A white Christmas? Thursday, Dec 19 2013 

Uncategorized acairfearann 21:40

It would be nice, but I am not counting on it…despite about five inches of packed snow on the ground.  A few nights ago it was crystal clear (with a full moon, absolutely gorgeous down in the woods) and dropping to near zero with daytime highs of about 12.  Tonight, it is above freezing and mild, tomorrow…warmer.  It might rain this weekend.  Such is southern New England.  The perfect climate for cynics and pessimists and those afflicted with the half-empty glass syndrome.

 

 

Winter Hemlocks Tuesday, Dec 17 2013 

gardening and Modern Photos , , acairfearann 22:59

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Mystery letters Monday, Dec 16 2013 

Esperanza acairfearann 13:34

Most of the letters, excerpts, and guestbook entries that I post come from people who are, in some way, connected with either Esperanza or its family.  However, every once in awhile….

I have a fascinating set of three letters (enclosed in a single envelope) that came off a bookshelf in a room that was being re-organized.  Now, the books it was in with were not in place pre-1970; however some of those books came from other collections in the house, notably those belonging to WWE (William Webster Ellsworth).  Presumably, it fell out of one of those.  But which one is unknown, or maybe it was wedged in there for longer, and when the case was unweighted it dropped.

The enclosing envelope was addressed to Governor Thomas H. Seymour, at the time of the mailing a former CT governor running for re-election.  The time it was mailed? 1862.  Scrawled on the back, “equivalent to saying an oath is not binding at all – for when Lincoln came in he took an oath to uphold the Constitution.”

Inside three letters, I haven’t read them all the way through yet.  But two were from one Willard Clark; who I believe is the same Willard Clark who was acquitted of an 1855 murder by reason of insanity.  Both letters present long, very well written arguments for why the South had the legal right to secede.  The third letter was by a Rebel prisoner to a friend in Boston.  It is all Very odd.  I have yet to figure out any reason why these three letters ended up here.  The only, tenuous connection so far is that the judge who presided over Clark’s trial was William Wolcott Ellsworth, the grandfather of William Webster Ellsworth.  But, that is a very dubious link.

 

Dec. 15, 1858 Sunday, Dec 15 2013 

Historical Events acairfearann 16:47

Morris in New Orleans to Julie in Hartford:

“Your boy has nothing of consequence of news or gossip to report. This morning I was detained in Court some four hours getting a poor fellow clear of assault and battery. He was from the country and consigned to us (i.e. working for Morris’ business) and under provocation struck a man. Got him clear but saw great sights. It was in the Police Court, they had about sixty men and women, the rag tag and bob tail of all creation, the proceeds of last night’s haul to sentence, before our friend’s case came up.

…

You can think of me at the old desk, writing to delinquent customers and to lawyers. Nothing to interrupt this dreary existence, same old song of good and bad customers, and the confusion of tongues in our Babel store is the same as of old…Still I can get along in the daytime for we have plenty of business, but at night it is awful to think of going to my lonely room. Perhaps Dick (his partner) is the same way, for we smoke one cigar after another, till the small hours of the morning,and only fly to bed from sheer weariness.

I hope that our nest of young ones live happy, and that they enjoy themselves, and more than that I hope you are well. I am becoming strangely nervous of late, for in absence of letters I conjure up many uneasy fancies. Now good bye, and don’t forget, Morris.”

Morris was in New Orleans from November through May 1858-59, as was usual.  He would have had reason to be worried while writing that letter, when he had left Julie had just given birth to their fourth daughter, Lucy, and had been quite ill afterwards.  He had not received a letter from Julie in over three weeks, an unusually long break in the correspondence, and would have had no way of knowing that all was, in fact, well.

 

Through the glass Friday, Dec 13 2013 

Landscapes and Modern Photos acairfearann 18:42

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Continuing the window theme, a view out the library window.

 

The Key Bird’s Night Thursday, Dec 12 2013 

Uncategorized acairfearann 23:41

And still I recall

The snapping crunch of snow

The trees creaking protest to the stars

The long walk home by frozen fields

To the house beneath the oaks

And the crescent moon

Orion was my guide

Straight ran his hounds

The cold road home

Listening to the key bird

Keey rist, keeey rist

Cold out there

Cold out there

 

Dark Nights Wednesday, Dec 11 2013 

Landscapes acairfearann 22:44

The snow around here hasn’t melted, or even fallen off the trees, so it is quite beautiful on a still, cold night with a little moon and the stars.  The darkness is balanced by the great amount of light that reflects from everywhere and nowhere off the snow.  A beautiful night, very calm and still.  Gorgeous but not kind, a sense that winter so often brings.

That being said, I have to admit the man-sized patch of fog at Witches’ Corner* on the way up the hill, late at night, in the middle of the road, on a night with no fog and too cold for open water in a culvert? Just a tad creepy.  I know there are springs thereabouts so it probably was due to flowing water, but still creepy!

*The old road alignment switchbacked there, and horses apparently always spooked.

 

Winter Windows Tuesday, Dec 10 2013 

Esperanza and Modern Photos acairfearann 19:59

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December Ice Monday, Dec 9 2013 

gardening and Modern Photos and Trees , , acairfearann 12:21

Contrary to the expected, December around here tends more towards ice than snow.  This year, the long spell of close/below freezing has meant that our current winter weather is rather mild: it started as snow and is now sort of drizzle.

Other years, however, it comes as ice.  That ice can be pretty is in no way a redeeming feature.  It tends to prune trees in an unfortunate manner. Most of the native trees can adapt, hemlock and spruce simply droop, white pine unfortunately tends to drop branches, usually snapping off a few feet out from the main trunk.*  This doesn’t bother the tree, but people don’t care for it. Birches bend, until they don’t of course.  Oaks and Maples stand tall, unless they are unbalanced due to a combination of factors (unbalanced rapid growth, saturated ground, wind, etc.); they usually don’t drop branches in ice storms however.**  The truly vulnerable trees are the non-native ornamental ones which often have many narrowly branched limbs, such as Japanese Maples; sadly those tend to tear off at the trunk, making for a difficult pruning job afterwards.

This shows a light ice-load on the trees east of the house, you can see how the Norway Spruces in the background (which normally would be touching) have turned into individual ‘cones’ as the branches are weighed down.  The closest trees are pines, and you can just tell that the main branches do not flex at all, only the smaller branches under a few inches in diameter.  The Maples in the midground have not changed shape at all.

IMG_3897

*Mature white pines, that is, the 70 ft plus monsters, such as the ones in the photo.  The limbs simply fracture, if you look at them afterwards there is very little tearing in the way you see on maple or ash.

**Look, All Trees can and do drop things in storms (don’t go dancing around in the woods without paying attention to what is above you!)

Balanced trees are important, some trees are more tolerant than others and can carry an uneven load: as is shown by this River Birch, which is quite one-sided, but it capable of bending in the main trunk:

IMG_3896

However, there is always a possibility that they can carry the uneven load until they don’t: this double trunk Red Oak was about sixty years old, perfectly healthy.  It simply grew a bit too much due to the other side of the road being cleared two years previously, giving it much more light.  As you can see, there were no branches on the side facing away from the road.  Ice plus saturated ground plus a year of abundant extra growth and…thud.  (this was several years ago, the trees have since been aggressively pruned by the DOT)*

.IMG_3901

*Murphy’s Law being what it is, there was a car going past at the time.  The driver was fine, the car not so much.

 

 

Letter Excerpt, Dec. 30th 1918 Saturday, Dec 7 2013 

Esperanza and Historical Events , , acairfearann 20:41

Also known as: ‘And we think we have problems with the mail, and waiting more than five minutes for a reply? Horrors!’

“Dec. 30, 1918

My dear Dad,

Your letter of Dec. 9th and mailed on Dec. 12th just received so mail is going to be better perhaps. It usually has taken much longer you see. By Dec. 9th you should have heard from me, but Lord only knows what becomes of mail from this end. No! I’m not a Major but have had the pleasure of running three of them as operations officer thru the fighting and am back at my old job as Reg. I.O. and quite content as I’ve written before. When anything is fresh in my mind, it seems as if I could sit down and write reams of interesting stuff, but the old war is stale already and tonight no incidents pop into my head to come out on paper – when the things you wanted to know about happened old boy Censor was on the job, (he still is by the way on certain matters – casualties for one) and opportunities to sit down and write those reams were few and far between. What we want most is to sit down and talk about it and as the soldier was never accused of being any kin to the violet we will do some talking one of these days – even in talking amongst ourselves the stories that were originally concerned with patrols are now all about attacks – from some of the clippings you have sent, New York is already suffering. Wait ‘til we all descend on you!

New Year’s Eve is almost here and our mess is much troubled over the outlook – shopping for food hereabouts is difficult but today I managed to find some wild boar meat and know where the champagne tree grows – it still flourishes here – so we won’t fare badly at all. Our Xmas was a great success – did I write to thank you for the cigarettes? They helped a lot – at that time none had received a Xmas 9 x 4 brick and we All appreciated this one.”

From a letter by Capt. Bradford Ellsworth, A.E.F. 306th Infantry, 77th Division; to his father, William Webster Ellsworth, back home at Esperanza. (although by the time he received the letter, they would have closed the house for the winter and would have been in NYC, delaying its arrival even more!)

Yes, still working on that transcription project.

 

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