Newport Contemplations

It’s been a month since I returned from my Newport vacation and I’ve been thinking about the highlights with the little bit of distance. During the vacation and immediately afterwards there was an overwhelming amount of detailed memory; the gist of the vacation was illusive.

Now - I find that I remember one or two details about each of the houses/mansions:

• Marble House - two rooms on each side of the grand staircase landing
• Rosecliff - ballroom with windows on each side
• The Breakers - loggias
• Isaac Bell House - porches
• Kingscote - dining room with Tiffany windows and cork ceiling
• The Elms - lacquer wall pieces
• Chepstow - decoupage lamps
• Chateau-Sur-Mer - Minton tiles, stained glass skylight in a bathroom
• Hunter House - Newport chairs, stair railing older the house (used from a house that burned prior to its construction)
• Green Animals (house) - toy collection

The Cliff Walk is the only thing I wish we had done more; the weather didn’t give us time to walk the whole length.

There were a number of surprises that I remember with delight

• Nautilus earrings (Smithsonian design)
  

• The Loose Tea place (same as in Orlando from last fall) where I bought the same teas (plus some new ones)
• Feather sculpture at Blithewold
• Monarch butterflies at Blithewold and Green Animals

Two closing thoughts about Newport -

Recent studies have shown that wealth beyond the amount required for satisfaction of ‘needs’ does not correlate with happiness. Based on the histories of the people that came for a few weeks each summer to their mansions in Newport in the late 1800s/early 1900s - that correlation was as true during the ‘Golden Age’ just as it is today.

Architectural ornament is fragile even when there is significant attention to preservation. It is requires continuous attention and work on peeling paint, chipped stone, rusting iron, cracked leather and lacquer, bubbled plaster, and rotting wood.  All were observable in these grand houses.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - October 2014

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations’ - as had been the usual for the past few months. Here are my top 10 for October 2014.

Nature hikes for elementary school students. The hikes I guide for groups of kindergarteners, 1st graders and 2nd graders are all celebrations - of nature, of fall, of being young and outdoors exploring. It is a near perfect volunteer gig! Yes - sometimes it rains and sometimes it is cold….but even with those challenges, something interesting and memorable always seems to happen.

An afternoon volunteering at my daughter’s high school. My daughter graduated 7 years ago and this was my first time back at the school. I celebrated that the building has been renovated, the crew of students picking up trash that had blown onto grounds (it was a windy day), and that it still seemed to be a well-run school! All the changes I noticed were positive.

Interesting elders. I celebrate the older people I volunteer to drive to their appointments or shopping. They are independent and savvy and full of life experiences. I get all kinds of ideas of how I want to be 20 or 30 years from now!

A whole pumpkin.  I bought a pie pumpkin - cooked it whole - ate a serving with butter and cinnamon as soon as it came out of the oven - made the rest into pumpkin/ginger scones and pumpkin custard.  I’m still celebrating the goodness…and hoping they still have some pie pumpkins at my grocery so I can buy another later this week.

Kohlrabi. This is my first season with kohlrabi and I like it so much that I celebrate every time I eat it. It is still new to my list of ‘normal’ foods.

Fall foliage. I have always liked the colors of fall ---- and October is the month for them in Maryland.

Cooler days. Along with the colors - cooler days make it easier to enjoy hikes. We’ve already enjoyed a trek in Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls State Park in Central Maryland. Being in motion outdoors surrounded by trees and lakes and streams is a great setting for celebration.

Newport. I always include vacations as celebrations…they always turn out that way. There is always something that makes a place memorable. Newport is quite a collection of house tours...worth celebrating.

Coming home. After each week or more away - I always celebrate coming home. This time was no exception. It took me almost week to get caught up on processing the veggies from the CSA shares, course work, and laundry!

School. October is probably my favorite school month because classes are well underway and the upcoming holidays are not detracting. October always seems to be a peak learning month of the year…and I’m celebrating that realization.

Newport RI - Day 5

Day 5 in Newport was very rainy. We had one more of The Preservation Society of Newport County properties to tour: Hunter House. Since the house was not open quite yet for tours we took pictures of the boats near the Newport Harbor Lighthouse from the dock near the house and

Then around the garden using the umbrella to shield the camera from the rain. We continued under arbor with the umbrellas still unfurled to catch the large drops coming from the leafy ‘ceiling.’

This was the house to learn about furniture. The Newport Chairs (wingbacks with arms the curve outward) look comfortable! I also liked the symmetry of the house. The house was more than doubled in size as the family became more prosperous; the addition included a central hall and a mirror image of the original house on the other side of that hall.

The best part of the house is the pineapple over the front door!

Newport RI - Day 4

Our 4th day in Newport was rainy. We toured two mansions (Chepstow and Chateau-Sur-Mer) that had docent led tours.

Chepstow

Chepstow was lived in during the summer until the mid-1980s…and it was built in 1860 - earlier than the ‘Golden Age’ mansions. It was crowded with family collections but in a way that they could be enjoyed rather than like a museum. There was a narwhal tusk over the front door! The last owner - Alletta Morris McBean - enjoyed decoupage and there are number of lamp bases she created throughout the house….and lots of needlepoint pillows too.

My favorite place of the house was the side porch. It had roll down awnings and was often used for entertaining. The surprise on the porch was a metal table and two chairs in the same pattern as one handed down from my grandparents to my sister; Chepstow’s is white, theirs was black.

Chateau-sur-Mer

This house was built even earlier than Chepstow - in 1852. It had a major renovation in 1870 by Richard Morris Hunt. My favorite feature of the house dates from that renovation: a stained glass skylight in the bathroom. The house looks somber from the outside (and the gray clouds just fit that image).

I liked the moon gate. The view through it originally would have been of relatively flat fields…all the way to the Atlantic. Today there is the wall of the house across the street.

For some reason it was easier to think of elements of these two houses that could carry into modern houses: roll down awnings on porches, lattice on windows both for privacy and to reduce direct sunlight, stained glass skylights, and designs painted on ceilings.

I also was pleased to see Minton tiles since I had just heard about them in my Symmetry class and looked at several Minton Catalogs on the Internet Archive.

In retrospect - I enjoyed these two houses more than the true ‘Golden Age’ mansions (The Breakers, The Elms, Rosecliff, and Marble House)!

Zooming - October 2014

Most of my zooming collages are of plants and animals. This month my focus is external architecture and ornamentation. The images show form, repairs, corrosion, and patina of age. Materials are quite varied: stone, paint, plaster/cement, copper, bronze, wrought iron, cedar shingles, and glass.  Enjoy the show!

Newport RI - Day 3

Day 3 in Newport was full of photography opportunities: sunrise from the Cliff Walk (40 steps), Blithewold Gardens, and Green Animals Topiary Garden.

Sunrise from the Cliff Walk

The sunrise was colorful - in the sky and the water. The cliff walk offers expansive views to the horizon and close views of waves crashing against the rocks below.

Enjoy the sequence below from just before sunrise to the brightness of early morning.

Blithewold Gardens

There is a mansion but it was not open on the day we were there. We were tired of house tours from the previous day in Newport anyway. I liked the stone steps and fountains near the house.

The garden include a sculpture exhibit. My favorite was feathers. Unfortunately, it was not a breezy day so the feathers were not moving enough for the chimes at their base to move.

And everywhere there were paths leading through lush vegetation.

The slide show below includes a photo toward the sky from inside the bamboo maze and a bee on a Franklin Tree blossom!

Green Animals Topiary Garden

There is a house in this garden that includes a display of antique toys. But the draw for this place is the topiary forms. I couldn’t resist including the pictures of a bee on a dahlia and monarch butterfly (one of the few I’ve seen this year) in the slideshow below - along with the topiary.

Newport RI - Day 2

Our second day in Newport RI (we were there 9/6-10/3) was all about Golden Age mansions: The Breakers, Rosecliff, Marble House and The Elms (outside only).

The Breakers

The Breakers is the one that most people immediately equate with Newport and we planned to be there as soon as possible after it opened. Our first view was of the gates from the parking lot across the street - closed because we had arrived a little before opening.

We decided to take a short walk along the Cliff Walk that passes between the house and the Atlantic. The wrought iron and pillars continue there!

And there is an easy view of the house over the chain link fence. I was surprised that the mansions did not have more gardens. The season was short and the houses themselves were the overwhelming focus rather than gardens.

Pictures are not allowed inside any of the houses so the ones I am posting here are of the exterior.

The ceilings of the loggias on the back of The Breakers were my favorite aspect of the house. It is hard to imagine any other part of the house as being ‘comfortable’ at all; the decoration in most cases is overwhelming.

Rosecliff

Rosecliff was my favorite house of the day. The ball room with windows on both sides was my favorite room (it seemed like a room that could be used in a lot of different ways) although the dragon holding the light fixture at the entrance was attractive too.

Marble House

I like marble generally but this house was overwhelming. It seemed like it would always be cold with so much stone.

There is a Tea House in the back which has a glorious view of the ocean. I enjoyed the warmth of walking there more than listening to the recorded tour of the house!

The Elms

We returned to The Elms to walk around the gardens. I took note of the sculpture particularly: the angry man (Athamas)

The oddly whiskered lion,

The tortoise fountain, and

The fountain of pans.

These mansions were originally used for 6-8 weeks during the summer season. They were built to be a showplace of wealth - provide a stage for a regimented series of social activities. It was a fragile, and relatively brief, way of life. And now they are windows into that time.

Newport RI - Day 1

Our first day in Newport RI in a nutshell: sunrise and 3 mansions!

I was up early enough to catch the sunrise colors on the horizon and water from the balconies of our rooms. It was very quiet compared to the party noises from the night before along the waterfront. The forecast was for a near perfect day for walking around Newport.

There are a lot of architectural features in houses,

Churches,

And buildings that are much easier to scrutinize on foot rather than driving/riding.

Many structures have been restored and other others seemed to be in the process of being restored; crews were getting a head start as the tourist crowds thinned and the weather was still reasonable.

My favorite of the three houses we saw on the first day was the Isaac Bell House. The porches and interesting roof line probably clinched it for me but the guided tour through the empty rooms - showing how restoration is done - was more interesting that the overwhelming opulence of many other Newport mansions.

Kingscot was too Gothic for me but it was fun to learn about the ‘weeping’ trees that were deemed by landscapers of the time to be in keeping with the architecture. The brow over the windows was to deflect water!

The Elms was the last house on the first day. We took the tour of the house just before closing time and decided to go back another day to look at the gardens. I enjoyed the small preview of the sculptures and clipped hedges on the quick walk through on the first day.

On the Road (Maryland to Rhode Island...and back)

The route from where I live in Maryland to Newport RI is dominated by I-95 passing through Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. We started the trip on a warm, sunny day. The first rest stop was still in Maryland - Chesapeake House. The place has been completely renovated from the hard used building of a few years ago. The rest stops along this stretch of I-95 are heavily utilized. It is a far cry from when I first started driving and the rest stops were not air conditioned or heated - with minimal amenities other than bathrooms….and that was on interstates. On other roads the choice was filthy gas stations or roughing it into the roadside woods if the drive was long enough to require a bio-break!

The next stop was in New Jersey at the James Fennimore Cooper service area. They shortened the name for the sign over the door to just James Cooper. We were beginning to see a little more fall color but the area was still a few weeks shy of peak.

After that stop in New Jersey we began the long slog. We got across with bridge between New Jersey and New York but then the going got slow. The road is a shoot - covered with overpasses intermittently and lined with litter. The road surface was rough and sometimes without lane markers, prepared for resurfacing. I hoped that it would get better as we entered Connecticut. The road surface improved but not the traffic. Our plan was to stop at a service area for a late lunch. We pulled into one and discovered that it was so crowded that there was no parking left. We took turns for a bio-break (keeping the car circling the parking lot) and decided to snack while we drove on.

The traffic moved a little better. We decided to forego the next service area and left the highway for a regular gas station. The bathroom was no very clean but there was no crush of people and we needed to buy gas anyway. We arrived in Newport just after 5 and I was relieved to stand in sun while my sister registered. We relaxed, cooked dinner, and took sunset pictures from the balcony.

The return trip was easier. I was braced from terrible traffic and full parking at least one rest stop….but the day as quite different. I enjoyed the color change of leaves in the week since we had come up I-95!

Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, Rhode Island

I’ve just returned from a week away...primarily spent in Newport, Rhode Island. I’ll be sharing some of my perceptions of the vacation in several posts to come. Today the topic is the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge - the highway between Jamestown and Newport, Rhode Island. The bridge is a bracket for the beginning and ending of my time in Newport.

The first morning I was out photographing the bridge from the balcony of the place I was staying (through the rigging of sail boats). It was a cool morning and it was before people were out and about. The lights were still on the bridge.

I took another series of pictures from the water side of the Hunter House. It was raining on the day we toured so I was holding the umbrella over myself and my camera as I took this picture. The vantage point is a little closer to the bridge - still from the Newport side.

The last morning of our stay - we tried to get away early enough to see the sunrise from the Jamestown side of the bridge. The car too longer to pack so we were about 15 minutes past sunrise. My sister captured the best image of the bridge from the Newport Overlook (Jamestown side) to I chose it to include in this post.