Today we are going to drop in on my cousin Terry and his partner Gino for tea at their old-fashion Cape Cod home. In our family, you never have to call and say your visiting...you just show up...and if it's meal time, your invited to stay. So we won't call ahead....but we will stop by a bakery and buy a goodie that Terry can serve with the tea.
Across the yard is their old barn. It is filled with old antiques, broken carriages, old trunks from several lifetimes ago. I think it would make a nice little bookstore cafe for the summer residents of Priscilla and White Horse Beach, but Terry said "Working for the Man was long enough, we don't want to be tied down."
We will enter through the porch to the kitchen.
The kitchen was remodeled three years ago when Terry and Gino retired. Up until then they lived on Beacon Hill in Boston and only stayed here on the week-ends. Terry, being a fine cook, needed something more modern then the old cookstove they had used previously.
This is the dining room where our whole family including aunts and uncles, cousins and families come together to celebrate Thanksgiving. We need three tables set up in here to fit everyone.
I love the old fashion fireplace with Terry's pewter collection. Old crocks and copper tin stand on the floor. A picture of my two sisters, Terry and myself taken in Munich sits on the Copper tin.
The house actually has five fireplaces...one in the dining room, living room, library downstairs and in the Master bedroom and a guest bedroom upstairs.
Gino has taken up watercolors in retirement. My sister, who is an artist, gives him art lessons on Wenesday morn. Gino is working on a portrait of his Mom.
This is the fireplace in the living room. It has some missing Dutch tiles...if any of you by chance come upon such old tiles, I would appreciate an email.
This is one of the three guest bedrooms.
An old oak chest in a guest bedroom.
This is the sitting room on the second floor off the art studio. I love the colors chosen for this room and threaten Terry and Gino that this will be my bedroom if I ever leave Papa!
The house has two bathrooms...one on the main floor with a modern shower and an old fashion bathroom with a clawfoot bathtub on the second. Terry prefers this one...whereas Gino likes the one downstairs.
Now that you have had a tour of the house, let's go down for some tea before going out to explore their gardens. I brought a blueberry pie and some vanilla ice cream.
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Comments: 34
The house is huge and has a lot of "common space" and so it became "the house for holidays" in the winter months. We have a large family and so we need lots of space.
As for the gardens, like me, they are novices....but in three years they have turned the outside into a perennial paradise.
But the thing is marianne, if you by chance get to Massachusetts, a bed they would provide. And Terry gives the best tours of Boston!
Darcey D.
Yes, there home is wonderful....its warm and cozy and just filled with love and laughter.
get a good close up of the tiles becue it might be able to replace them and there are places that specialize in such thngs so worth a try to look for tehm
put up some new pictures and so because you were so generaous, I want to thank you very much... the pictures are from the first ytials. I know how to attach a lens, insert a memory card and turn it on. and beyond that i ahve much to learn, but I put up just a few pictures here
mirucek and friends
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977052231
the three pics of the newbie dragonfly and Mirucek emerging for photo shoot and Mir Secundus climbing are from today. Iy will be at elast two weeks befoe I will gain control over basic functions, but it is a very amazing gift and I think the choice was right-- really am a bit overwhelmed by it. thank-you very much.
As for the tiles...Gino and Terry actually stopped by for tea tonight...and I told them your offer of looking for them in ole shoppes...they were thrilled and told me to come back and take photos of just the tiles...I think there's two different scenes.
Yes, the love does shine through when you enter their home. Both the home and the gardens are filled with love. Terry has such a discerning eye when we go to yard sales or auctions. If something catches his eye, he's on it. Gino spends a lot of his time with the gardens...both vegetable and flower gardens. They share the fruits of their garden with us...never have been able to grow vegetables!
Terry is the cook...he makes wonderful preserves from their grapes...he's always cookin' up something...bread pudding, peach cobbler, etc. and bringing some to his "disabled cooking cousins".
here's the tea culture group
http://teaculture.gather.com/
As for the tiles, I will take pictures of them this week.
Sitting in their garden with a cup of tea would be just what I need right now!