You never know what we'll churn up in cleaning a stall
A reconstructed whale skeleton suspended in the New England Aquarium pays homage to the region’s close relationship to the sea. For generations, whaling was a major industry that provided essential oil to illuminate the night. The aquarium sits on a wharf in Boston Harbor.
The city is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.
The John Hancock Insurance Co. is celebrated in the two skyscrapers it erected in Boston’s Back Bay.
The city is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or even of the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.
The great speeches, lectures, and debates gracing Faneuil Hall over the years reflect the rise and advance of American liberty and democracy.
Boston is a rich and varied destination – the Hub of New England, or the Universe, as they used to say. Living a little more than an hour to the north, we’re well within its orb.
Our Advent readings last year have had me reflecting on the concept of home and how deeply we, as humans, yearn for such a place. Or should I say state of comfort.
It also has me admitting how elusive it’s been for me. Our childhood home was never truly comfortable, physically or emotionally. And in the moves afterward, I often felt more that I’d established a suitable base camp while anticipating the next leap forward. Home, in other words, was always over the horizon.
The closest I’d felt was the craftsman-style house we bought in the Rust Belt, but I knew I wouldn’t be living there forever. I was still building my resume, as the phrase goes, working my way up the management ladder.
More than three decades later, I’ve settled into a community that feels right, though I’m very much an outsider. At least, as far as a career goes, I’ve survived into retirement. As for the house? It’s been my address longer than any other, but somehow it still feels not quite solid. No amount of renovation will ever make it quite right, not with its leaky cellar and foundation. But it’s what I have and where I work at what I love to do. The garden’s in place, and then there’s the loft in my barn.
And then there’s family, with the kids now grown and housed elsewhere. Could it be home, then, is wherever my wife’s cooking? At least that points in a state of awareness direction.
As well as an underlying unsettled element in my own psyche.
~*~
My poems on the challenges of renovations, repairs, and relating as a husband are collected as Home Maintenance, a free ebook at Thistle/Flinch editions.
Here’s a local example of the Georgian style, which flourished 1750s-1820s.
Strolling Dover: for more, click here.
He says it’s one of his least favorite jobs as an electrician, this hanging new lighting fixtures. In an old house, there’s not much wire left in the ceiling to work with. Forget moving around on the ladder. And you’d rather not rip away any plaster if you can help it.
But the results can be so dramatic. Or should we say, illuminating?
~*~
My poems on the challenges of renovations, repairs, and relating as a husband are collected as Home Maintenance, a free ebook at Thistle/Flinch editions.
Closets seem to be a recent addition to New England housing, and ours is no exception. We long desired to have one on the first floor, someplace to store the vacuum cleaner and brooms, for starters. Yes, the winter coats can hang in the mudroom (that was something this Midwestern native had to learn about, back when).
Mudroom? Definitely no space for a vacuum cleaner there.
And so we slid one in our pantry, when we got to that part of the bathroom project.
~*~
My poems on the challenges of renovations, repairs, and relating as a husband are collected as Home Maintenance, a free ebook at Thistle/Flinch editions.
Around here, if you mention New Englander as a style of house, everybody knows what you mean. Gable end to the street, perhaps a bay window beside the front door, typically two full stories and a usable third floor. Not Greek Revival, except in a stripped-down way with some carpenter gothic touches, and definitely not Colonial Revival. Modest, middle-class – maybe even working class – sometimes even as a duplex.
But try looking it up and the best you can find is an accusation that it’s New Hampshire Realtor BS.
Well, that’s where we live. Ours seems to be from the 1890s.
~*~
My poems on the challenges of renovations, repairs, and relating as a husband are collected as Home Maintenance, a free ebook at Thistle/Flinch editions.
More and more, when I look at a dream house, my reaction turns the other direction. Is that where I’d want to live? Who keeps it clean? How do you get truly comfortable? Make a mess? The kitchen, especially, looks like nobody’s used it for anything more than microwaving a frozen entree.
~*~
My poems on the challenges of renovations, repairs, and relating as a husband are collected as Home Maintenance, a free ebook at Thistle/Flinch editions.
Here’s a local example of the Greek Revival style, which flourished 1820-1860.
Strolling Dover: for more, click here.
Jnana's Red Barn 