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Monthly Archives: September 2008

Roofing, Day 1 (of 2?)

There was quite a large crew working today, and a lot got done. I should have charged for parking. Here they are roofing the uphill face. The two custom-made windows were delivered today. I believe the shape is a trapezoid. These two windows are part of the symmetrical window assembly of four windows that flank […]

Update, Sept. 29

We’ve had more than two inches of rain here in the last week. It was the remnants of a tropical storm that came in from the southeast off the Atlantic. It came down slowly, and it soaked into the ground instead of running off. As a consequence of the rain, work has been on hold. […]

The Southern Highlanders: what they ate

This old family photograph was taken around 1921, around the same time the book below was published. It is a family reunion at the home of my great-great grandparents, William Ira Jackson and Martha Marshall Jackson, in Carroll County, Virginia. They are the old couple seated at the center of the table. My father, Sanford […]

Gothic weather

Reuters East Coast gothic weather and West Coast gothic weather are very different. The best West Coast gothic weather, to my taste anyway, comes with high wind and high waves off the Pacific, with waves crashing against the rocks and seagulls fighting the wind. It’s very different here. East Coast gothic weather is about a […]

Cat pictures

The Princess Lily state — L’état, c’est moi. What’s the matter? Don’t all y’all get enough cat pictures? The Internet is flooded with cat pictures, but people keep asking me for cat pictures. This is Lily at four months old. I have been calling her Princess Lily. She was found in the woods, scrawny and […]

Two Souths, two versions of pancakes

Lise’s French version I’ve been having a discussion on-line with a friend in the south of France about the local in-season fruits and what to do with them. Lise sent a photo of a French version of apple pancakes with apples. Isn’t that so French, a tall stack of tiny pancakes with the edges perfectly […]

The color of apples

One of the things I know as a country person born and raised is that, when you see an apple in the grocery store with perfect skin, the apple will cost too much and will have no taste. But when you find apples with honest skins like this, the apple will be good, and cheap. […]

Colors: windows, doors, roof

The framers have left for two to three weeks to frame another job. The roofers should start this week. The roofing material was delivered this morning. Please keep in mind that, because of hard-to-control variables having to do with the camera and with different computer monitors, the hues you see in these photos are at […]

Garlic as a vegetable, and as medicine

Garlic and broccoflower pasta. They probably smelled it all the way to Danbury. Last night I went to bed at 10 and fell asleep immediately. I woke up and looked at the clock. It said 6:10 a.m. I thought the clock was wrong, because I thought I had just gone to bed. Deep sleep like […]

Concept vs. reality: how are we doing?

At this point the framers are taking care of detail that doesn’t make for very interesting photographs. But now is a good time to stand back and take a look at how the architect’s concept compares with the reality. In the reality shot above, the colors aren’t yet correct, because the roofing underlayer makes the […]