’..

The children have just come in from school wet above the knees, every article of dress saturated. They have been elegantly amusing themselves sliding, now they must be Redressed for school this afternoon, but by whom am I to be redressed for all this botheration. Verily I need patience.

I feel perfectly twisted out of my senses trying to write with so many children around me and talking in my ears, and I have to hurry lest Mr. King be gone….But good bye now My Boy. God keep you safely till May.”

Julie and Morris had four children: Fannie, Carlotta, Helen, and Lucy.  Lucy had been born in late 1858, Morris had stayed late that year but had had to leave for New Orleans when she was barely a week or two old.  Between late fall (anything from September to November) and May of every year, Julie had charge of all four children while Morris was in New Orleans overseeing the company’s branch there.  At the same time she was beginning to write short stories for publication.  Most of her letters to Morris naturally describe the daily small details of their lives in Hartford.

 

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