Getting Rolling

Today is a bit of a catch up and prepare day. Lots of little stuff before we leave for the 'other' Cape tomorrow. We'll only be gone overnight as I've got a tuning on Saturday morning and keys due to arrive today. So, I must say that business has been picking up. Several new tuning customers within the last couple of weeks and key work is growing, as well. Between trying to aim for nice weather for our Cape trip and working around working, it's been difficult. The weather has been Lousy with a capital L. We have only had three days of sunshine, so far, in the month of June! Very unlike us.

I meant to post this picture for Flag Day, June 14, but I was dealing with the laptop and couldn't.You can count it as my Independence Day photo, too. Just trying to get a little ahead! Hmm, this copy seems a bit dark compared to the original.

As I mentioned several posts ago, Squirt, or son or daughter of, has been coming 'round again.We are no longer providing peanuts, though. Squirt started bringing friends. First with one which wasn't so bad. Then three. Okay, that was getting to be too much. Especially when they started attacking the glass door trying to get in! Bad Squirt (and friends). No more nuts for you.

So there's a start on my updates. Oh yeah, there should be another oil painting appearing in the sidebar slideshow. May take a bit for it to show (don't know why that happens), but it is loaded in to the Cellar Studio at Flickr.

Wow, Finally!

I've got my PC back! I wasn't going to hook it all up this evening as it is a real pain to make all the connections while balance on a chair, reaching up to a shoulder height shelf, with no room to turn the CPU to actually see what goes where. I have a little chart and use a mirror.

Anyway, it wasn't going to happen tonight...until after four tries with the laptop and I still couldn't get to my email.

So no big stories and no pictures tonight. Maybe tomorrow! Patience.

Wanted

My real computer back! I want to post pictures, I want to keep up with everyone without it taking hours, I want to see other's pictures without waiting for eons. I am soooooo ready to put this laptop away! Anyway, I'm still around and still reading everything that you all write. Sometimes, though, it takes so long for this thing to load up anything I give up trying to comment. sigh

54 and Counting

As of June 18 that is. Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear me - eee, happy birthday to me (and dickiebo and Paul, too)!

I'm still awaiting my computer so that I can get back to some fun online. Sorry I haven't been keeping up with y'all. This little laptop is just frustrating to work with and at times it takes over a half hour just to get things running and connected to the Internet. My computer was ready to pick up last Friday, but then I decided to have more memory added. Wish I could get some added to my brain!

Weirdest thing has happened. Work has picked up. Very strange. Keys coming in, tuning calls above average. Must be because I want to take a few days off next week during 'A's vacation.

Oh yeah, as of tomorrow I'll be double 'A's age.

Like Trying to Push Molasses Uphill

I'm patiently waiting for my 'real' computer to come home from it's visit to the computer spa. In the meantime, I'm suffering with my very outdated laptop. Today, actually this time starting up, is the first time that I didn't have to reset the date and time as the battery was finally charged enough! It's frustrating when a piece of equipment is used so rarely that you forget how to use it. Since I've finally gotten the hang of this little thing, I guess my computer guru should be calling to have me pick up the 'real' thing!

Tonight I am once again taking myself out on the town. This time I'll be attending a presentation by Capt. Bill Lee of the Ocean Reporter who will be showing videos of underwater around Sandy Bay. You'll have to wait until I get my computer back to see a picture of Bill's boat, the Ocean Reporter. This laptop hasn't a program to download from my camera.

Aha, go HERE to find out more about the Ocean Reporter.

Anyway, until then it's slow as molasses and onward...

Star Dumbstruck

The postcard shows the building that is now the candy factory where I work. A few of the details have changed over the years, but not many. Presently the left third of the front section of the building houses the taffy pulling room. Here the 'taffy boy' and the taffy pulling is on display for all the tourists to peer in at. The remainder of the front of the building is retail. The first floor back section is the candy factory.

Sunday was a relatively slow day for retail as far as a weekend day goes. I waited on a lady and her friend who were buying "just enough for a three year old" gummy worms and bears. It was a small handful; just over one dollars worth. They paid and left. As soon as they were out the door, the taffy boy quit what he was doing to rush out of the taffy room to where I was standing behind the counter.

"Do you know who that was?" The taffy boy was grinning from ear to ear.

"No, who?" I asked.

"That was Salma Hayek," he exclaimed.

He was still talking about it on Monday!


(note: This afternoon my computer goes in for it's annual check up. I will be a bit out of touch for a couple days. I'm not ignoring you!)

Pretty Here, Too

Well, the Moseley's may have created some fabulous gardens in their day, but 'black thumb Deb' can grow pretty things if she so desires! I'll be spending some time updating a few things around here...maybe. I need a new book for the sidebar. Problem is I haven't read anything worthy recently. I may resort to 'previous to blogging' reads that are worth the mention. I should post my birthday list...but most of you don't need to read it. Make that all of you don't. I still have some more Moseley stuff and there should be a new venture in upcoming weeks concerning "The Countess". I need to do some real writing, too...an article for "The Reed Organ Quarterly" about the Thacher Island organ. I need to get out there, first, to check on it's survival of winter. Given only Wednesdays and Saturdays to catch the boat to the island has proven elusive. Work and weather haven't cooperated.

The Moseley Estate

That's where 'A' and I spent a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon. After dropping my mom off to visit with friends, we arrived at Maudslay State Park at two o'clock.

Quoted from the park brochure: From 1849 to 1870, Mr. and Mrs. William Ashby of Newburyport hosted annual literary parties at the Laurel Grounds. Guests included such famous figures as John Greenleaf Whittier, who composed several poems about the site.

Sing soft, sing low, our lowland river,
Under thy banks of Laurel-bloom
Softly and sweet as the hour becometh,
Sing us the songs of peace and home.

More than a century later the spectacular mountain laurel still graces the river's banks....

In 1805, the Moseley's, one of the wealthiest families in New England, settled in Newburyport. Seeking to protect this beautiful place, they began acquiring portions of the Laurel Grounds in the 1860's. The family continued to acquire surrounding lands and by 1900 had assembled a substantial estate, which they named Maudesleigh (later known as Maudslay), after the family's ancestral home in England.
The Moseley's bought the last parcel, the west side of Castle (or Laurel) Hill in the 1920's, from Katherine Tingley, who had staged Shakespearean performances on the site. Katherine Tingley's house was moved off the property. On the east side of Laurel Hill stood "Moulton's Castle", a twenty-two room wooden Gothic home built by Captain Henry Moulton. The "castle" was razed in 1900 when it was purchased by Charles Moseley.
In 1895, Frederick Moseley began converting a small farmhouse overlooking the river into a magnificent summer and weekend residence with more than forty rooms. Between 1939 and 1941, Frederick's daughter, Helen Jr., built a large colonial style house on a second river site. Neither structure remains today. The main house was demolished in 1955 after the deaths of Frederick and Helen Sr.; fire destroyed Helen Moseley, Jr.'s house in 1978.

Helen's House in 1975
'A' under the giant rhododendrons
The stables near the site of the Main House
View from "Castle Hill" site of Moulton's Castle
The route that 'A' and I walked (darkened line)