Pretty livable

Boston-based Wilson Kelsey Design is the husband and wife team behind these graceful interiors.  John always leaves thoughtful comments on our blog.  Visit the Wilson Kelsey blog by clicking here.

John tells me that this award-winning project at Prides Crossing was the renovation of a large condominium in an old carriage house/barn that was part of the former Ayer estate.

General Patton married the Ayer daughter and used to keep some of his horses in the barn.  Now Bella is going to see this and want crown moldings in her stall.

I want to curl up in that window seat and read all afternoon.

Sally is an accomplished pianist, and loves books, maps, museums and the opera.  John is a wine aficionado, and enjoys fly fishing and racing Italian sports cars.

John says that this project was the renovation of, and addition to a 1780's era Colonial in Lincoln, MA

See more gorgeous Wilson Kelsey designs by clicking here.

All-time Fave's from our library:

                   

Thank you, Veterans

President William Clinton read Emerson's famous hymn for a video for the Favorite Poem Project.  See the video by clicking here.  The hymn was first sung on July 4, 1837, at the completion of the monument commemorating heroes of the Revolutionary War and the battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775).

CONCORD HYMN 

by Ralph Waldo Emerson (American, 1803-1882)

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Fourteen years after the Vietnam War, veteran and contemporary poet Yusef Komunyakaa wrote about facing the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial wall and the memories and images the wall evoked.


FACING IT
by Yusef Komunyakaa (American, b. 1947)

My black face fades,   

hiding inside the black granite.   

I said I wouldn't  

dammit: No tears.   

I'm stone. I'm flesh.   

My clouded reflection eyes me   

like a bird of prey, the profile of night   

slanted against morning. I turn   

this way—the stone lets me go.   

I turn that way—I'm inside   

the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

again, depending on the light   

to make a difference.   

I go down the 58,022 names,   

half-expecting to find   

my own in letters like smoke.   

I touch the name Andrew Johnson;   

I see the booby trap's white flash.   

Names shimmer on a woman's blouse   

but when she walks away   

the names stay on the wall.   

Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's   

wings cutting across my stare.   

The sky. A plane in the sky.   

A white vet's image floats   

closer to me, then his pale eyes   

look through mine. I'm a window.   

He's lost his right arm   

inside the stone. In the black mirror   

a woman’s trying to erase names:   

No, she's brushing a boy's hair.  

Absolutely Must See Videos from our library:

Funny Face

I walk past this maple every morning on my way to the barn, and it seemed to get brighter and brighter each day.  It began to remind me of Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face, in her brilliant red dress saying, "Take the picture, take the picture!"

This morning I couldn't ignore its almost fluorescent vermillion-ness any longer, I took the picture!

We think that country life is more a state of mind, than a state of, well... State.

Whether your home is the city, by the sea, in the mountains or Farm town, USA, country life is about how you approach living your day, how you feel about your home, and how you care for yourself and your neighbors.

Virginia Country Life from A-Z is a new series inspired by our homes in Virginia.  It's about some things and people we love, and some ideas for making your life a little more country- wherever you are.

Next post... A is for Antiques:  Some Collected Wisdom for Beginning Collectors



Favorites from our library:

                  


Images:  1. Virginia, Barn walk November 9th 2. Funny Face 3. Virginia, Barn walk November 9th 4. Virginia, At the barn October 30th

Chow, Bella

This is Bella.

This is Bella's foot.  She has 4 of them.  Bella gets a pedicure, and one or two new pairs of shoes every 6 weeks, which, I'm sorry to say, is more often than I do.

Various types of horse shoes for corrective shoeing.

Think of this as an emery board- super-sized.  This is one of Bella's many servants, her patient and skillful farrier, and my dear friend, Kris.

Horse shoeing is science, math and art.  Please note, the positions and contortions that this amazing person must get into in order to do this job- and she does it when it is snowing, raining, when it is 100 degrees, and when it is so cold that we have to take breaks every 15 minutes because we can no longer feel our fingers.

Kris is a graduate of the renowned farrier program at the Cornell University school of Veterinary Medicine.  She can make and fit horseshoes right at the barn from her custom designed truck.

When the vet comes, guys head the other way, but when Kris comes, they come out of the woodwork.  Guys love her truck.

Kris has two important qualities that Bella looks for in a shoe salesman- she is knowledgeable, and she doesn't get mad at you if you chew on her ponytail.

The last time Kris was at the barn, Bella helped herself to a $20 bill from the front seat of Kris's truck.

This is the rinsed version, as it was barely recognizable when I pulled it out of her mouth.  Thankfully, the United States Department of the Treasury has in its employ, a person whose career is devoted to the authentication and replacement of mangled, slobber-covered money partially eaten by farm animals.

Yet another reason it's great to be an American.

A spa day can make you sleepy.  Bella is dusted with hay because while she was having her nails done, dinner was being delivered, and was floating through the floorboards of the loft.

Affectionately known as "The Hay Guy," he lives with his family on a farm in Pennsylvania, and brings us beautiful hay at reasonable prices.  This is 144 bales of first-cutting timothy with a little alfalfa.  You can see that Hay Guy is in great shape.  He can pick up a 50-pound bale in each hand like it's nothing, and throw it into the loft faster than two people can stack it.  And he's at least 90 years old.  Just kidding, but he is about 50.  His father-in-law, who I would guess is about 70, has also delivered hay to us, and he can do the same thing, just as fast.  Living in the country eliminates the need for complicated diet plans and expensive gym memberships.


 Books we love from our library:



 
Moving, life changing.  A prescription for living a harmonious existence, whether it involves horses or not.





        
       The "bible" of buying country property

  

Just have to read it.

   
            One of the funniest books I have ever read.  I was gasping for air from the first pages.