October at the Sweet Little House

Delmas and I, proud grandparents of the Sweet Little House, Amtracked from Lynchburg to Old Saybrook in this “season of mist and mellow fruitfulness” (there will be a quiz at the end!) for our first visit to this post graduate idyll of Carrie and Pete.

And we arrived in a blaze of autumnal glory, leaves afire with colors, sun shining, “And still more late flowers for the bees/Until they think warm days will never end.”

And there, there it was!  The very yard  in which Peter turned to Carrie a year ago this month and said, “I think we’re home.”

And he was right, of course, they were home in the perfect spot to turn an old, well used home into their own brand of eclectic beauty.

Living Room with Pere

For the Sweet Little House sits in the charming confluence of coastal Connecticut where the marshes and rivers meet Long Island Sound.

Where “a world of marsh that borders a world of sea” vies with those famous marshes of glynn.

Where surely it is not a sin to assume this small blue flower on the edge of the dunes could be that fringed gentian, “blossom bright with autumn dew” that so reflects the sky!

Or assume this rag of seaweed is not a portend of the magic of home.

And from the salt waters of the Sound to the sweet waters of the inland lakes, even more proof that this Clinton is magic.

Autumn among boulders and ferns, sassafras and sugar maples, “…fickle, freckled (who knows how?)/With swift, slow, sweet, sour; adazzle, dim…

And in all this glory, sits the Sweet Little House, well loved by its parents and well managed by the queen cat, Oreo, who rules the yard, the house and the hearts of all!

So we came, and loved, and ate (lots of lobster rolls!), and with our “joys and our toys/came home from the fair,” content in our knowledge that Carrie and Peter have that Sweet Little House in great shape!

Now content to hear the swan sing and the “gathering swallows twitter in the skies”…
...thank you, Carrie and Pete!

Adieu, Sally and Delmas

Sweet Little Shed Revisited...yet again

   So the sweet little shed was the very first thing we fell in love with a year ago when we arrived at the property a few minutes before our dear agent Shelly. And how could we help it...just look at her in her splendid innocence, vines and moss growing unchecked, standing there proudly yet precariously on her bug-infested posts.

Shed sans roof

So of course we made an offer on the house the first day we saw it. Then upon inspection two weeks later, Ron told us that if we wanted to keep the shed, we would need to replace the roof and further support her undercarriage, or risk her inevitable collapse.

Shed avec roof

Once Tim the roofer had finished his task, and Pete had added support posts and beams beneath the shed, it was time to clean out the spider webs and god knows how many years of dust and dirt.

Front of shed

After sweeping about ten times I brought out the tortured vacuum cleaner which has been given a decided rest now that it lives in a home of beautiful plank floors. When it seemed impossible to entice any more decay from between the floor boards I decided to clean it with white paint.

That seemed to keep more dirt at bay....so now the serious decision could be broached...color! 

Now, I am about at the end of my color lives, having chosen no fewer than ten in the past year, and I am in abject fear of running out of color luck. So I decided to take the greatest risk yet - a color that has no place WHATSOEVER in a shed that was built in 1850....sea foam...WHAT?!?

I have gotten THAT color-cocky. I thank my lucky stars that my color shopping days will soon be over because I feel I am a danger to myself at this point....but...

What say you, dear family and friends? Does it not look happier and prouder today? The last few nights I have taken a candleabra out to the shed in the early darkness, placed it on the floor, and admired this sweet little shed like I have never admired it before. It is dearly loved.

Hammonassett State Park

    Last Sunday I decided to take a bike ride to the beach. Now it's a snap to get to the small beach in town - just a small hill over the railroad tracks, a right on Main Street, then the first left... and there you are. 
   But I wanted to ride to the state park over in the next town which boasts one of the most beautiful beaches in the state. I would have to ride through our little town, over the marshes, across a few rivers, pedal into the next town and there I'd be. It seemed like a lovely Sunday outing. The maps told me it was a mere three miles...easy peasy...and so I was off.

     I got to town hall unscathed and crossed over the first bridge ...

 Indian River in Clinton

I passed two yoga studios, three churches, umpteen 18th century homes, some lovely wildflower gardens, a couple of antique shops....then over another bridge,

Harbor on Hammonassett River

then into the next town of Madison and beyond their little ice house,

pedaling through the marsh,

then into the park...

where rose hips on the beach rugosa line the paths,

Brilliance of sumac

and both the roses and golden rods kiss the Sound,

and rocks line some of the coast,

and on others sugary white sand,

and all of this beauty enjoyed from a bike, on a Sunday, in quiet, non-descript little coastal towns.

Happy Trails!

Sweet Little Shed

   Well it has certainly been a long time since I've managed to get anything done around the house because of all the lovely students in the previous post, and though I certainly miss them, I do have the opportunity to once again climb a ladder and paint. So attention is turned to the little shed that we fell in love with on one day one.

And then on day sixteen we were warned by Ron the inspector that if we didn't get a new roof on the little thing, it wouldn't stand much longer. So as much as we loved the moss on the roof, we wanted to save the shed.

Now we thought about doing it ourselves, of course...until we got atop the ladder and noticed the pitch of the roof. And when Tim the roofer arrived, he noted the pitch of the roof was not nearly as dangerous as the many rotted circa 1850 boards beneath the shingles. So we were pleased to hand this job over to someone who could actually do it and survive the experience.

The one thing I could do was paint, so Pete put some trim up around the front windows and I defined them with one of my favorite greens.

And here is the backyard view of the little shed with the rotted boards and shingles removed, and now that I look at this photo I realize that it indeed would have been quite a distance to fall, so many thanks to Tim.

And while Tim worked on the roof, Pete went around looking for a window that was more suitable than the broken storm windows, and of course he found it at our favorite thrift shop.

And I painted them.

And then on the house side there was no window at all, so Pete found the perfect tiny window for that and then added a bit of trim...

...and I painted.

And though we are far far from finished, the sweet little shed has been saved and will now live to see another century. The inside of the shed will undoubtedly pose both the greatest challenge and provide the most pleasure.

I predict paint!

First American Home - My Students' Visit

   I had the sincere pleasure of hosting my international students at sweetlittlehouse this past week. For all, it was their first visit to an 

American's house. I am not able to put into words the beauty of their reactions, so I include snippets from the blogs that they write for me... 

                                        ****************

 After the quiet adventure in the wood, we went to Carrie’s house with great expectation. Carrie has a spacious two storey house with a history of more than 
150 years. On the first floor there is a living room, a guest room and a kitchen. 
The decoration in it leaves me a warm and sweet impression. Outside the house, there is a big courtyard with some huge trees and a variety of flowers and 
vegetables. As far as I am concerned, it is really a wonderful place for people 
to live.     Yi Ming

2014年7月17日星期四

Carrie’s House

      This afternoon, we went on a 3-hour trip to three places: a beach, a forest, and Carrie’s house, and what impressed me most is Carrie’s house.  

       Carrie possesses a very old and spacious two-storeyed house. Carrie told us that it has a history of 150 years. On the first floor are a large kitchen, a bathroom, a guest bedroom, and a very spacious living room. The main bedrooms are on the second floor. The floor is wooden. The rooms are very tidy, clean and very comfortable.

Outside the house, there is a shed, and two big courtyards, on which grow green grass, various kinds of vegetables, and several huge trees as old as the house. The environment is really beautiful!

Guess how much the house costs Carrie? Only about $140, 000 (RMB900,000)！

What a cheap house it is compared to mine in China!

       My husband and I bought a new 3-bedroom apartment last year.Though it is newly built, it is unfurnished, and neither is it as spacious as Carrie’s. And it has no courtyards or shed or big old trees. But it costs my husband and me more than RMB950,000!

                                                     Qiu Xiangling

Thursday, July 17, 2014

This is the lovely, blossoming tree outside our teacher's ancient yet comfortable house. 

I adore the life in great leisure and dream  of owning a house with a cool courtyard and plant the fruit trees and beautiful flowers in it.   Feng Tong

2014年7月18日星

The Art Corner in Carrie's House

The Art Corner in Carrie's House

July 17, 2014

Yesterday we had a wonderful trip to our instructor Carrie's house.

This is a beautiful and cozy house with a large backyard. In the yard there is  a relaxing swing.

When I went into her house,a corner in her living room caught my eye. On the window hangs a bunch of crystal beads with Japanese characters in them.The colors of the beads well matched with the background white color of the curtain, presenting a harmonious atmosphere in the house and showing us

the special artistic taste the owner of

the house has.    Tian Xiangling

                                                             *********************

After we finished our hiking in the wood, we set off for the final destination: Carrie’s house. Carrie was so kind that she invited all of us to her house. The moment I went into the courtyard, my eyes were caught by the bowl of flowers hanging beside the entrance gate which seemed to smile and greet every guest who entered the house, and then I smelt light fragrance, soon I found in front of me a tree blooming with white flowers but behind the fence. On the left there were a lot of flowers whose names I didn’t know. As I stepped forward, I found there was a grape tree on my right side, just under the window of the living room. There were so many different plants in the yard that I find it difficult to focus on just one of them.  What attracted me more is the backyard which I soon found. It was so spacious that it must cover about two basketball courts. What’s more, there are two very tall big trees which provide shade over almost all the backyard. Between the two big trees there is a white super big hammock which is really eye-catching! After we lingered on the backyard and tried the hammock and took pictures with it, we visited Carrie’s house. This house is more than a hundred years old but it’s still in good shape. Carrie displayed everything she had collected and made room like a mini-museum and of course the house is very lovely and comfortable too.  What a wonderful house it is , so close to nature and so fit to live in!      
                                                                           Zhou Juezhi

Summer is the Sun Dance...

...and there's little need for words,

just watch the nasturtiums open

and the squash blossom

or the woodpile lose to the roses

and the late pansies beside the bird bath

or the jumble of the big bed

while the Swiss chard competes with them all

and the hyacinth bean keeps to itself beside the weathered fence

all somehow kept in by the gate

for all of us to enjoy.