Please Make Him Stop

I got this email from the Ocean Conservancy and thought it was worth passing along. Give George a call.

Dear Meredith,

We urgently need you today to make your voice heard: Tell President Bush how dangerous and short-sighted his plan is to start drilling in the ocean by lifting a 27 year ban. Our ocean drives the planet's climate and is the first victim of global climate change -- more drilling only guarantees its further destruction while doing nothing to solve our energy crisis. President Bush says America is addicted to oil, but his solution is more oil! Call the White House now to tell him NO: 202-456-1414

Any oil discovered by drilling off our coastline will take 7-10 years to get to the pump, and it will not relieve the pain we are feeling. Even the U.S. Energy Information Administration agrees that opening up vast new areas to drilling will not likely affect prices until a decade from now, and then by just pennies a gallon. It is clear that we cannot drill our way out of this problem. Why would we open our coasts to drilling, putting our environment at risk and continuing our addiction to oil all while increasing the threat of global warming? It is up to you to tell the White House: NO DRILLING IN OUR OCEAN FOR OIL.

Learn more on OceanConservancy.org
Sincerely,
Warner Chabot
Vice President, Campaign Strategies
Ocean Conservancy

Play And Learn

Last week's photography challenge was "Play." I took this at the shore on Thursday.
I don't know these people but the three little girls were bouncing along the beach after the woman like ducklings. Suddenly she spied something interesting in the sand and bent down to show it to them. I liked the way they gathered around her so focused and intent on whatever it was she had. I used it for my challenge photo.

We See Some Houses And Discover An Old Friend

We took our annual library tour of homes in Southern Chester County yesterday. There were 8 homes and 1 historical building on the tour. Of the homes, 3 were spectacular, 4 were so-so, and 1 I couldn't wait to get out of.

Here's our absolute #1 favorite--Fox Hill Farm.

What a gorgeous place this was. Perfection. I wish I could show you pictures of the indoors, but like many of these tours, no photography was allowed inside. This is a brand new house on a beautiful old property. The house that originally stood here was in such bad shape it couldn't be salvaged, so the owners tore it down and started all over again. They describe the interior as 1920's English Country. In the entry hall they placed antique English marble tiles that look aged and worn and just right for the space. Throughout they used beautiful old building materials such as fireplace mantles and surrounds, tiles, and ironwork. They salvaged a piece of hand-painted wallpaper from somewhere in New York State, had it framed, and displayed it as a large (it must have been about 3 x 6') work of art on the living room wall. Magnificent. The trim, wainscoting and mouldings are wonderfully detailed and thoughtfully chosen. There is a butler's pantry with the loveliest tiger maple cabinets I ever saw. Every detail is inspired. You really do not have the sense that you are in a new home. Everything is so well chosen that it could have been there for 50 years, and they just moved in last December. A large kitchen with marble-topped walnut island opens to a covered porch that runs along the full length of the house. Here's the view from there.

As if all this wasn't enough, off on the right side of the house are the pool, gardens, and tennis court. (They are building a conservatory [but of course] off the dining room to the left of the house, but it's not finished yet--oh, please let me go back and see it when it is). And although the house itself is new, all this looks like it has been here forever. I overheard that the tennis courts were saved from the old house, but I don't know about the rest.

They obviously did preserve this old root cellar--garden shed.

Now look right and you'll see the pool, gardens, and tennis courts.

I could move in tomorrow.

Our second favorite was Laurel Hill. These people heard about an old barn that was slated for demolition and, of course you know this story, bought it, took it apart, and moved it plank by plank, stone by stone, to this piece of ground overlooking miles and miles of open country. The inside features huge beams of Alabama long leaf yellow pine (now extinct) and a 37' stone chimney constructed from the original barn's foundation. One end of the living room is a kind of balcony in front of a wall of windows and looks down into a charming indoor garden complete with running stream.

Here's a picture of the front.

This is from the front looking back up the hill to the barns and paddocks. This is horse country

and so there are lots of acres devoted to the dear creatures.

Here's the view from the patio.

And speaking of dear creatures, who did we happen to run into in the dining room but Amy's Mr. Fox. We were so happy to see him there and he still wears his Blue & Lucy label. We gave him a big pat on the head and I snuck this picture when no one was looking. He certainly does seem to have a seat of honor and is privy to all the family news.

Since I haven't had much to blog about lately, tomorrow I'll tell you about a couple of the other places we saw.

Holiday Weekend

You can tell it's a holiday weekend when everybody's mail is still in the box on Sunday morning. They're all at the shore I guess. Except me. I'm home cleaning house (after an early Sunday walk) for company arriving on Wednesday. Yes, it's that dirty. Happy Memorial Day to all, especially those in the armed services who wish they were home. We wish it too.

What Good Is This?

Well might you ask. All these pennies we get as change that just jingle around in our pockets and purses and accumulate until they get so heavy we have to stick them in a jar and then find someplace to put the jar, and, well, you know what I mean. So I am quite happy to share this bit of amazing information that I received from my brother about what pennies are good for. This is news to me and, I believe with my penchant for getting stung while working in the garden, will come in quite handy as an addition to my gardening tools. . .a roll of pennies. Anyway, here's the email I got recounting the healing properties of pennies:

"This information may be something to remember, as this season will soon be here again...It might be wise to carry a penny in your pocket while working in the yard for......... BEE STINGS !A couple of weeks ago, I was stung by both a bee and hornet while working in the garden. My arm swelled up, so I went to the doctor. The clinic gave me cream and an antihistamine. The next day the swelling was getting progressively worse, so I went to my regular doctor. The arm was infected and needed an antibiotic. The doctor told me ' The next time you get stung, put a penny on the bite for 15 minutes.' That night, my niece was stung by two bees. I looked at the bite and it had already started to swell. So I taped a penny to her arm for 15 minutes. The next morning, there was no sign of a bite. We decided that she just wasn't allergic to the sting. Soon, I was gardening outside and got stung again twice by a hornet on my left hand. I thought, here I go again to the doctor for another antibiotic. I promptly got my money out and taped two pennies to my bites, then sat and sulked for 15 minutes. The penny took the sting out of the bite immediately. In the meantime the hornets were attacking, and my friend was stung on the thumb. Again the penny. The next morning I could only see the spot where the hornet had stung me. No redness, no swelling. My friend's sting was the same; couldn't even tell where she had been stung. She got stung again a few days later on her back---cutting the grass! And the penny worked once again. Wanted to share this marvelous information in case you experience the
same problem. We need to keep a stock of pennies on hand. The doctor said that the copper in the penny counteracts the bite. It definitely works! Please remember and pass this information on to your friends, children, grandchildren, etc."

So, there it is. The magical power of pennies. I mean, please! Why didn't I ever hear about this before? I could have saved myself a lot of trouble.

So Hard To Wait

Amy and Marc's pool got opened on Wednesday, but too late for Chase to do anything about it. So Thursday when he got home from school, he raced in and told me "I'm going to get my bathing suit on." It took me a moment to register what he was talking about. "Oh no," I said, "it's got a lot of dirt in the bottom and it's freezing!" He just looked sadly at me and then he disappeared. Oh boy, I thought, I hope he doesn't give me a hard time about this. After a few minutes when he didn't appear in his swim suit and begin to wear me down, I went looking for him. He'd better not be in that pool, I thought. I looked out the window and just had to smile and run for my camera. He was really good. He didn't ask me again; just stayed there for a little while and then went out to play with his friends. Last year I know he would have been in that pool. He's really growing up.

Just Because

This is from my trip to Longwood Gardens last week. Oh my.