Macaulay House Details

A few days ago I took you on a tour of the Macaulay House in Picton, Ontario (you can read the post and see more photos here).  Connie, from the blog Hartwood Roses, left a comment that she has been studying the details in all the photos because this house is so similar to the house she lives in.  The interesting thing is her house is in Virginia and was built in 1848 while the Macaulay House was built in 1830 and is in Picton, Ontario (approximately 960 kms or 600 miles away from each other).  Connie and I emailed a bit back and forth and she told me that the outside of her house is-

pure New England Gothic Revival (the original family moved here to Virginia from Connecticut), but the inside details are from an earlier style.  It’s much more Federal Farmhouse style, instead of the early-Victorian that it could have been.

With the interior being styled after an earlier period, it would fit that these two houses would have similar finishes and trim.  I was going to email the other photos I took of the Macaulay House to Connie for her interest, but then decided that maybe someone else would be interested in seeing them as well.  You can read about Connie's front hall here - you will see that the stairs and layout are very similar to the front hall in the Macaulay House.

So welcome again to the lovely Macaulay House.   Here are a few photos of the front hall,

one of the front window in the dining room,

the tea set on a table in the front parlour,

another view of everyone's favourite spot - the china cabinet,

a close-up of the clock,

and a view out the kitchen window.

All I can say, is that you are one lucky duck, Connie, to be living in such a lovely home. 

The Magnificent Macaulay House

I have been meaning to share with you the photos I took at the Macaulay House in Picton, Ontario, this past summer. The remarkable thing about the Macaulay House is that is it is so liveable, so likeable, so pretty and yet it was built in 1830 and styled to the 1850s.  Sometimes historic houses look old and dark and stodgy, but not in this case.  If the Macaulay House had a sofa in the living room and some brand-spanking new appliances and electronics I'd happily move right in (oh, and indoor plumbing).

So lets pretend it's my home  -

Come on in and welcome.

I've set the table in the dining room as I knew you would want a cup of tea and a bite to eat.

The dishes do match the room rather well, don't they?

I hope you like the study as much as I do.  I just had to show you a close-up of the wallpaper.  Doesn't it look like it could have been made today with the turquoise and coral colours.

I love how the carpet picks up the same colours as the wallpaper.  That brown leather chair is my favourite place to read, although it is a little unnerving to have that Mr. So-and-So peering over my shoulder.

Well at least I can sit on the other side of the room at the desk and blog away to my heart's content.
 

The china closet is one of my favourite things in this house.  I love having all the dishes out so I can choose which ones suit my fancy for the day.

I also appear to have a bit of an earthenware jug addiction, but who can blame me, they are so pretty.

This is on the mantel in my kitchen.  I'm not sure why I didn't take a photo of the whole kitchen to show you, but I got sidetracked by the charming details.

Aren't those the cutest curtains and they were so simple to make.

I love the worn floorboards and bricks under the wood-stove.

We are lucky to have such a big house that we can use one of the bedrooms as a dressing room.  Isn't it surprising that there are built-in cupboards - very rare for this time period - but very necessary for all my dresses.  I hope you don't mind the mini tub.  We haven't up-graded the bathroom yet. 

This is our daughter's bedroom.  I know she is a bit old for toys but she still likes to have them around.  I think the soft pink walls and creamy white trim are very soothing and I love the quilt pattern on her bed. 

Here's the other side of her room - with more of her toys.

And finally, this is the guest room.  I hope you have a good sleep here under the lacey canopy.  My husband adores the quilt, but between you and me I think the pattern is a bit wild.  It does suit the room, though, and was a wedding present so we use it here.

Feel free to enjoy the garden while you are visiting.  Dinner will be served at 8:00.

How long did you say you will be staying???

Linked to Tools Are For Women Too!

Mosaic Monday - A September Walk in the Park

We went for a walk in a nearby park today and there were plenty of fall leaves and trees and bridges and ponds to keep me busy taking photos.

I found this memorial stone dedicated to John Tuzo Wilson in the far corner of a field .  Now I happen to have majored in Geography at university so Tuzo Wilson is a name I am very familiar with.  He is a Canadian scholar who developed the theory of plate tectonics (the movement of the earth's crust) in the 1960s and 70s.  He taught at the University of Toronto, became the principal of Erindale College, University of Toronto, and later served as Director General of the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto.   Needless to say, he was a biggie so I was pretty excited to find this.

Here's a photo of my husband that I included just to show you that the stuff photographers say to models really does work.  I was lying on the grass and he was walking across the field.  I called out "come on baby, work it, work it!" and I got this great photo of him.  I'm either the next great model photographer or my husband finds my antics amusing.

Here's everyone doing what they do best - climbing trees, sniffing everything, watching the dog, and me taking a picture of it all.

A lovely walk!

Linked to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House
and Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Dreamer

Talking about Blue

I'm pretty excited to be guest posting over at Frugal Mom x3.  I'm posting about decorating and the colour blue.  Could it get any better than that?  

I have looked and looked through my stash of photos and even taken some new ones for this post.  I was searching for beautiful shades of blue!

And then I googled and googled and found rooms with those same colours in them.

Are you inspired yet?  Come on over to Bette's blog and have a look at the other lovely rooms.

Bonjour and Au Revoir

Two years ago Kate, our daughter, was an exchange student in France.  She and her exchange partner have remained friends and have each visited back and forth.  This summer it was the parents' turn to visit.  Olivier is involved in the administration of the exchange program and was going to be accompanying a contingent of exchange students to Toronto.  Patricia was going to come along for the fun.  The plan was for them to tour Niagara Falls and the CN Tower in Toronto with the students  and then stay with us for a week.

I was very excited to meet them, but not sure what to show them or take them to visit.  Any time I thought about what Ontario, and Toronto especially, had to offer it seemed there were bigger, better, more interesting things to do in France. I would think of historic houses, and then think that France has older and prettier ones, and I would think of places to eat, and then think that they have better restaurants in France etc.  Of course we have cottage country with lakes and forests, but not everyone likes the outdoors and the rough and tumble life at a cottage.  I was a little discouraged about what there was to show them.

I emailed them a list of suggestions with some photos so they could choose what they might be interested in doing.  Included in the email was a photo of my son canoeing at the cottage .  Patricia  wrote back to say that she had always "dreamed" of canoeing .  I was thrilled - it was just what I needed to hear to get my entertaining mojo back.   I was able to come up with a plan that involved seeing a little city and a little country.

Let me show you what we saw, with some of the things that especially intrigued and interested our french guests.

Part 1 - Toronto

We went to the Distillery District in Toronto for some coffee and then to browse in the shops (you can see more photos here from a previous visit) .   They liked this area of Toronto very much, and were especially interested to know that the exterior scenes for the movie Chicago were filmed here.

We also visited Chinatown  (which I have written about here).  Patricia was surprised how big the area was and that most of the signs in Chinatown were in Chinese not English.

We also visited Kensington Market (which you can see more photos of here).  If you look closely you can see the bubbles from the bubble machine blowing across the sidewalk - only in Kensington Market do you have a bubble machine! 

We also saw the fabulous Inuit art in the lobby of the TD building.  It's one of the lesser known free attractions in Toronto and well worth a visit. I had never been there before so was glad to see something new.

Then we went to the historic roundhouse that has been turned into a Leon's Furniture Store and the Steam Whistle brewery.  I loved the contrast of the furniture displayed against the rustic wood and metal in the roundhouse - very incongruous but charming.  Our french guests really enjoyed this area as well - the mix of old and new, the free pint of beer in the brewery, the views, the old engines...

Part 2 - the cottage

The weather cooperated at the cottage and we were able to go swimming and canoeing

and hiking.

I did my best to find them views of huge tracts of forest (what could be more Canadian after all) and to hopefully see some wildlife.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, they have an electric fence around the dump so there is no bear watching at the dump which used to be the place to take visitors (quaint, I know).   Although I saw two bears on separate occasions this summer as I was driving home from the cottage, there were none to be found for our french guests. We did canoe over to the marsh to see a Great Blue Heron, and we listened to the loon sing while we were paddling on the lake, and

we fed the chipmunk.  All very popular activities with our guests.

Most of all, however, everyone enjoyed the peace and quiet of cottage country.

Who knew that a school bus pulling a trailer loaded with canoes would be interesting - but it was declared 'classic' and many photos were taken of it (including mine, while I was driving).

We stopped at our favourite fossil cliff on the way home and not only were we rewarded with some good fossils,

but our french guests were very impressed with the long straight road - apparently unlike anything they had seen in France.

Our final stop on the way home was at a butter tart shop - classic Canadian fine food! 

They had an absolutely overwhelming selection so we had to try several different versions of butter tarts (and one strawberry-rhubarb tart).

 
Part 3 - Crawford Lake

On our final day, we went to Crawford Lake Conservation area to see a 15th century Iroquoian Village that has been reconstructed on its original site.

The long houses were very impressive.  Can you imagine living here with many other families - they slept on the bottom bunks, stored food on the upper bunks, and had fires on the floor down the middle of the building.  I'm thinking it would have been a tad cold in the winter.

We walked around the lake on the boardwalk.  The forest if very dense so there is little undergrowth.

It can even look a little creepy with trees growing out of the holes in the limestone rocks.

On our last evening together I made Nigerian curry, a family favouite that I had cooked for their daughter on her last evening with us as well, and Patricia taught me how to fold napkins into flowers like this.

Au revoir our lovely french guests!  Until next time.