Clove Orange Pomanders!

Christmas Time Traditions!

'Tis now the season when we make apple, orange, lemon, and lime pomanders. After the cloves have been put in all round the fruit, it is rolled in an orris root and cinnamon mixture.  Orris root is a ground powder from the rhizomatous roots of Iris Florentina. Pomanders, with their pleasing scent, have long been a tradition at our house at Christmastide!
Tillie Tinkham, the seamstress mouse for the dolls at Corgyncombe, with clove in paw, explains to Emma how to make a delightful smelling clove orange! Tillie made the smaller clove orange several years ago.
Emma is a doll inspired by the old Izannah Walker dolls.
September 25th, 2017 would have been Izannah Walker's 200th birthday.

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December Moon over Corgyncombe
In Eleanor Farjeon's poem "The Clove Orange", she speaks of selecting "a small orange as round as the moon is, ..."

Corgyncombe's "Emily & Ethlyn's Potions & Perfumery", where lavender, rose, and clove oranges are favored fragrances. According to the "American Dictionary of The English Language" by Noah Webster, 1828, a potion is: a draught; usually, a liquid medicine; a dose.

Making Dundee cakes for tea is another tradition around Christmas time at Corgyncombe Cottage.
During the days before Christmas, delicious and festive Dundee cakes are enjoyed at tea time.
At the Corgyncombe Bakery I make many Dundee cakes in all different shapes and sizes.
 Dundee cakes are made a month ahead of time and put in cold storage until time for St. Nicholas Tea.

The receipt for Dundee Cake is in "The Tasha Tudor Cookbook".
I never add the citron nor the raisins as called for in the receipt, but add more than the called for amount of currants and in addition to the almonds in the receipt, add walnuts.
This combination makes the most delicious Dundee cake!

In her cookbook Tasha Tudor says to decorate the top of the Dundee cake with cherries and almonds. I have always decorated my Dundee cakes in a different pattern than those that I have seen Tasha illustrate. I use the cherry as the center with almonds or other nuts around the cherries forming flower-like shapes. I also use the currants to decorate the top of the Dundee cake.

Oranges, lemons, and cider for making wassail.

Miniature sized fruit and a clove orange pomander.

863 Park Avenue where Tillie has her shoppe "Tillie Tinkham's Frocks & Fashions" with Millinery and Tea Room.
Nearby the dollhouse is our old fashioned table top Christmas tree like my Grandmum always had! The tree is surrounded by an old fashioned fence; it looks like a park in the distance from the house. In front of the dollhouse are little trees and another fence.
The address 863 Park Avenue is above the door.
The dollhouse, with its two large opening doors, reminds us of Beatrix Potter's doll's house at Hill Top.

 The dollhouse was from the Parsons family's stone summer home at their estate in Connecticut. The dollhouse is a miniature version of 863 Park Avenue in Manhattan where the Parsons family had lived at one time.

Tillie has a millinery shoppe and tea room at 863 Park Avenue. Tillie is helping the little dog decide on a hat. Trying on hats, what fun!

The blue and silver scenes on the walls are like diamond shaped windows looking out to fashionable folk walking about on cobbled streets. The rows of close buildings with their steep roofs and chimneys are reminiscent of the charming old English villages Lacock and Bibury in the Cotswolds.

This Regency lady is charmingly similar to Cassandra's portrait of her sister Jane Austen.

Hitty pours herself another cup of tea at "Tillie Tinkham's Frocks and Fashions" with Millinery and Tea Room at 863 Park Avenue. Tillie balances on her rose tuffet and sips her tea.

Silent Night at Corgyncombe

We hope all our Dear Readers
had a wonderful Christmas!

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.

Please do not "Pin" our photographs.
Please do not post our photographs on facebook.

Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com
If you receive an email you think is from me from this email, please make sure it is atthecottagegate@yahoo.com, and not just something that sounds similar.

Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.


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copyright © 2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Santa's Sleigh and My Bouncing, Twirling, Whizzing, Flying Saucer!

Santa and His Reindeer!

A joyful visit with Santa Claus.
My brother and I were dressed in warm snowsuits.

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My father made the Santa Claus, reindeer and sleigh to decorate our grounds at Christmas time. There was even a Red-Nosed Rudolph at the lead! The fence in the background is where our neighbors hung the flying saucer adorned with a big red bow that they gave us as a Christmas gift one year. How I have always loved the splendid landscapes; the hills and dales that surrounded me in this lovely ancestral countryside!

Me on my silver metal flying saucer!!!

One year on Christmas Eve I can remember going to town with my father to see Santa one more time to make sure that he was going to get everything straight. When I got back home there was a silver metal flying saucer on the picket fence with a big red bow that said "From Santa" and I remember standing there and saying "But that's not right!" I was very upset. I had asked Santa for a specific doll just a few minutes ago. Come to find out our neighbors had left the saucer but I didn't find that out until the next day when I received my specifically asked for doll for Christmas. I soon loved my silver metal flying saucer and how I would bounce, bump, twirl and whiz down the hills at breakneck speed with it and remember fondly the dear neighbors and the sight of the silver metal flying saucer on the fence with the red bow attached with the sparkly snow all around in the moonlight.

Tasha Tudor illustrated the 1975 version of "The Night Before Christmas". It is delightful! In Sarah's book Tasha wrote: "To Miss Sarah who wears fine boots! Love from Tasha Tudor".

Merry Christmas

to our Dear Readers!

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.

Please do not "Pin" our photographs.
Please do not post our photographs on facebook.

Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com
If you receive an email you think is from me from this email, please make sure it is atthecottagegate@yahoo.com, and not just something that sounds similar.

Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.


http://corgyncombecourant.blogspot.com/2017/12/santas-sleigh-and-my-bouncing-twirling.html
copyright © 2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mayflower Rose and Izannah Walker!

Emma Fashions a Mayflower Rose Tussie Mussie in Remembrance of the Pilgrims!

Cool autumnal weather brings out the best in the Mayflower David Austin Rose.

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The Mayflower rose makes a delightful long lasting bouquet with an old fashioned rose fragrance.

A couple of weeks ago Emma spied the very last rose of the season. Along with some rose geranium leaves and some late lavender that she had gathered before, she decided to make a Mayflower Rose tussie mussie. Emma remembers all of my Pilgrim ancestors whilst she fashions the Mayflower tussie mussie!

Emma loves the fragrance of the old fashioned Mayflower Rose!

Emma is a doll inspired by the old Izannah Walker dolls.
September 25th, 2017 would have been Izannah Walker's 200th birhday.
Izannah Walker is a distant cousin of mine through my Gaskill family of early New England.
Also, Izannah Walker lived in New England and her Walker ancestors lived very near where my Walker ancestors came from.

The David Austin Mayflower Rose is named after the Mayflower, the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America in 1620.

I descend from Mayflower passengers Myles Standish, George Soule, Stephen Hopkins and his daughter Constance, Edward Fuller and his wife, Peter Brown, John Howland, John Tilley, his wife Joan (Hurst) Tilley and their daughter Elizabeth, Richard Warren and am researching Isaac Allerton, his wife Mary (Norris) Allerton and their daughter Mary, two different lines to Francis Cooke and another line to Stephen Hopkins with his wife Elizabeth (Fisher) Hopkins.

Little Tillie Tinkham, the seamstress mouse for the dolls at Corgyncombe, is a descendant of the Brown mouse family who came on the Mayflower. Mayflower passenger Peter Brown's daughter Mary Brown Mouse married into the Tinkham mouse family.

Emma places her tussie mussie in a spot where all can enjoy its loveliness!

Such simple elegance!

Outside, the roses are now bundled up for winter and we all look forward to fragrant and lovely spring blooms!

Happy Thanksgiving
to our Dear Readers!

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.
Please do not "Pin" our photographs.
Please do not post our photographs on facebook.

Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com
If you receive an email you think is from me from this email, please make sure it is atthecottagegate@yahoo.com, and not just something that sounds similar.

Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.


http://corgyncombecourant.blogspot.com/2017/11/mayflower-rose-and-izannah-walker.html
copyright © 2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remembrances on Veterans Day

Hoping the War Will Be Over Soon So We Can See Each Other Again...

The brother pictured above died whilst in the service.
He was only 19 and had a special sweetheart at home who he planned to marry.
In a letter to one of his brothers in the service he wrote that he was hoping the war would be over soon so that all the brothers could see each other again.

In his last letter home he wrote of his love for his family.
Also in the photograph above is one of the Western Union Telegrams sent when he died.
Sally Ann said that at the funeral there was not a dry eye in the church.
Her brother's favorite hymns were played at the service on the organ.
The older two brothers were unable to attend the funeral as one was in Panama and the other in Africa.

Uncle's Service Photo Album, Fort Andrews, Boston Harbor, Mass. The photograph is of him leaving home after his last leave.

Uncle with his Grandmum (his Father's Mum)
His Grandmum's ancestors in the Scott, Keyes, and Adams families served in the Revolutionary War.

Sally Ann, sad to see her brother leaving to go back to Fort Andrews.

Uncle and his Sweetheart

Sally Ann's baby brother, wearing his aviator hat, posed atop the mailbox in front of the family home. The family mailbox where news from home was sent and news from the three brothers in the service was eagerly watched and waited for.

Letters sent home by the three brothers.

Sally Ann's three older brothers and her father played for dances and special occasions.
The three brothers above all served during World War II.
The brother in the middle is the brother pictured at the top of this post, the one who died in the service.

Sally Ann and her brothers had numerous direct ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War, on both their Mother and Father's side of the family.

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.

Please do not "Pin" our photographs.
Please do not post our photographs on facebook.

Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com
If you receive an email you think is from me from this email, please make sure it is atthecottagegate@yahoo.com, and not just something that sounds similar.

Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.


http://corgyncombecourant.blogspot.com/2017/11/remembrances-on-veterans-day.html
copyright © 2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Corgyncombe Farmers' Market!

Nanny Nettie-Kin Loads Her Wagon and Readies for the Market!

Nanny Nettie-Kin readies her wagon for the Corgyncombe Farmers' Market.

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Nanny Nettie-Kin and her wagon have arrived for the Corgyncombe Farmers' Market.
Hitty Delight, the most recent Hitty to come to Corgyncombe, accompanies Nanny.
What a lovely autumnal glow and wonderful day for the Corgyncombe Farmers' Market!

Corgyncombe Acorn Squash

Corgyncombe Broccoli

Corgyncombe carrots being readied for canning.

Corgyncombe cabbage and beans.

Corgyncombe Pumpkins

Corgyncombe cabbage

Hitty Delight helps Nanny Nettie-Kin unload the wagon.

Nanny Nettie-Kin's display at the
Corgyncombe Farmers' Market.

A jug of Corgyncombe maple syrup is up atop the display.

Corgyncombe Potatoes and Tomatoes

Corgyncombe onions

A lovely Autumnal display on our way to ancestral lands in Vermont.

"My Summer in a Garden" by Charles Dudley Warner is interesting and humorous to read during the weeks of vegetable gardening season. A quote from the book: "There is life in the ground; it goes into the seeds; and it also, when it is stirred up, goes into the man who stirs it. The hot sun on his back as he bends to his shovel or hoe, or contemplatively rakes the warm and fragrant loam, is better than much medicine." On the book is a Corgyncombe potato blossom.

Lovely Hitty Delight carries the basket of buttons used by the dolls as currency.
I oft' times carry a basket instead of a purse myself.
Tasha Tudor had the children use buttons to buy goods for their dolls and animals and Sparrow Post to deliver mail. The currency for the dolls at Corgyncombe is buttons, as well!

Corgyncombe Vegetables

Corgyncombe canned carrots.

Corgyncombe Butt'ry

The large golden dollhouse,
Pumpkin House,
an old New England House.

Nanny Nettie-Kin and the Little Dolls of Pumpkin House
bringing the harvest in to the hall of their Old New England House.
Many hands make light work.

And Tillie Tinkham, the seamstress mouse for the dolls at Corgyncombe, comes and little paws help, too.

 

The squash are stored in the hall of Pumpkin House,
which also serves as Nanny Nettie-Kin's Herbary.
Hitty had rushed upstairs with her favorite Pumpkin and hid it under the bed to later make a "Pumpkin Moonshine". Tasha Tudor wrote and illustrated the book "Pumpkin Moonshine" about a little girl who found a special pumpkin to make a pumpkin moonshine.

I acquired the sandstone sink in Connecticut where my ancestors, the Stanclift family, dwelt. In the above photograph I have a colander full of washed carrots from the Corgyncombe Vegetable Garden.

Gravestone carving was a tradition in the Stanclift family. The stone of the gravestones and the Corgyncombe Butt'ry sink are the same reddish brown sandstone. The sink, which was from a very old house in the area the Stanclifts lived, could well have been made by one of the Stanclifts.

Our Stanclift family came from Yorkshire, England in the 1680s.

Nanny Nettie-Kin has had an abundance of squash at her Pumpkin House gardens and decides to make gourd soup.
Above, she is chopping the squash.

The dolls at Corgyncombe and I have many things in common including a love of yellowware, baskets, gardening, and many old fashioned favorite things and old ways.

 Nanny Nettie-Kin cooking her gourd soup on her old cast iron stove, which is called the "Ark".

Nanny Nettie-Kin puts the gourd soup through a sieve.

Nanny Nettie-Kin serves gourd soup.
She went out in her herb garden and found the smallest leaves of sage to put atop the soup.
All the Hittys at Pumpkin House find it to be most delicious!

Some of the photographs and some of the writings on this post are from previous Corgyncombe Courant posts that can be found here on the Corgyncombe Courant and from our web site and our previous postings elsewhere on the internet.

Please do not "Pin" our photographs.
Please do not post our photographs on facebook.

Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com
If you receive an email you think is from me from this email, please make sure it is atthecottagegate@yahoo.com, and not just something that sounds similar.

Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson. All rights reserved. Photographs, images, and/or text may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson.


http://corgyncombecourant.blogspot.com/2017/10/corgyncombe-farmers-market.html
copyright © 2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~