Showing posts with label Snowflakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snowflakes. Show all posts

February 22, 2017

"Rural Hours" Along the Lake with Susan Fenimore Cooper!

The Lindenwood Pet Squirrel!
Oft' times in old portraits a pet squirrel can be seen.
Lydia Lindenwood has a treat for her sister Pigeon Lindenwood's pet squirrel.


A squirrel atop the finial of the Turret at Castle Corgyncombe.




"Long walk of several miles on the lake.  We enjoyed the walk very much; it is particularly pleasant to wander about at will over so broad a field, confined to no track, and without an obstacle to arrest one's progress, all which gives a freedom to these walks upon the lake, beyond what we are accustomed to on terra firma, where roads, and fences, and bridges must be consulted at every turn."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper

During the Revolutionary War my 5th great grandfather William Scott came down the lake.
 


 


Lovely Isabelle Lindenwood and her delightful friend similarly frocked.


"Our winters are undoubtedly cold enough, but the weather is far from being always severe. We have many moderate days, and others, even in the heart of winter, which are soft and balmy, a warm wind blowing in your face from the south until you wonder how it could have found its way over the snow without being chilled. People always exclaim that such days are quite extraordinary, but in truth, there never passes a year without much weather that is unseasonably pleasant, if we would but remember it. And if we take the year throughout, this sort of weather, in all its varieties, will probably be found more favorably divided for us than we fancy. "
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper


"It is St. Valentine's day, and valentines by the thousand are passing through the post-offices all over the country. Within the last few years, the number of these letters is said to have become really astonishing; we heard that 20,000 passed through the New York post-office last year, but one cannot vouch for the precise number."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper




Falling snowflakes.
 
Lydia Lindenwood with her younger sister Serendipity and their baby sister.


The grand hotel at the edge of the lake where I took dance lessons.


The Queen Anne English wooden dolls were made by talented dollmaker Kathy Patterson.


Lydia Lindenwood's younger sister Pigeon Lindenwood.
She loves animals and birds!
She is awaiting her new frock to be finished.
Pigeon also loves dance lessons!





"Fine day. The good people are beginning to use the lake for sleighs: it is now crossed by several roads, running in different directions."
"The broad, level field of white looks beautifully just now."
"During the last week in February, and in March, the lake is generally more used for sleighing than at any other period; we have seen heavily-loaded sleds, carrying stone and iron, passing over it at such times. The stage-sleighs, with four horses and eight or ten passengers, perhaps, occasionally go and come over the ice at that season. Our people are sometimes very daring in this way; they seldom leave the lake until some horse or sled has been lost; but happily, although there have been narrow escapes of this kind, no lives have yet been lost. "
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper

How unfortunate and sad that some horses were lost to the weakened ice.

When the roads became muddy during thaws the lake was preferred to sleigh on.


"Pleasant morning in the woods. Much amused by squirrels...
Presently a beautiful red squirrel made his appearance, in the notch of a tall old pine, perhaps fifty feet from the ground. He paused every few steps to utter the peculiar cry which has given them the name of chickaree, for they often repeat it, and are noisy little creatures.  He came deliberately down the whole length of the trunk, chatting and waving his beautiful tail as he moved along. After leaving the tree he played about,  here and there, apparently in quest of nuts, and he frequently came very near us of his own accord."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper








Pigeon Lindenwood loves her pet squirrel!




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.

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/2017/02/rural-hours-along-lake-with-susan.html
copyright © 2017 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

December 26, 2016

A Merry White Christmas!

The Lindenwoods Delight in Christmas Festivities!
 Lydia Lindenwood has been collecting some greens for the Christmas festivities.
How lovely her silk gown glows in the light!


Byberry Cottage, home of Susan Fenimore Cooper, the authoress of "Rural Hours", published 1850.


This book, "Little Bird Red and Little Bird Blue, A Tale of the Woods" by M. Betham Edwards, originally belonged to Susan Fenimore Cooper's niece Susie Cooper. She received it as a Christmas gift in 1863.


Little Priscilla Lindenwood admires the dove on the Christmas tree.
The Lindenwoods of Corgyncombe are Queen Anne English wooden dolls made by talented dollmaker Kathy Patterson.

"Susie Cooper with a Merry Christmas"


The trim on Byberry Cottage reminds us of the lace on Lydia Lindenwood's gown!






 "December 19th, Long walk over the hills. We passed a cart standing in the woods, well loaded with Christmas greens, for our parish church. Pine and hemlock are the branches commonly used among us for the purpose; the hemlock, with its flexible twigs, and the grayish reverse of its foliage, produces a very pretty effect. We contributed a basket-full of ground-pine, both the erect and running kinds, with some glittering club-moss, and glossy pipsissiwa, for our share; it is not every year that we can procure these more delicate plants, as the snow is often too deep to find them."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper


The church the Coopers attended. How lovely it is in the new fallen snow!
Susan's father James Fenimore Cooper saw to the remodeling of the church in the Gothic Revival style in 1840.
The Cooper family is buried in the churchyard.


"December 25th, Christmas-day - But even under a cloudy sky, Christmas must always be a happy, cheerful day; the bright fires, the fresh and fragrant greens, the friendly gifts, and words of good-will, the "Merry Christmas" smiles on most faces one meets, give a warm glow to the day, in spite of a dull sky, and make up an humble accompaniment for the exalted associations of the festival, as it is celebrated in solemn, public worship, and kept by the hearts of believing Christians. "
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper



















The Lindenwoods and Tillie Tinkham, the seamstress mouse at Corgyncombe, decorating their Christmas tree with garland.




Susan Fenimore Cooper refers to snowflakes as "spangles". How delightful!

"Cold. Walked in the afternoon. It began to snow while we were out; but one minds the falling snow very little; it is no serious obstacle like rain. The pretty, white spangles, as they fell on our muffs, in their regular but varied shapes, recalled a passage in Clarke's Travels in Russia, where he admires the same delicate frost-work as a novelty. It is common enough in this part of the world. Since Mr. Clarke's day these pretty spangles have received the compliment of a serious examination, they have actually been studied, and drawn in all their varieties. Like all natural objects, they are very admirable in their construction, and they are very beautiful also."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper











"December 25th, Christmas-day - It is, in good sooth, Merry Christmas! The day is bright with blessings; all its hours are beaming with good and kindly feelings, with true and holy joys."
~ "Rural Hours", published 1850,
by Susan Fenimore Cooper

We at the Corgyncombe Courant hope our
Dear Readers had a very Merry Christmas!


Here is a link to a past post at the Corgyncombe Courant with other little dolls enjoying their Christmas tree:
Little Girls' Joys at Christmastide


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.


Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com


Photographs, images, and text copyright © 2000-2016 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/2016/12/a-merry-white-christmas.html
copyright © 2016 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~