Saturday, January 20, 2007

Sarah and Dave and Ellen and Isaiah sent me these 2 wood models of an F-15 Eagle and an F-86 Sabre Jet. They look super on the filing cabinet when you come up the stairs into the office. I know, I know...I have let my hair grow a little, and trimmed my beard into a goatee...gonna let it grow a little more and see where it gets to before either BD or I say enough...
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Sunday, January 07, 2007


It must have been absolutely beautiful to see in it's heyday...

Front entry to the house...in the back you can see a steel door open. That was the vault in the vault room, a normal and customary room to have in a well-to-do family home during those times. Money, papers, and other valuables were kept in the vault much like money in a bank's vault today

We took my Mom to Barnsley Gardens. It's a resort now (1,300 acres) near Adairsville, Georgia. It was the home of Godfrey Barnsley and his wife Julia, the daughter of a planter in Savannah. He built it for her and their children. He was a businessman into importing and exporting and other activities that made him a very, very wealthy man. He came to Northwest Georgia and fell in love with the rolling hills and the foothills nearby leading to the Appalachians. Unfortunateyl Mrs. Barnsley became ill with "consumption" before the house was built, and he took her and the kids back to her folks' plantation near Savannah where she died. He was devastated, threw himself into his businesses and let the kids' Governess take care of them. On a trip back to the half-finished house a year later, he ran into Julia's spirit in the gardens in front of the house, and after a long talk she convinced he needed to finish the house and move the children into it. He did, and over the years he remained at Barnsley becoming a highly respected man in the area. The house and descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Barnsley lived in the house until 1942, when it was acutioned off. Lots of history in the "Civil War" room of the kitchen and servants building to the right of the main house, including an early 1930's Barnsley who was a professional prize fighter who killed his brother in the building's front room...blood stains and bullet holes are still visible. Another interesting thing is that Godfrey Barnsley had a system of imbedded pipes placed in the wall above the kitchen's fireplace (stove) through which water was sent via a hand pump. The water was heated by the fireplace/stove and they had running hot water! The house also had inside plumbing, which was unheard of in the mid 19th century. The main house is, as you can see, in ruins now, but the gardens are still in bloom and they are reputedly beautiful when they come in during Spring. The house now sits on grounds purchased several years ago and which were turned into a resort...a very, very expensive resort. The lodging consists actually of many small craftsman style houses, and there is a renowned restaurant on the grounds as well. Golf is the main attraction, and a good meal with wine in the restaurant after 18 holes will set you back an average of $110.

Nothing like a blazing fire in a fireplace hung with Christmas stockings...Gertie was also in the mood and spirit of the Season and dressed for the Day!

The shutters make quite the appropriate holder of Christmas cards...

The tree held up quite well. It was still up and in good shape when my Mom came to visit. We didn't take it down until Thursday of this past week...hate to see it go as that is the end of this Christmas, but it also means I can start to anticipate NEXT Christmas...the wheels are already turning!

Forgive the flash on the door...still learning how to use this newfangled camera...but thought you'd like to see that we had a warm welcome to one and all with the Spirit of Christmas on display on the front porch...these two lighted items came from my Mom when she moved. They must be 40 or 50 years old...I can recall as a kid seeing them up. I also got a smaller Santa, but was fearful of leaving him lit up for very long. He is old like these, but he seemed a little more "ragged" in the electrical cord department...

The area rug in the dining room has red as the dominant border color, but with a lot of tans and greens to contrast in the center...pardon the off-center table cloth...sheesh, between describing this rug and the one in the bedroom I sound like someone off of the TV trying to push these things on an informercial...but I confess, I have wanted to get an area rug for both rooms ever since we bought our living room area rug from this place...okay, back to my usual self.

Close-up of the pattern and colors...

My Mom and BD's Mom gave us some money for Christmas, and my Mom added a little for a wedding gift. So we went to our favorite home furnishings emporium (yes, we are cheap, and we hold the location of this place in secret as it's products are first line but at a huge discount...advantage of living near the carpet/rug capital of the world, Dalton, Georgia!!!), and bought an area rug for our bedroom and the dining room. We had been holding off, but decided to do it and we did it well we think. The bedroom is the recipient of a 10'x13' area rug that matches everything in the bedroom wonderfully. It's thick and very nice to walk on, and it is big enough to give us a carpeted "first foot" rest for the cold mornings that will no doubt be here before Winter is done with us...

Reall eerie looking when gazing into the stand of woods on the property...

It was eerie looking intl the woods across the street...

A real misty and foggy sunrise a day or two before Christmas...

Gertie, on the other hand, is a little frustrated with the weather. She really thinks she looks "hot" in her Winter cape, scarf and matching muffs, but the temperatures have been more Spring like that Wintry so far, and she has decided to don her Winter ensemble regardless of the fact that it hit 70 degrees yesterday...she got so grumpy even the bear jumped back up on the fireplace mantle to reside rather than the hearth with Gertie...

It appears they have made friends and are getting along...opposite personalities, though. Fred would like the rain to stop, Millie would rather bask in the liquid sunshine for hours and days...guess that's what makes the world go round...the differences in us all, I mean.

At least she is smiling...guess she likes her new home in the flower bed in front of the front porch...

They say that rain brings up all sorts of funky mushrooms down here...well, this young lady 'room popped up just this past week...

It's been raining so heavily 2 of thelast 3 days, he hasn't had a chance to get out and about...just sits glumly looking at the gray skies...

Anne got us a new "friend" for the front porch for Christmas...