SHARPIE

Look who came to visit this morning! As I was walking out to fill the feeders I caught movement out of the corner of my eye! He had just taken down a Mourning Dove and was in the process of despatching it although not without some protest from the dove.

ANDIRONS addendum

For some reason way beyond my understanding I was able to publish the pictures of the andirons but unable to add text??? Ahhhhh, the mysteries of the internet........

Many years ago when 'himself' was a boy he and his family lived in Annandal, NY close to the Bard Campus. Apparently it was viewed a horrible little house, hardly fit accomodation for a family of six. From what I gather the family wasn't there for all that long before moving to Spring Brook Farm in Red Hook , now a family of seven. The Spring Brook Farm house was a great big rambling farmhouse with a touch of elegance .... a lovely medalllion and crown molding on the dining room ceiling, french doors in the living room that opened onto the front porch, and an elegant front entry hall with a large and graceful staircase. There was a working fireplace in the living room and that is where the andirons from the Annandale house 'landed'. In the early seventies the farm was sold and the andirons went on to grace the fireplace in the new house on 9G.
After nearly twenty years of glorious fires that house was sold and the andirons along with a lovely brass fender went into storage in one of the barns at Echo Valley Farm, home of 'himself's elder sister and her family. At some point the brass fender came to us at our Windsor, Mass farm. We attempted to clean it ourselves but the years in the barn had resulted in grime and discoloration that was beyond our efforts so we sent it out to be professionally cleaned and polished.
When we built our house in Reading , Vermont we had two fireplaces and only one pair of andirons so FSS asked for the pair that were stored in the barn. We cleaned them up and put them in the livingroom firelace. Absolutely gorgeous!!! Magnificent!! I wish I had a photo of them in that fireplace but that was before digital photography and I never dreamed that time was of the essence ..... that we would suddenly pack up, leave for Pownal, VT and sell the Reading place. The andirons found a home in the 1744 NW Hill Road house and now they are here at the most recent iteration of Amen Farm. I'll try to attach a photo here but if that doesn't work I'll publish in a subsequent post.

ANDIRONS

44 F

This has been an 'open winter' if there ever was one. Here in North Pownal, Vermont we have yet to have our driveway plowed. Granted, we did ask for it to be sanded ONCE. Yesterdays rain has left us without a trace of snow and quite a bit of mud. Even the bird feeding activity has slowed down considerably. On most days there are at least fifty Goldfinches at the feeders at any one time. Today boasts fifteen at best. We were late to have the Chickadees and Tufted Titmice find our feeders but now that they have they are constants.

The other day I took a couple of pics of some finished knitting projects. The light on the front landing wasn't great so the colors are anything but true. The purple is Starmore's Innishmore in Mulberry Bainin The teal/blue is Starmore's Fulmar in Frangipani Ocena Deep. Neither sweater had been blocked when the pictures were taken but figured that I had better take them while the spirit moved.

A LONG ABSENCE

I'm not even sure how long it has been since my last post. A fair amount of progress has been made inside the house. The books have been unpacked, sorted and those I want to keep have been shelved. The others have either found their way to the rubbish or to our little library for their fundraiser book sale in November. Some of the pictures and mirrors have been hung but many more are languishing in the cellar. Problem is .....a serious lack of wall space. All issues to be addressed on a cold and blustery day, soon to be the norm here in south western Vermont.

Back at the end of August Hurricane Irene unleashed her wrath upon a good portion of Vermont and western Massachusetts. We prepared for high winds by taking in all the ourdoor furniture and putting the plants in the garage. It turned out that the winds were minimal but the bucketiing rains on top of an already saturated soil caused massive flooding. Brooks turned into rivers and rivers into torrents. Bridges and roadswere washed away, houses were washed away, cars, propane tanks and any and everything else including massive trees and boulders were washed downstream and into farm fieds and meadows. Some downtowns were destroyed and the cleanup continues.

We went off to Bailey Island , Maine for a week just after Labor Day. We rented a small cottage right on Mackerel Cove and spent the week reading, knitting (me) and eating lobster right out of the water. The lobster boats left pretty early each morning and returned in dribs and drabs throughout the day. Fun to watch the activities. The weather was fair for the most part although a tad on the chilly side some days. Worth a repeat!

We drove home via 101 through NH and picked up Rte 9 in Bratt. The road had just opened to through traffic to Bennington and we had the chance to witness some of the devastation first hand.

Here at home life goes on. We are anxious to get the rest of the grading and seeding done before the window of opportunity closes.

WEATHER

Woke this morning to more clouds rising up from the valley and in front of Cedar Hill. Yesterday was much the same but laced with the occasional downpour. I did manage to get most of the weeks mowing completed and in the process I ran across a mama oriole feeding a 'just fledged' youngster on the ground just as I was heading up to mow the ledge meadow. The oriole nest is in a Red Maple just above the raised beds.

Today I hope to get the tomato garden mulched and the cages in place. 'himself' boought a new phone system yesterday and has been less than successful in installing the main phone. In fact he has been downright unpleasant about it.

HOME AT LAST

Long time since my last post. I've been having a miserable time logging in but seem to have been successful today.

We started the 'move in' process in early April and by the middle of the month we had cleared everything out of the trailer, cleaned it, had the utilities disconnected and were waiting for Pope Housing to come here to collect it. It was a happy day when they finally showed up and drove it off down Tubs Rd.

After being in the house for a few weeks I had Connors deliver our 'stuff' from storage. Everything came back except the queen mattress and the nuts and bolts to assemble the queen bed. Apparently they were misplaced. Hard to lose a mattress. We are still waiting for it! The boxes have all been emptied and most everything has been put away. Still haven't hung any mirrors or pictures; maybe next week?

It really is hard to work inside when the weather is beautiful. I'd so much rather be outside. The tomato plants are in the garden but not looking all that great as we had a week of solid wind that beat the snot out of them. Ordered some Texas Tomato Cages on the recommendation of Margaret Roach from A Way to Garden. And, I've mulched the garden a la Ruth Stout....used the hay and straw that was around the base of the trailer. So far so good!

Today I mowed the interior of the horse pasture. So much poison ivy!! It does look nice !