outside blue: visiting toby . .

Saturday, July 6, 2019

visiting toby . .

greg and i were up early thursday morning to drive to connecticut for a visit with toby the cat while my sister is away in norway with her family. they're visiting my brother-in-law's cousins with their sons: a family vacation planned for many years and finally implemented.

it felt so good to swim in the lake . . the water was so warm that it wasn't a problem getting in, though i couldn't talk greg into it which i found a little frustrating. i think swimming is such a healthy activity.

dear toby . .

i finally finished my "husk" cowl from quince and co (pattern by isabel kraemer) . . now i need to block it and sew it up.

we tried to use the outdoor grill, but the starter button wasn't working properly so we settled for broiling the frankfurters in the oven.

thursday was a very, very hot day, but friday was much cooler with a nice breeze. it would have been a nice day to take the canoe out on the lake, but greg requested to visit an historic house, so i suggested hill-stead museum, home of theodate pope riddle, which i had visited a few years ago with my sister and morgana and chanda - that post is here.

greg is reading about theodate's life from a recently published biography bought at the museum's gift shop. she grew up in cleveland, ohio (her father was a successful industrialist) and moved with her parents to farmington when a young girl. there she attended a finishing school (miss porter's - now a private college preparatory school) before traveling abroad with her parents and helping her father collect paintings by monet, degas and mary cassatt which are all displayed in the house. her parents would have liked her to marry, but she chose to stay single and to study architecture, eventually designing hill-stead house which became their family home. two other notable buildings she designed were the teddy roosevelt birthplace in nyc, and the avon old farms school in avon, ct - another private school still in operation and which was built using traditional english methods with much of the material coming from the school's property (read about avon old farms school here). another interesting bit of information about theodate's life was that she survived the sinking of the lusitania . . also, she was one of the first women licensed architects in the states.

we took a hot hike along the bittersweet trail . .

and were chased along by a few mosquitoes (none of which bothered me and all of which bothered greg) . .

until finding refuge at a cafe in town for lunch (passing the original house theodate lived in for many years, which is still standing, but privately owned).

still reading . .

back home again with toby . .

the birds are continuously singing in my sister's yard. i wonder if i will ever be able to identify them all.

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saturday morning found toby back on her hassock perch after breakfast and a walk around the house.

flowers from my sister's garden: orange day lilies which are always in bloom for my birthday. i remember them surrounding the house in which i grew up . . and i remember walking about the house on many birthdays and admiring them.

brunch at guida's in middletown - on the way home . .

guida's is one of greg and korrina's favorite places . .

my tuna salad and my diner knitting . . and . .

my car knitting (damsel shawl by josée paquin - from quince and co's summer quarterly box) . . this morning i was up early to wash the inside of the car, after which greg took it to the car wash where he also vacuumed it out . . i think he vacuumed out a good five years of detritus.