Day Trip to Salem Part 3

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday. It's almost the weekend. I hope you enjoy yours.

This past week I was recovering from Covid, so I can't say I had too much excitement on my agenda. I didn't even get a lot of art time in. 😒  The good news is that I am really feeling much better. And I tested negative! Mainly I had some head cold symptoms (scratchy voice, noise blowing), and now I am just occasionally blowing my nose. Luckily I never developed any coughing. Plus my hive-rash has improved. The worst of it is/was just getting tired so easily.

 For Nicole's  Friday Face Off  I thought I would share a few more photos from my day trip with my daughter  to Salem, MA during Twixtmas week.  I don't believe Gillena is posting this week with her Friday Lunch Break.

These first few photos are in the National Historic Park. 

And here's some more photos from The House of 7 Gables tour we took.

This big kitchen cooking fireplace certainly reminds me how much easier we have it now when it comes to preparing food. 😏

This little store (in the next photo) was never part of the house, but it was in  the novel Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about the house. During its early 1900's renovations, the owner added the store before she opened the house for tours.

And here's 2 faces for Friday Face off. I'm not exactly sure who they were, but  I am guessing they were the first 2 generations of Turners connected with early ownership of the property. One of them has to be the original owner/builder of the house, John Turner. I'm guessing that it is the one on the left side of the photo. He built the home in 1668.

 The Turners became wealthy. In fact, the House of 7 Gables was one of only 12 mansions in  New England during the original John Turner's time. (And it is the only one left standing.) Of course a mansion in that time period was a lot different from what we now think of when we hear that word.

Three generations later, however, the last Turner owner of the home went through a lot of the family fortune, and after him, the house was sold. This is his portrait below. 

Can you find the face in this next photo?

And let me share once again the Christmas tree view with another face.

Some of you commented on the busy and brightly colored wall paper in one of my earlier posts. Our guide mentioned it also. She said think candle light. The paper needed to be bright and colorful because with only candles for lighting, all the colors were much more muted. I do know  that the darker it gets, the less we see color.

I think I'll wrap this post up here. These holly bushes were gorgeous with all their berries. Their location up against the red house helped too. I know we're almost in mid-January, but I thought this was a pretty festive view.

That's it for my Salem trip. Onto 2024. 😏

T Stands for This and That as well as a Day Trip to Salem -part 2

 Hi everyone. It's time for T again. I hope everyone had a great first week of 2024 week.

I spent my first week of the new year with my husband home from work isolating because he had covid. Then I came down with covid a couple days later.  Oh boy. Not exactly a fun way to start the new year, but I am feeling like I am on the mend now. 👍 Worse than covid are the hives that are covering my body. I have moments where I am going out my mind with the itch. 😖 Luckily as the covid symptoms get better, the hives are slowly clearing up too. 

 Some of you asked if my doctor prescribed Paxlovid for me.  Yes, she did, but the pharmacy said it couldn't fill the prescription without contacting my doctor, and since it was late on Friday when I received that message and then it was the weekend, nothing happened.  At this point I don't know exactly what the issue was that held the prescription up, but now that I am on the mend and my 5 days of isolation are up, I don't feel I need it any longer.  (And luckily I didn't get terribly sick either.)

My husband, being immune suppressed, isn't recommended to take Paxlovid, but he did go through a 3 dose anti-viral infusion. That was just as big a mess, because no place in New Hampshire does the infusion, and only 2 places in Massachusetts do it. (Whether this is because of an association with Mass General Hospital who monitors him after his kidney transplant or not, I don't know.) He ended up having to drive 2+ hours  each way to and from Worcester over 3 days to get the infusion. Luckily he was less "sick" than me, and also he was getting bored being home so I think he liked the escape from his isolation. (By the way, isolation for an immune suppressed person is 10-20 days. not 5 days as it is for me.)

  OK, onto  "better" things.

We had our first big snow of the year the other day. (CJ might disagree about this being a better thing-😏) We ended up with around 10 inches/ just over 25 cm.

You might remember that I wanted to finish the sweater I was knitting by the end of 2023, and look, I did. I finished cutting off the yarn ends on New Years Eve. That was before I ended up  sick with covid.

I know these are pretty lousy photos, but I was trying to find a good place to take my photograph. I will share a photo of me modeling it, but the ironing board is still put away from the holidays, and the sweater really needs  to be blocked  so it hangs correctly. Having covid last week didn't exactly make me ambitious to do that.
 

However, I had so much fun making this sweater, and I was missing this type of knitting at night while I watched TV. I went online and ordered some yarn ( from Web's) to make another one.  It wasn't quite as inexpensive as buying it in Iceland, but now that I am on the mend,  I am excited  for the yarn to arrive so I can get started on it once I feel 100%. 😀 

In last Friday's post, I shared a bit about a day trip my daughter and I took during the holiday week . We had driven down to Salem, Massachusetts, and one of the things we did was visit the House of 7 Gables. If you're interested or want to know a  bit about the house's back story, here's the link to my other post about our day trip (House of 7 Gables )

Briefly, this house was made famous by a novel of the same name. This novel used to be popular school reading back in my parent's or grandparent's school days.  It was written by one of the big writers of American Literature named Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne never lived in the house, but his cousin did, so he was familiar with its layout. He did take several liberties in his novel like adding a hidden staircase. When the house was restored in the early 1900's, the then  owner added in some features from Hawthorne's book and opened the house for tours. That hidden staircase was fun to climb up, although it was pretty narrow and almost claustrophobic.

I thought as my ticket to  T over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog I'd share a couple of photos from inside the house. It was decorated for Christmas, and there were lots of drink related scenes. 

Let me start with the dining room which was all set for Christmas dinner.

In the living room, there was a Christmas tree and some T related pieces also. I thought our lovely hostess Elizabeth would love seeing one of the "gifts" under the tree. I think it is right up her alley.  The living area was up on the second floor.

Our guide actually showed us a photo of the tree taken around 1910 (with the presents) and that's how it looked. 

And not far from the tree was this after dinner tea table. 

Let me end my post with one final photo.  Before I got sick last week I took the dogs down to the beach for a walk. Miss Maddie  doesn't care if the Atlantic Ocean is only around 42 degrees F/ 5.5 degrees C.

After her accident last September and thinking we were going to lose her, I think if the cold water makes her happy, let her wade around in it. 😏  What a dog. 

Have a fantastic T day and week ahead.

 

Day Trip to Salem-Part 1

 Hi everyone. I hope everyone has been having a great first week of 2024.  My husband, who is starting off his  new year with covid, is doing well, and he's been busy working from home. I on the other hand  was hoping I'd stay negative, but now I'm positive too.  I hope I perk up and feel like myself quickly, but right now covid has also caused a major hive flare (not my bees, red itchy welts on my skin), and that itch is driving me crazy. 😳

Last week my daughter took a vacation from work, and she came home for a couple of days after Christmas. We'd already seen her Christmas weekend, so this really was a bonus. ❤ One day we decided to take a roadtrip down to Salem, Massachusetts. Sadly we had a lot of rain that whole week. The rain definitely put a damper on our visit, but not enough to stop us from having fun. 

Here are some views from our day. There are some faces for Nicole's  Friday Face Off . I'm also linking up to Gillena's  Friday Face Off .

We visited the Salem Maritime National Historic site. Most of the buildings were closed for the season or under renovation, but we were able to walk around the site. I'd been here before, but it was new for my daughter.

Salem, Massachusetts was an important city for international trade in early America. A lot of  that trade was with China, the Caribbean and Europe, and the goods were transported on 3 masted ships like you see in the photo below. Salem also became a wealthy place  due to  that early American trade. 

I like how the Park Service had some holiday spirit.

After we got pretty wet during our walk around, we then walked some more and went a little ways down the street to the House of 7 Gables. This house was made famous in a novel of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne, for those of you who may not know this name, is one of those big authors of American literature. He was born and lived his life in Salem, but he died on a trip here in New Hampshire in 1864.

On our walk down to the House of 7 of Gables, we spotted this cool holiday dinosaur.

A gable is a triangular point on the roof.  In this next photo you can see 3 gables. There are 2 on the full face of the house and one on the right hand side. The triangular piece over the entrance porch is called a dormer. Many homes have 2 gables, one on each end of the house. Having 7 was a sign of wealth. 

This house was built in 1668 by a sea captain and his wife. It was smaller at that time than what you see now.

The House of 7 Gables is not part of the National Historic Park, but it is an interesting home to visit. Hawthorne never lived there, but he had a cousin who did. His book by that name is a fictional novel, and he created some interesting architectural features that the house did not originally have. However, the owner of the home in the early 1900s spent money to restore the house and added in some features from the book, like a hidden staircase. It was a fun tour, and since it was raining, it gave us a chance to dry off a little bit too. 😏 

Here is a portrait of Hawthorne as a young man that hangs in the visitor's center.

To keep this post from getting too long, I'll wrap it up by mentioning Hawthorne's wife. This is the portrait of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne that hangs in the house.

Here in New England we pronounce her last name pea-buddy (in 1 syllable) not pea-body.

She was a very distinguished artist, and this is one of the few paintings of hers that is still in known existence. It also hangs in the House of 7 Gables. 

I think that's enough for today. I'll share more another post. 

Have a great weekend.

Yin Yu Tang House

 Hi everyone. Happy Wednesday. Fair warning-my post is a little bit long today.

I still have a few photos  from my visit 2 weeks ago to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts that are worth sharing. Today I thought I would take you through an actual Chinese house that is at this museum.

The Yin Yu Tang House is from the southeastern part of China in the  Huizhou region. I had to look that up on a map. It's the darker orange part.

 This house was built by a prosperous merchant by the name of Huang and was where  his family lived for over 200 years. It was taken apart and brought to Salem in 1982 where it was reassembled. 

If you leave the museum and walk around the back of it, you see this view of the house. One thing that's interesting to notice is that there  are no windows.

To visit the house, you have to be inside the museum. When you go into the house you first enter this courtyard area. As I just mentioned, this house does not have windows, and the only natural light coming in is from above this courtyard. If you look at the top of the photo you can see some glass panels. These were added by the museum to protect the structure from rain and snow, but in China that part of the building would have been open to the environment. It would be  how light would enter the building.

The rooms are on both the left and right sides of this courtyard with stairs at either end. There are also 2 water sources here, both for home's occupants to use and  as a protection in case of fire.

The person who looks like they are on their phone in the forefront of my photo is actually listening to the device they lend you to self-tour the house.

Many of the rooms off of the courtyard were bedrooms. Next is a photo of one bedroom on the first floor. This huge bed took up much of the room.  It was a place of honor to have your bedroom on this level.

There was also a little storage alcove on the first floor too. I liked this bicycle and all the texture on the walls and floor.

 This next photo is the kitchen. It's not anything  I'd think of as a kitchen, maybe more of a dining room. The actual cooking would have taken place out in the open courtyard because this family did not own modern stoves. I'm actually curious how they would have cooked. I am sure it would have  been in a wok, but did they cook over a fire? I know during the cultural revolution Mao outlawed cooking at home, so perhaps that  is why there was no sign of a place to cook.

This house also had no heat. I never photographed them, but there were lots of small handheld pans where hot coals would be added. You could carry that heat around with you. I'm not familiar with the environment in this part of China, so maybe it was not a particulary cold area.

I showed you the next 2 photos previously, and I thought I'd include them again. Everyone was required to hang a picture of Mao during the cultural revolution. That's creepy and sad if you ask me, but it is history.

Here's another bed and then just a wall with some interesting texture.

And below is a high chair. This was in a storage room. The box behind this high chair was actually a coffin. I'm not sure whose it was or why it was there, but perhaps it was ready for when the family elder passed.

The family and this house were around during the time of Chairman Mao and his cultural revolution. Here's another photo they were required to hang. 

Mao looks so friendly, but if you're familiar with what he did during the Cultural Revolution, it was not a very friendly time.

This next photo is up on the second floor, looking across the courtyard.

And then looking down into the courtyard.

This is the walkway along one side of the second floor. The walkway went around the whole of the second floor. The rooms in this photo were to the left of this walkway, and the courtyard is on the right.

These stairs look a little bit steep to me. 

Looking down into the courtyard you can see the 2 water/well features.

Here's a few more "random" views from inside the rooms.

This next bedroom was wallpapered, and  it was a wedding gift when the eldest son married. 

It's interesting to think about the number of people who lived in this house at various times. Often there were 3 or even 4 generations living here. However the men, who were merchants, were gone for long periods of time to their offices down along the coast, probably near or in Hong Kong.

These next photos are from an upstairs storage area, but I liked them so I'll share.

And finally, here is one of the water features. They would have contained large goldfish (koi), although the ones here are tiny. Those water lilies don't look real either.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the Chinese home. It is definitely a treasure of this museum.