An Afternoon By the Sea

His Madness and I recently got back from visiting our son Andy and his wife Kristin. Unfortunately, I picked up a very nasty bug (probably covid, since it lasted so long) on the way home and haven't been able to keep up the daily antics of The Skeleton Crew this October. Hopefully, they will be back soon before spooky season is over. Until then, here are some photos of an afternoon spent by some foolish mortals at The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. 

Since they live in the Boston area, we drove to Newport, Rhode Island to visit The Breakers one afternoon. It is the largest and most grand of the summer "cottages" where HBO's "The Gilded Age" was filmed. I haven't actually seen the series but now I'm curious. Here's HM and Andy, stoically facing the prospect of having  to look at many fancy rooms covered with lots of marble. Kristin is a teacher, so she was at school.  

 

The guide book states that it is an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo built as a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America. I think they made their point. This is the Great Hall, it's the largest of the seventy rooms and essentially a fifty-foot square, marble-clad cube. This one room alone, is twenty-five percent larger than the average family home in Rhode Island.

Obviously, these people weren't into minimalism.

To describe this place as opulent seems like an understatement.

Looking directly across the Great Hall, into the loggia, from the second floor. It appeared to be a very popular spot. 

Until we showed up and then somehow the whole place was empty, ha!

What a view, though.

Lots of sparkling chandeliers. Wonder how long it takes to clean them?

 

The dining room, with a table that opens up to seat thirty-four guests.

I wonder if the Vanderbilt's considered it rude if their guests spent more time staring at the ceiling instead of engaging in polite dinner conversation?

Unfortunately, the giant fireplaces were all roped off so I couldn't get a photo of HM and Andy standing inside them. You can take a virtual tour of the whole residence here.

"Below Stairs" (aka. the basement), there was an equally large kitchen which was necessary to feed all those dinner guests who weren't staring at the ceiling. It's in a separate wing of the mansion, a precaution that was not unusual at the time, since the original Breakers was destroyed in a fire. 

I suppose all these kinds of mansions have really bougie Butler's Pantries and they're just not open to the public, but this was the first one I've ever seen with a mezzanine. It was accessible from the kitchen on the lower level and the upper area opened onto the floor near the dining room.

Exiting through the Gift Shop was an opulent experience, too. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that it would occupy several rooms and they would have entire sets of china for sale.

Gertrude Whitney was the fourth child of the seven Vanderbilt children. She became a noted sculptor and the founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Two of her bronze relief sculptures, "Blinded" and "America at War" were recently installed in the area near the exit of the tour. In 1914 she established a hospital for wounded soldiers outside Paris which made her one of only a few American sculptors to experienced of the horrors of World War I firsthand. 

  

The gardens surrounding the mansions are nice but the view of the ocean is the star of the show. Somehow we always miss out on the fall foliage in New England but there were a few colorful trees here and there.

The Cliff Walk National Recreation Trail runs along the shoreline in front of The Breakers from Easton's Beach to Bailey's Beach for three and a half miles. Unlike the mansion, it is free.

It was a beautiful day so we explored about half a mile of the trail. There are parts that are wheelchair friendly and some that are closed for repairs but we were on a less accessible part of the path and even that was an easy walk. It was a fun and entertaining little day trip.

Thanks for stopping by, The Skeleton Crew will be back soon for some silly spookiness.

We are keeping our friends, family and all of those affected by Helene and Milton in our thoughts.

Hope everyone made it through the storms safely.

Shopping for the Sparrows and Pumpkins

A flock of sparrows turned up at our pond a couple weeks ago and have been having the best time ever. In spite of their bad reputation, they don't seem to be bothering the other birds, even the pair of cardinals, who barely tolerate us humans. 

As soon as anyone takes a step out of the patio they all fly away, so all these photos were taken through a screen, with various degrees of success.  

The sparrows were enjoying themselves so much they were falling into the pond and had to be rescued. Burt and Kib decided the pile of rocks that made up their "island" needed an upgrade to a larger, more smooth surface.

This was also a good excuse to check out the Halloween stuff at Target. His Madness, wondered if he might look good in this full body skeleton costume. Others thought not.

However, everyone agreed that this unbelievably, seasonably appropriate, marble pumpkin was the perfect addition to Sparrow Island.

Burt volunteered to hang around to make sure it stopped the birds from falling in.

Which it did.

Meanwhile, in another part of the backyard, the real pumpkins were having problems of their own.

There's no shortage of culprits. Something, either chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, possums or probably all of them at one time or another, have been sampling our future jack-'o'lanterns.

Not to be outdone by Burt and Kibitz, Ivy found a gnome (and her doppelgänger) to bring good luck to the pumpkins or, more likely, scare the guilty parties away. Whatever works, it's another garden problem solved. Let's hope it will it be as effective a solution as the marble pumpkin. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

Pumpkins

 

It's the end of summer and it's time to see what the garden got up to while we were ignoring it.

First of all, the pumpkins launched a complete takeover.

They were joined by some of their uninvited relatives.

Aided and abetted by the very creatures we gave up a somewhat orderly garden to protect.  

At least we didn't have to mow the lawn.

Elsewhere, new, non-pumpkin vines appeared out of nowhere.

Between the mild winter and a hot, rainy summer even the older plants grew beyond normal.

Fortunately, it is possible to make it down the path without losing any arms or legs.

Next year, the tomatoes are going to be planted in pots.

Ones that can be moved far, far away from the pumpkins.

Best wishes for a safe and happy Labor Day weekend to all those who celebrate.

 See you soon, and thanks for stopping by!

Heat, Rain & Stars in the Garden

 

So how is everyone's summer going? It's been hot and rainy in our neck of the woods and we're getting a little bored with being inside all of the time. At least the AC is working.

The flowers seem to be very happy.

Ivy's loves the hot weather so she's been camping out on the patio, researching ideas for this year's spooky season. Halloween is only 96 days away and will be here before we know it! 

Burt's been practicing his scare techniques.

The pumpkins are still trying to attract pollinators.

On one of the vines there is a tiny pumpkin starting to grow. Unless the seeds got mixed up, then it might be a squash.

His Madness and I went out for a walk last night to look for the northern lights. We didn't see anything resembling the aurora borealis but we did notice about a dozen meteors! There's one in the upper right hand corner of this photo, the white streak that looks like a backward comma.    

Looks like Ivy has forgiven Burt for interrupting her shopping. Maybe they should try looking for the northern lights tonight, visibility is supposed to be best between 2am and 4am. I'm definitely going to give it a pass. 

Thanks for stopping by!

See you soon. 

Ten Years of Silliness

 

Ten years ago today, I started this blog as a way to stay in touch with my Mom. She had moved into an assisted living facility where she could get therapy for osteoporosis and the daily help she needed to compensate for her failing eyesight and hearing. Since her new home was a five hour drive from where I lived, we had to figure out a way to communicate without just shouting into the phone. Luckily, the staff were equipped with iPads to help the residents connect with their families. Mom wasn't a fan of FaceTime so I decided to try sending her big photos in a blog form. She always liked my garden so on the last day of June in 2014 I published four photos of plants in our very soggy backyard. It never dawned on me just how long I might keep this blog going!

One of her caregivers asked me to use a unique name so she wouldn't have to scroll through lots of entries to find it, plus Calamitous Botanicus sounded more cheerful than Unfortunate Botanicals. The name was actually inspired by the crabapple tree in our backyard. In springtime one side blooms in pink and the other half is white. It's just two (or possibly more) separate trees that just happened to be growing close enough together to look like one. The most plausible theory for the two colors is that it's a pink flowering tree that was grafted onto the root stock of a white one. At some point a shoot started from the roots and voila, you end up with a twofer.

It's grown quite a bit taller in the past decade and we're happy it's flourishing. There's nothing really calamitous about it, though occasionally the two sides do bloom at different times.

Realizing I couldn't just keep posting photos of flowers and butterflies, I started looking around the internet for inspiration and came across an adorable blog called A Fanciful Twist. Vanessa, its creator, had been hosting an Alice in Wonderland party for several years, and I realized that was also a place where Mom's caregiver could find other blogs. I tentatively asked Nick, my hubby, if he would possibly agree to dress up as the Mad Hatter so I could take some photos for a post. I never actually expected him to enjoy playing The Mad Hatter, let alone become him. When he put on the top hat, he was completely transformed into His Madness. Maybe he really is this alternate personality and Nick is just a disguise?

It wasn't long before madness spread to the whole family.

After Mad Hedge Trimming, there was no going back.

No content lasts forever. As golden leaves gently swirled in a late summer breeze, Target stocked their shelves with Halloween decor and I was saved. Who knew a plastic skeleton named Burt would end up in my cart? Mom didn't care much for him but he got along great with His Madness.

The following year Burt made friends with Kibitz.

Fast forward to 2017 and Ivy joined The Skeleton Crew. Finally, I had an alter ego, too.

As frightening as it looks, they were just wishing Stephen King a happy birthday and showing off a spectacular harvest of cherry tomatoes. Thanks to the fabulous blogger, Marfi at Marfi-topia, creator of Haunted Humpdays and where The King's birthday was always a reason to party; Calamitous Botanicus turned into a year-round celebration of spookiness. 

Eventually, Stewart tentatively got in on the action.

Although, Spenser obviously had his doubts.

We have been plugging along for ten years now, coming alive-ish more in the fall and October but trying to show up every month or so. There's no real message here except to go ahead and be yourself, it's okay to be spooky, have fun and act silly all year round. Whether your mother approves or not!

You can always start wearing a top hat. Stay spooky, see you soon.

A belated Happy Pride Month to everyone who celebrates!

Thank you so much for stopping by.