A 'WILD' week~

Just a week or so ago we saw a big black bear in our yard, right outside our window, and I told you it was the first bear I have seen since I moved to New Hampshire 15 years ago.
I always wanted to see a moose too, since everyone here seems to have seen many, as well as have at least one 'moose story'.
I never did...Until last evening!

An adolescent moose casually walked out of the wooded lot next door in broad daylight, crossed our little stream and strolled right toward the twig arbor we built in our FRONT YARD!  It was dinner time, and we left our plates and ran to the window. Big brown eyes watched us from only about 5 feet away for a minute or so.
Thankfully this was not a 2000 pound bull moose, but a pretty young thing. By the time we gathered our wits and the camera, Adam was able to get off this one photo of her as she turned to meander back across the stream and into the trees~

After 15 years, TWO big 'wildlife' experiences in one week! I was delighted---our own sometimes-zoo right in our yard~

The moose who almost came to dinner?!

A nice week~

School was out and Adam hadn't started a couple part time jobs for the summer yet, so last week he was home and it was quite a week! Our customers-turned-new-friends from Arizona had come the Friday before and spent the day with us. The lunch I made was amazing if I do say so (see a previous post on this), and we had a fantastic time. We can't wait for them to come back to New England and see us again.
We did have 2 days of absolutely beastly hot weather---almost 100 degrees, and it was just too hot to do anything but close the interior shutters, turn on a fan, and sit around. We had some sales on our website, and I have a commission to make an 18thc. wig for a delightful lady in France, and will start that shortly.
Some of the things we sold on the site were our own personal antiques, and serendipitously, we lucked into a couple of great early pieces to replace them this past week! That was a happy surprise, because it can take months and months, or years sometimes for that wonderful "just-the-thing" to find you.
We have also just added a few more items for sale to our OFFERINGS page---truly wonderful early things that have been in our own personal collection for years.

On Friday, we went down to one of our most favorite places, Ipswich Mass. It was another too-hot day, so we didn't stay long. We wanted to get home with our 'new' antique treasures and 'play', which is exactly what we did! We had fun moving furniture and setting up the new pieces and then accenting them with our old candlesticks, pottery, pewter, and the like.

We had also sold the crewel panels and bolster that I had made for our bed, and I had the "forever" fabric remnants I lucked into to make myself new ones, so I got one bed curtain made to see how it looked. The fabric is stunning and perfect---a jacobean print with birds, vines, and flowers in lovely colors on a cream ground. When you collect 17thc. antique furniture, you have a lot of brown, and we also have painted the woodwork in our 18thc. home a period brown color. The hand hewn ceiling beams too are brown, as are the old pine floors, so we wanted to add a little color by way of textiles. The tester canopy cloth and bedspread on our 17thc. English bed are olive linsey woolsey, so I chose this beautiful fabric for the bed curtains. It has much of the same olive color, and looks just fantastic!  I will finish up the rest of the bed curtain panels this week and hang them.

Another thing we did this week was to update the TOUR page of our website with a lot of new photos of the interior of our house. We'll be adding more in the next few weeks, but we finished updating the lion's share of it.

One of the pieces we lucked into last week is a beautiful small chest of drawers to replace a court cupboard in our dining room that recently sold. It dates to 1680, and has those wonderful applied geometric moldings and 'teardrop' pulls. Photos of it in our dining room are now up on our TOUR page, but I am sharing one 'peek' here~You can click on the photo to visit our website.

All in all it was a week of fun adventures doing things we both love to do. We also had a chance to go for several many-mile-long bike rides on our tandem bicycle. We made a few really yummy recipes as well---a homemade wheat crust pizza  with fresh tomato, prosciutto, mozzarella, basil, and arugula. A homemade colonial lemon pie, grilled fresh salmon patties on crusty rolls with homemade aioli, and potato and greens torta, just to name a few...

This coming Saturday is our wedding anniversary High Tea! We have had our reservations at the elegant tea room in an old house in Maine for many weeks now, and my new gown a la francais and all accessories and fripperies are in readiness. We can't wait to dress in 18thc. high style for our big day! After having tea, we plan to drive over to the 18thc. Hamilton House museum in Maine, not far away, and stroll the beautiful grounds in our period finery! All we need now is a lovely sunny summer day for our outing~

The 18thc. Hamilton House, South Berwick Maine. We plan to stroll the grounds in our period attire next weekend~

I can't wait to wear my new gown and dazzle Adam on our anniversary outing, and there will be more period dress up events this summer as well.
Last July we had everyone abuzz at the Parsonfield Tea when we arrived in 18thc. elegance. This year, the event is again in mid-July and we'll be there again. I will of course wear this new sacque gown, and the fanciest hat, complete with blush ostrich feathers. Adam will debut for the first time his c. 1760 silk suit with flowered silk embroidered waistcoat which the tailor, Chris will have finished by then.

Fireflies, and a big black bear~

Last Sunday morning at dawn we were awakened by a crash. Adam sleepily said "I wonder what that was". I knew instantly that it was the sound of my bird feeder outside the dining room windows crashing to the stone stoop below.
Just a week before I had found the feeder lying on the ground, seeds all over the place and assumed a squirrel or one of the seemingly thousands of chipmunks we seem to have had somehow managed to knock it down. I never mentioned it, and forgot about it.
Adam jumped out of bed. It was 4 AM, and night was gone leaving the grey haze of dawn. He said, "Honey, COME HERE! There's a bear looking at me through the window!" I flew out of bed. In the 15 years I have lived here I often joked that I had never seen those New Hampshire staples, a bear or a moose!
Sure enough, a big black bear was on all fours standing inches from our windows and us! We just stared. Finally Adam grabbed the camera, but the flash bounced off the window, and we couldn't get a shot---it was still just a little too dim. It had finished off whatever seed was in the feeder and began to meander toward the raised bed gardens and the stream. I noticed the poor thing was limping badly---one rear leg seemed injured in some way. He walked calmly and slowly on the narrow path  between the 2 raised beds never disturbing them, crossed our little stream, and disappeared into the woods.
Now, this is still a neighborhood, and those woods back up to other houses. I had heard a tale a couple years ago, that neighbors at the post office and coming out of the Chat N' Chew dropped their mail and their jaws at the sight of a black bear lumbering down Main Street in the the middle of a summer afternoon, but I hadn't seen it.

At long last I have seen my first real bear---and just when I had told Adam I would love for him to take me to Clark's Trading Post to see the cheesy-but-charming trained bear show, with several bears doing tricks.  I can't say it was a thrill to have one in my yard, 4 inches from the house, especially when we have 2 very tiny dogs, but I felt kind of sorry for the hungry, lame old thing...
(I still would like to go to Clarks...)

The covered bridge at Clark's Trading Post~

One of the trained bears at Clark's Trading Post~

Last night we fell into bed exhausted at about 11. Adam had gone to Massachusetts to pick up a piece of inventory, and it was a long ride there and back late in the day. As we lay in bed, Adam noticed a soft, diffused and unusual light that seemed to be up high, but flashing on and off at intervals through the panes of wavy glass at the front of the house, and giving our bedroom an eerie glow. It seemed almost greenish in hue, and he snickered and said, "What the heck is that? D'ya think it's a UFO?" We got up, and there was one lone firefly clinging to a pain of window glass on the outside, rhythmically flashing it's light in the soft summer dark.
I was quietly delighted and I smiled in wonder.  In all the years I have lived in New Hampshire, I never saw fireflies. I wondered if they had them here.

When I lived in the midwest, I would see literally a living sea of millions of fireflies over the dark Illinois prairies. I was always entranced. Once, when I was driving home alone on a hot black 4th of July night from an antique show I had done in St. Louis, I stopped and pulled my dusty old van off to the side of the quiet country road. I was mesmerized; I stood leaning against it, listening to the comforting summer night sounds, and watching waves of uncountable numbers fireflies blink on and off---My own private fireworks show, and the best.

My stunning new sacque back gown and another 18thc. straw hat~

My new gown is a sacque back, or gown a la francais style with a compere stomacher, scalloped sleeve ruffles, yards of handmade ruched trim and bow detail on sleeves with a pearl ornamentation on each sleeve. There is another ruffle under the silk sleeve ruffle of cream English embroidered netting lace. The fabric is a period correct 100% silk stripe in shades of ballet pink, soft green, and cream.

 Coming soon~ An 18thc. 'fashion photo shoot' of me in my new gown...but here's a 'sneak peek'!

The most wonderful, charming pocket inside the gown bodice! My dear husband Adam's name is embroidered on it! This was the perfect suprise touch for a gown I would be wearing at our 5th wedding anniversary tea.

I just made myself another hat so that I have the option of a different look. I can add a cream lace neckerchief that I have, along with a nosegay pin I made to give the gown another look, but I also wanted a hat that was just slightly less formal looking as another option.
I do so love my 18thc. wide brim, low crown straw hats, so I just decorated one using scraps of lace and fabric leftover from the gown, blush silk ribbon I already had, and up in the attic I found a bag of leftovers from our wedding decorations, with some rose buds and petals, as well as some pearls I used awhile back on a different hat. Without spending a dime I was able to make the hat pictured here in under an hour~

I can wear the gown sometimes with this ivory lace neckerchief and the nosegay I made pinned to the bodice to hold it in place~

UPDATE~ You can see more of my beautiful new 18thc. gown HERE~

One perfect New England summer day~

Yesterday was a great day. We were delighted to welcome our  'kindred spirit' customers from Arizona, and share a perfect New England summer day here with them. This morning we woke up to this email~

"Hi Mary and Adam, oh my gosh what a perfect day! It was so much fun meeting you both and touring your fantastic home! In every room we entered we could feel the love and care you have brought to this lovely home! And it is truly a home not just a house set up like a museum. The lunch...no words. It was not only the best food we have had on the trip, we both agree that it was the best lunch we have had in years. The scenery along the quaint country roads was beautiful especially the old graveyards. Thanks so much for taking the time to make our visit so special. This day has been the highlight of our trip. Love, Sue and Mary."

flowers from our yard welcomed our guests~

The Strawberry tart in a fresh lavender crust

Waiting for our company to arrive

dressed up doggies

Sue with me and Sasha on her leash at the old 'Graves Cemetary' out on Phineas Graves road, and yes, we were all snickering at the sign...Only old yankees don't see the silliness in this!

Sue with Adam and Deladis in the 1778 Effingham Town Pound

The lobster shortcake was fabulous, so was the tomato basil pie~

Lunch was just the best. We practically licked the plates.

Our guests and me...with Sasha. We hope we gave them a memorable New England experience!

A New England summer lunch and day with friends~

This is a busy and exciting week. We have a customer from out west who purchased several large antiques from us a few months ago. She has a great love of New England and was planning a vacation here in June, so she arranged to pick up her treasures then. She and I have become friends on the phone, having so many things in common and a lot of the same 'historical' loves and passions.
She has now arrived in Massachusetts, her first stop, with her lady friend and traveling companion.  We had invited both of them to come up here to visit us this Friday. We told them we would give them a nice tour of the house and make them a wonderful New England lunch, and that after eating and loading up her purchases we would take them out for a ride for the afternoon to some of our most favorite old New Hampshire places very close to our own 18thc. home. These are not tourist destinations and none of them cost anything. They are rather little-known pockets of an older, untouched New Hampshire where time seems to have stood still. Some of these places I have blogged about in earlier posts. We think they will like them too.
We hope to give them the best day of their New England vacation.

I have the menu all planned for lunch, and on Saturday we did our bi-weekly grocery shopping. We eat very healthily but economically, but decided a little splurge for our company lunch was in order. I am making my own Lobster Shortcake and a  Tomato Basil Pie for the main course, and a Fresh Strawberry Tart in a Lavender Crust for dessert. I'll split fresh baked biscuits and Butter them with some fresh herb butter I have already made with herbs from my garden, and the Lobster in it's creamy sauce will go over them. This, with slices of refreshing tomato pie and some homemade iced tea will be the perfect summer lunch.

"Lobster SHORTCAKE, NOT lobster shorts!"

I serve my lobster shortcake on hot, split buttermilk biscuits spread lightly with homemade herb butter. My sauce is a creamy concoction of very simple ingredients and no herbs, save for some lovely smoked paprika~

For the dessert, I make my own secret shortbread pie crust with dried lavender flowers, baking it in a tart pan. There is then a layer of homemade pastry cream, and this gets topped with the fresh strawberries that Adam will get at the farmstand on Thursday.

I'll be making a light, fresh Tomato-Basil Tart to go with the rich Lobster Shortcake for our special lunch~

Italian Tomato Pie~ Mozzarella, prosciutto, plum tomatoes, pesto, and more, all in a brown rice crust---Dinner for a neighbor tonight and for us later in the week~

Starting today, I am giving the house a major spring cleaning. This morning I spent cooking---I made an Italian Tomato Pie in a brown rice crust. Half of this will go to my neighbor this evening for her dinner. Her husband had a serious stroke and is in the hospital. She is there so often she isn't taking care of herself much, so I want her to come home to something nice to eat. The other half will be reheated, and we'll have it for dinner on Thursday night so I don't have to cook after cleaning and preparing for our company the next day.
I also made a batch of my homemade Cold Watermelon Soup. Some of this is for Friday too---we'll start off the grand lunch with a small cup of it, garnished with fresh mint.  The rest goes into the freezer. It keeps practically forever, and it's a favorite of ours to take to the very hot summer reenactments. I like having some on hand when it's hot and I don't feel like cooking too.
I made a batch of homemade Parmesan Aoili to use on sandwiches this week---yum---so much better than store bought mustard and mayo.
Tonight Adam is barbeque-ing small steaks on the grill. These get sliced and put on top of a big bed of greens with fresh roasted tomatoes and garlic---(I already did that too)---and chunks of goat cheese. You top it with salt, pepper, a little olive oil, and some balsamic vinegar. Yum~ It's mainly salad, but you get that bit of nice rare, tender grilled beef too. I gave this recipe in one of my posts last summer. I'll serve it with slices of homemade fresh garlic toast made with whole grain french bread~

I have really been looking forward to Friday. With the recession and bad economy in New England, having company has been more of a rarity than we would wish. We are both excited about sharing a great day, good food, and a little 'field trip' with long distance customers~

A 'sneak peek' at my beautiful new 18thc. 'wedding anniversary' sacque back gown~

My new 18thc. gown is a sacque back or gown a la francais style of 100% silk in a period correct stripe of pale spring green, that yummy shade between pink and peach---'ballet pink', and a rich cream. It features a compere stomacher, sleeves with scalloped silk self fabric ruffle trim lined in all cream silk, yards of handmade ruching embellishment, and this charming heart shaped pocket sewn into the bodice, and embroidered with my husband's name.

 Much gratitude to the fantastic Bindu at http://www.puresilks.us/. She graciously procured the  fabric especially for me after it had been sold out. It was so worth the wait! 

My dear friend Katherine made this lovely gown just for me. She is an extremely creative lady, and her one of a kind creations are simply the best I have ever seen. She is meticulous and takes pride creating an ensemble that is perfect down to the most minute detail. I have so much admiration for her and her considerable talents. She is also a true lady, and also has my sincere gratitude.

I will be wearing the gown and all accessories this month, for our 18th century 5th wedding anniversary High Tea, so this is just a 'sneak peek' at the gown without me in it.

After the end of the month we will be featuring a photo gallery on our website to period musick of pictures taken at our anniversary outing, and then you can see me coiffed and dressed in all my finery~
*(Please note that we change our galleries periodically to reflect our life in an 18thc. house, and our '18thc. adventures'. Our '18thc. Wedding Anniversary High Tea' gallery will only be up a short time.) 

Wait until you see this gorgeous gown on me, with the pocket hoops, period hairstyle, hat, jewelry, etc.

 

An exquisite custom made hat to match the gown~

Hand done ruching adorns the gown~

This is my most favorite part of the gown~As a suprise Kathering made a heart shaped pocked inside the gown bodice, over my own heart, with Adam's name EMBROIDERED on it~

Adam is giving me a tiny love note with a lock of his hair to put in my pocket!

The gown petticoat~

The hat has a floral nosegay on one side and a cockade on the other. Elegant blush colored ostrich feathers adorn the back~

I covered a large cover-yourself button with a piece of the embroidered silk of the waistcoat of Adam's new 18thc. suit, choosing one of the flowers that just happened to match my gown perfectly!


Above, Adam in his new 'anniversary' c. 1760 silk suit and silk embroidered waistcoat. I cut one of the flowers from the scraps to cover the button on my hat (above and below).

A nosegay I made to pin on the gown bodice~

The scalloped sleeves have an under-trim of cream embroidered English netting lace. The sleeve ruffle is scalloped and faced with ivory silk.

The neckline has a small ruffle made with the ballet pink stripe in the silk fabric~

These earrings were a gift from the seamstress.

The ostrich feathers are a lovely blush pink in 'real life'~

A dragon fly landed on my gown and refused to leave for quite awhile! I think she likes it as much as I do!

This is a c. 1900 fan I found for only a few dollars. The colors were perfect and it has tiny silver sequins that sparkle in the light~

The sleeves feature a lovely bow with a pearl drop.

 
I can't wait to wear my gown and all the lovely accessories for the first time to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary at High Tea at the Clipper Merchant Tea House in Maine (see the post I wrote about a week or 2 ago) in a couple weeks, and to share pictures of me in the gown in an upcoming gallery on our website~

UPDATE, SUMMER 2012~ YOU CAN SEE ME WEARING MY NEW GOWN HERE

...And HERE~

UPDATE~Jan. 2013 The Colonial Twelfth Night Ball~

 We sell some ladies' and gentlemens' period style clothing, wigs, and all manner of accessories on the SUTLERY PAGE of our website~