Hello dears. Do come right in...There's Spicy Apple Cake in the cake carrier. Won't you have some? It's really good. So glad to know that thirty odd year old memory wasn't faulty and it really is a great recipe. I divided the batter into two loaf pans and made two cakes. I put one in the freezer. I like to have a little something sweet tucked away.
I am bone weary this afternoon. I started my day early-ish and went out early to pick up sticks about the trees. We had some wind and a little rain but not at the same time this past weekend and sticks fell. I noted that the pecan tree out back has dropped every single nut that was on the tree. It was a considerable number and all lying on the ground. They never got ripe enough for the outer green shell to open and let the nuts drop. We'll have nothing off that tree nor the huge old one in the bottom that has flung nuts to the ground as though they were all surplus weight. Sigh.
Remember my saying the first pass had been done on the house? Well, I set to work in the guest room this morning and pass two is apparently on. I had one big black trash bag and a huge stack of stuff for the shed that is about four trips worth and a start on a donation bag. And that was just going on the surface of things! I also packed up another box of books for donation and had six leftover. "I'll just pop them on the bottom shelf of the bookcase in this room," I thought and then I gaped at the packed shelf which is full to the brim with books meant to be donated, sigh. The Women's Club shall be highly blessed by me next Spring. Good lot I've got two extra diaper boxes which are nice and heavy to hold the books and yet keeps the load manageable for my purpose of lifting and carrying.
It wasn't just the guest room that needed work. The whole house needed a going over and some things had to be rearranged as there were problem areas. I now have no rugs in my bath at all because the rolling chair was marking the floor at my desk so the rug which matches the runner in front of the sink is back at the desk. The rolling desk chair was moved to the sewing area of the guest room where it was meant to live anyway and now I've no desk chair unless I move the wooden library chair to the area. I am seriously thinking I no longer want that library chair. It's so...well it's just plain lacquered wood and sort of a yellowish wood at that and doesn't really fit with anything in the house. It's also fine and all for seating for a few minutes but rather painful thereafter. John would not care to have it painted I don't think. He does have an opinion on the household décor and will put his oar right in if I bother to ask his opinion. Which is why I came home with no new dishes at all yesterday when they were on sale for such a good price...He didn't care for the ones I wanted and I didn't care for the ones he liked so we agreed to buy no dishes at all!
I had to stop several times today and each time I did I looked about me with a general air of dissatisfaction. Empty space to be filled here, overcrowded space there, things that really ought to go out as they don't suit me all over...I got rather peevish. And quite tired. And upset my husband who is not ready to hire a skip though I keep piling stuff on the back porch and have things stacked in the guest room which must go out. Then poor Bess called and got quite an earful of my irritations with the house in general, as well as with my husband's feeling we should wait, and then I apologized to her because she is essentially living in a space only a little more large than my great room.
I really over did it today and I let my frustrations get the best of me on top of being over tired. But heaven help me if we do ever in this life have reason to buy another house and I don't check to see that it has more than three closets! Really I should say two, as the music room closet is filled with John's things and has nothing at all to do with the household stuff.
We had a lovely day Friday, going to Warm Springs for a stroll around The Little White House and then to The Bulloch House for a late lunch. Even though it was hot outdoors, the humidity was decreased considerably and we walked from the museum to the cottage without even glistening. I took a few photos in the kitchen. It's such a simple cottage, quite small really, just five small rooms and an entry hallway. One of the rooms and baths belonged to the secretary. Just off the dining part of the main living room is the President's bedroom and a small Jack & Jill bath that separates his and Eleanor's bedroom. Then you walk into the hallway once more and out the door. There's a lovely half circle awning covered patio off the main living area. Quite small, simple and almost rustic and a place where not only FDR lived for weeks at a time but also where dignitaries and great political figures came to meet with him.
But as I said, I took pictures of the homier side of things this time, like the kitchen:
The gas stove is so small compared to many of the wood stoves I've seen in simple farmhouses. It's downright slim lined and feminine. I confess a secret wish to have such a stove. It won't fit my kitchen and I must be practical about things that fit but I'd love to have a little stove like this one. Interestingly I found a site that had excerpts from letters written at Warm Springs and FDR mentions in one that Eleanor had gone to Atlanta to buy the appliances.
The door to the left of the stove leads to the back porch. Of course the ice box was on the back porch. They'd opened the doors on it and it really was a nice model. There was a dark iron sink to the immediate right of this stove. It had a lovely wooden drainboard that was polished and beautiful.
To the right of the sink was a set of open shelves on the wall with breadboxes and toaster and coffee pots sitting upon it.
I'd love that bread box...sigh. I went to eBay and found a similar one. It would only set me back about $80, shipping and all. I might want it but I won't pay that for it.
I did wonder if the items there in the kitchen were merely representative of what they had in the house or if they were originals. I'm inclined to believe the coffee pot and toaster were originals as they were encased in glass boxes and locked down to the shelf. The bread box was just sitting out in the open.
In the museum was this breakfast tray set with Royal Copenhagen dishes.
Just look at those woven placemats under the basket.
There was a Butler's pantry just off the kitchen, quite small, but filled with the prettiest cornflower rimmed china plates. There were cobalt blue glasses to go with that set and then another set of floral china with amber glasses. Sigh. Homemaking dreams!
You can see more photos of the house here and watch a YouTube video here.
I love this little place. The house is just a cottage really. It's not fancy, but it's homey and small. I likely wouldn't be too happy with that kitchen in the end. There's not counter space to speak of and it's paneled in the same dark wood that is in the rest of the house. I picture a bare bulb in the ceiling as the sole light aside from the row of windows above the sink but I confess I failed to look to see how the room was lighted. The house has a peaceful feeling overall.
The Little White House is not called by that name because it was the president's home. It's called so because the name is descriptive of the place. It's a 'little white house." It was built long before FDR had presidential aspirations.
The patio furniture is now in the museum. It's rustic wood with cane woven seats. You can catch a glimpse of it in the YouTube video above.
These two quilts were displayed in the museum. I don't recall seeing those before. One was made in Oklahoma and I'm showing it off for Dee, Rhonda and Karla who all live there and read here. The needlework on these two quilts is beautiful, truly beautiful. The quilts hang from a dowel and there's a glass panel in front of them so you can't touch them unless you are well over six feet or so in height.
At the museum we took time to watch the film about Roosevelt narrated by Walter Cronkite. Listening to that voice was a trip down childhood memories lane. My dad watched the CBS news every week night with Walter Cronkite. I had one of the rare memories of feeling that all was right with the world as I listened to him narrate the film.
Political affiliations don't really come in with this President when you realize how he affected my world. The Rural Electrification Act came into being because of Roosevelt's shock at his first electric bill on his first trip to Warm Springs. It was four times higher than what he paid for his Hyde Park estate in New York! If you saw how small the cottage he eventually built was, and realize that the cottage he originally rented was only a little larger than his own small custom built home, you'd know how utterly ridiculous electric costs were in rural areas. Roosevelt visited farms in the rural areas about Georgia and enjoyed getting to know the farmers and people. He was determined that electricity should be as much their privilege as it was for city dwellers. Even so, it was 1957 before my grandparents got electricity here on this farm.
The WPA and CCC were just two of several groups meant to employ young men in the depression era. My grandfather joined the WPA and went to work in South Carolina building a road. It's how he met my Grandmother.
Were you aware that FDR invented the first hand controlled automobile or that it was because of his purchasing the Warm Springs resort, which later became the Roosevelt Institute, that Eddie Cantor began trumpeting the cause of children with polio that the March of Dimes was started?
John and I had a lovely time. We talked all morning long and we enjoyed our visit to Warm Springs. We had lunch at our favorite spot there, though I noted three new eateries in town on the square. The original house was a lovely old Edwardian home but burned to the ground in the summer of 2015. They bought an old store building on the main square and made it into the restaurant. We haven't ever eaten in the galley area on the second floor, but I'll bet it's lovely.
The menu is pretty much the same each time and they are well known for their buffet and old-fashioned desserts. It's heavy on the Southern country cooking side but it is good. And since I, a Southern country woman, seldom cook from my own heritage it's about the only time we get some of those foods, lol.
John took a picture of me as we entered the last section of The Little White House. Show of hands from those of you who cringe inwardly when you know your picture is being taken? I smiled for John and said "Cheese" as he asked and I let it stand. Later he showed it to me and he saw the grimace that I made. "But it's a great picture!" "But I don't look the way I feel..." "But you look great! I've got pictures of you on this phone that show how much you've changed just since Christmas..." and he proceeded to show me a video of myself and Josh riding the carousel at Bass Pro last year when we went to do Santa pictures. True. I can see the weight I've lost since then. I know that I move more freely, indeed had felt the increase in strength since even that video. John took the video because he knew how much more agile I was than I'd been the year before.
I thought back over the years of the photos taken of me and there were two that I honestly liked. Two. I sought back in memory and came up against a picture of me at age 5 that made me cringe then and makes me cringe now remembering it. There I stand wearing a dress that is a little too snug and a bit too short with frizzy permed hair and a big green bow in the midst of the mess of hair. I hated the hair, hated that Mama insisted on perming it. I liked the dress but knew it was all wrong for me. From 5 to 59, there I am, cringing still when pictures are taken.
I hate pictures of me because they seldom show me as I know I feel. I know when I feel attractive (and how often does anyone on God's earth snap a photo when you feel you are at your best?!), how young I feel, how I suppose me to be, from the outside in and then I see a picture and I wonder, "Lord, do I always look like that?!" "Will I never have the right clothes?" "Do I always hold my hand in that manner?" "Didn't I see that that shirt was all wrong at the time I bought it?"
There are a few photos of me in this house. One of them is attractive. None of them reveal the 'me' I feel myself to be, but they are there for someone to look at in the future and say "Oh that's Mama..." or "There's Gramma!". Do you know what I'd like? I'd like for the camera to see the me that Josh saw the night I returned from Jd's and he spontaneously cried out "Oh Mama, look! Gramma's home and she's...Oh Mama isn't she pretty?!" That's what I want, for the camera to capture the me that is loved. Instead I see the me I always fear I am: too large, too gray, too mussy, not quite as attractive as she thinks she is.
Does John see that? Obviously he looks at the photo with the same love Josh looked at me with the night I came home. He cropped the photo to fit a profile picture for my number on the phone. He's quite pleased over it and I shall not make a fuss. But yeah...Me and photos are not good friends.
Which may be why I am so eternally puzzled at the current generation of youth with their selfies. I have tried and tried to take a selfie and I just don't do well with them at all. Ugh and ugh, lol. Now and then I get a photo that I will deem acceptable and I'll update a profile picture but mostly I just stay away from being on camera.
I'm not a photographer either. I see things that I think are lovely and I try to capture them with my camera lens but too often the light is off, the photo is fuzzy, the colors are garish rather than lovely. I see beauty but I cannot capture it. Katie on the other hand has been taking stunning photos forever. She sees, she shoots, she has a beautiful photo to show for it.
Ah well, cameras and I just don't fit together.
The weather was, as I mentioned, quite warm, but less humid and therefore pleasant. Even more pleasant with the AC on in the car mind you! But the views were nice. A tree with red tucked among the green. Golden rod bending gracefully over the roadsides and just beginning to bloom. A breeze that tossed leaves tumbling to the ground about us. A hickory tree covered with hundreds of green nuts. Big fat acorns on the ground under our feet as we walked across the pavement...those were the signs of autumn we saw on Friday.
After Shabat that evening, I turned to John as we carried bread and glasses into the kitchen. I pointed to the windows, "John...Look how dark it is now." Immediately I heard Katie, just a year older than Josh at the time, arguing with me. "Mommy it's not dark out here! Just come outside and see. Let me stay out a little longer!" And I would go to the door and stand there and see that it wasn't quite dark but almost so. Funny how that little girl's memory visits me so often.
Sam helped with my argument to lose the satellite service when he called Sunday evening and told John he gets 50 channels with his new antenna nearly all of them local to us...and would happily have John watch any future games on his Sling app which receives several ESPN channels. John sighed as he told him he guessed it was time to turn the satellite off. Funny that he is still so reluctant because for the past two weeks all the programming he's watched has been on either Amazon Prime or Netflix.
Well dears, I shall end here. It's been lovely to sit and chat a bit and rest but supper will be wanted by one very tired man here in a bit. He's been mowing grass today. It didn't really need it but he thought he'd just go on and do it anyway. I do believe the season is truly winding down on mowing and I for one am quite glad. Lovely to have such a green summer but it will be lovelier still to have my husband free of the job until next March or thereabout.
12 comments:
We have never taken a good selfie. I am not sure what the trick is but we have not figured it out! We always look like a pair of dogs. :)
I cannot ever take a good selfie. The grandkids like to take them with me, so I do, usually cropping out half my face.
Snapchat filters are fun and erase the wrinkles. LOL.
And how many closets did that little house of the President's have? LOL I thought it fun that even in such a tiny space she had two different china sets! My kind of women ! I would have thought they would have had a bigger rambling place like in that last movie of Henry Fonda/'s and Katherine Hepburn.'s. Oh I forget its name. but That to me is a vacation retreat! Space for company and room to roam outside too. I am reading a book on Theadore Roosevelt and those earlier Roosevelt's sure had a swanky retreat! The book is Mornings On Horseback by David McCullough and I Very Highly recommend it for a good read about the Roosevelts and the future president. I learned a lot about our earlier government and those times too. Sarah
Before I had eye surgery my husband took a very very close picture of my bare face. Wow! I could not even imagine looking more goulash. Really. Very Scary!! Talk about wrinkles and eye bags!! :-))) Sarah
I enjoyed your post today. I, too, don't like pictures of myself. The only reason I even allow pics to be taken with me in them during the holidays is so that my kids and grandson can look back on them someday and remember me. I have some pictures of myself in my blog for the same reason.
I have never even taken a selfie , but if I ever do, I can pretty much guarantee that you won't ever see me doing a selfie either making duck lips or sticking my tongue out like a lot of the young girls like to do these days. What is that about, anyway? I must be too dang old to know.
At least I am not alone in the photo zone, lol. John and I take an annual selfie when we are at the beach. These photos tend to turn out quite nice. I'm assuming because we are so happy to be there, feel the lift of burdens etc...and they are ALL head shots, which soothes me as well, lol.
Sarah, I read that Eleanor was seldom in Georgia and then rarely for more than one night. She did not like it here, but from the history I've read there was always some sort of company at the place. FDR did like the area quite well, purchased 1200 acres including the Warm Springs resort which became the Roosevelt Rehabilitation Institute for which he tirelessly raised funds and planned the buildings of the area, including an enclosed winter pool.
Did the women choose the two sets of china? I've no idea. I am researching this subject and have had fun digging into historical data. I've ordered an autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt to begin the hard core part of study, and shall expand upon it from there.
Oh yes! I counted a closet in the kitchen, another in the living room, one in each bedroom and one in the hallway which contained household linens in addition to the built in buffet of cabinets in the Butler's pantry! Small closets I'm sure but closets just the same.
We will surely miss all the closets in this house when we finally downsize. We have closets galore and they are not small but 5 feet across and and full of shelves.
OH lady, I hear your frustration about the closets. We have only had three closets in our house too for a long time - all are actually bedroom closets. So when we had to have our bathroom repaired some years back where a drunk driver hit the corner where our garden tub was, we got permission from the insurance company to replace the garden tub with a storage closet with shelves. And it is MARVELOUS!!! We were able to get rid of our monthly rented storage unit thanks to that drunk guy! LOL
I do take okay photos but I take terrible selfies - like my brain is incapable of telling my face what to do if I'm the one taking my own photo. LOL It's funny though because I had the same conversation with Brad today that you had with John - I sent him a selfie of me wearing a pair of sunglasses he bought that got shipped to my work. I wanted him to see what they looked like because he was worried he'd look silly. His reply was - there's my sexy, bad*** lady. LOL I said I felt neither sexy nor bad*** but I was so happy he saw me that way.
Your day in Warm Springs is exactly the thing I LOVE to do. I love museums, especially house versions. That town sounds so quaint. Thank you for sharing the OKLAHOMA quilt with us Okie girls! It's lovely.
Did you know that during WWII, President Roosevelt made a secret trip to Oklahoma to inspect war planes that were made in the Douglas Aircraft plant in Tulsa? Now you do! During that trip, he spent the night at Camp Gruber here in Oklahoma as well which used to be an infantry training camp and was also a German POW camp. I love my state and I could go on and on. LOL
I was able to get a free pair of tickets to any museum of my choice from the Smithsonian site for this Saturday and Brad and I are going to go explore the Oklahoma History Museum. It's one of my favorites.
You mentioned photos and closets. That is the best place to get a pic of me, a dark closet! LOL. One of my favorite things is house museums. My son lives in Gettysburg where the Eisenhowers retired. Really surprised at how simple a home they had for their retirement home. We have a "mansion"in our town that was the home of one of our NY governors and it is much bigger and a lot more elaborate than the Eisenhower home. Love tp go there for the Christmas decorations. Gramma D
Thank you for that lovely Oklahoma quilt photo. I love quilts!
We are blessed with storage space in this house, in large part due to a change of mind with the former owners/builders. Originally the staircase was meant to be in the entry but they changed their minds and moved it elsewhere. They then turned that area into a huge closet with floor to ceiling shelves along one side and across the back. The downside to lots of storage is we tend to fill it up. One of my winter projects is to get rid of about 1/3 of that closet's contents.
I'm totally with you on being photographed. I'm naturally photogenic, or WAS until I put on so much weight. Now I cringe when I see pictures myself. :(
Karla, it is my proposal if we ever redo our bathroom to take out the step up small shower with a bigger walk-in, elder friendly shower (thinking of those later years down the road). I want to turn the current shower into a walk-in closet OR put a stackable washer dryer there and then turn the laundry 'closet' into a pantry and move all the food out of the guest room closet. I have bigger plans than John. I might well get the walk-in shower one day but not likely going to have the laundry moved and I'll have to fight to get the closet as well!
Dee, I think you take lovely photos! You always look so comfortable with yourself. I have a very had time relaxing and looking natural which might be why we only get good photos while we're at the beach! What I lack in indoor storage is why I have a 10X20 shed in the backyard. I hate having so much stuff that I require a shed...and by the same token, I have absolutely nowhere to store the things I really do want to keep and use like floral picks for various seasons, wreaths, Christmas stuff and chotsky items that I rotate in and out of décor. I mean to get out there and clean out the thing as soon as it cools down enough to stand. I don't need it all. Some things just need to go away.
Dora and Karla, I like 'house' museums best too. I've visited Hay House in Macon and it's a lovely Italianate style with a ball room etc. And here's the governor of New York and later a president of the United States living in what is basically a four room cabin in west Georgia. I have a feeling even his Hyde Park home wasn't half as fancy as the Hay House in Macon. It does make me wonder if the family who built that house in Macon still have their money. I'll just bet the Roosevelts have theirs. It's the economy of living I think that shows true wealthy folks. Roosevelt's purpose in purchasing acreage here was to show that a farm could operate at profit while growing food crops instead of relying heavily on cotton. Most of it is now FDR state park and has preserved timber and woodlands and lakes for posterity.
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