Domehenge
The Little House that Grew
When I was in kindergarten (early 1940s) in School 13 in Valley Stream, Long island, NY, I remember a story the teacher read aloud to us on more than one occasion. I always loved it, although can’t remember the exact title. I call it “The Little House that Grew”. It was about a family of […]
Our Faithful Cherry Trees
Our spring season probably hasn’t been much different from the rest of the northeast’s season. It came early after a not-so-snowy winter. Both the lack of snow storms and the early arrival of warm, sunny days mixed with enough rain was a blessing after some of the long winters of shoveling the car out, scraping […]
‘What Do You Do All Winter?”
“Winter solitude- in a world of one colour the sound of the wind.” Matsuo Basho How many times have we been asked “What do you do all winter?” When people visit us or even hear that we live on top of a mountain with few neighbors, the first thing they focus on is winter. Yes, […]
Meet Wood Charles
It’s February 2nd, also known as Groundhog Day. I personally put my faith into the groundhog’s predictions for the length of winter-like weather. Any animal which faithfully comes out of his burrow each year must have some knowledge of the season’s future, otherwise why would we, or he, even acknowledge his shadow, or lack thereof? […]
One of Winter’s Pleasures
Winter on the mountain is beautiful after a snow. Everything is solid white; even our plowed road and driveway are white, unlike the streets in town or the highways which are sloppy and covered with dirt. On sunny days we sometimes bundle up and go out for a walk, but most often, especially when it’s […]
Conversations on Elevators
Our mountain dome is only two floors, not counting the 4-foot crawl space below or the small cupola on top. The “temporary” wooden ladder (still in place) goes up to that. One side of it has been well marked over the years with the heights of grandchildren and their friends. They climb up and down […]
The Oculus
We designed the inside of our dome as an upside-down house. The downstairs would be divided up into two bedrooms, a utility room, and a large bathroom. The kitchen and living areas would be upstairs––the small kitchen in the center. Mark’s ham shack would occupy a quarter of the pie, at least as much as […]
The Small Dome
We just closed up the “small dome” for winter. It doesn’t take too much work. We make sure the windows are all shut and locked, that the kitchen sink drain gets blown out, and that anti-freeze is poured into it as well as into the toilet. We sweep up a bit, wipe off the counter […]
The Land Has Spoken
After we bought our property we still had no idea what type of house we’d build. We’d speak of the “mountain house”, but with no grand vision of how it would look, or how big it would be. It would just be for get-aways and therefore probably a fairly small place. Nothing fancy. After all, […]
The Best of Plans
Mark and I had often talked about our future plans way back before retirement days were near. The conversations often cropped up after a Friday night at the National Geographic lectures in the DAR Constitution Hall, followed by dinner at Freddie’s Piano Restaurant. Freddie’s was on Connecticut Avenue, a small place always filled with returning, […]