Happy Birthday Grandma

The biggest reason we went to Virginia was for my grandmother's birthday. We had most of our family there. We were missing just 5 people, my mom, my brothers and two cousins, and the 3 that have already passed away.

My Aunt Georganne and her husband Andy hosted. They have an amazing yard about 30 mins. outside of town. Andy works as an estate manager for the former residence of Mr. Kluge that is now owned by the University of Virginia. That man can grow grass like nobody's business.We had lots of my grandma's friends come.

 Her cake was beautiful. My Aunt searched hard for food grade pansies for the cake. They are my grandma's favorite flower. It was very yummy cake too.

Blowing out the candles.

 Opening her book.

My cousin gave my grandma this nice blanket with all our names on it. It has Arave and my grandma and grandpa on the apples at the bottom and then on the branches are the names of her kids with each of her grandkids names. It was really nice.

My Aunt Jennifer sent invitations out around January and with her invitations she sent out a page to a scrapbook and asked everyone to make a page about my grandmother and how they know her or some fun memories. It was a great idea and turned out beautifully. These are some of the pages.



Some of my families pages.

This is the page that one of my dad's cousins did. His daughter is the same age I am. I'm not sure what freaky kind of face I'm pulling, but there you go. I was probably about 10 at that time. Jessie and I had a lot good times back then. How many of you can say that you are good friends with your second cousin? I am.

I know you are all jealous that I was so cool at age 10 and you didn't know me then.

It was good to be there for my grandma. But it was very hard. Because of her family of 7, including her, she has lost her husband, one son and one daughter to very weird, nasty, horrible diseases.

But I look at her legacy of strength and fortitude and I am amazed by her. She was convert at age 20. She's always done what the Lord would have her do. She has remained faithful through all her trials and continues to amaze me. I love her so much. I love you grandma. Happy Birthday.

Monticello Part 4

The Dome Room portico.

 

(photo from last year when I went with my grandma).
First off, the reason there is a door there, is because of ...symmetry. You guessed it. It has no other real purpose. It opens up to the portico above the west porch. So if there is space there, it would make sense to store stuff here. Right? Nope. It was furnished with a couch and a desk for two of Jefferson's granddaughters.

I can only imagine there were stairs to get down there, but now there aren't.

One of the granddaughters, Virginia Randolph, wrote this in a letter in 1823:

"I have never told you of the nice little cuddy that has become my haunt, and from which I am now writing. do you recollect the place over the parlour Portico into which the dome room opened? since the columns to the portico have been completed, Grand Papa has had the great work bench removed from it, and a floor layed, Cornelia ’s ingenuity in conjunction with mine formed steps from the dome into this little closet with a pile of boxes, and having furnished this apartment with a sopha to lounge upon, though alas! without cushions, a high & low chair & two small tables, one for my writing desk, the other for my books; and breathing through a broken pane of glass and some wide cracks in the floor, I have taken possession with the dirt daubers, wasps & bumble beas; and do not intend to give it up to any thing but the formidable rats which have not yet found out this fairy palace."

She wrote that at age 22 to her fiance. Apparently she and Cornelia really enjoyed themselves up there. 

I think that's kind of fun.

Monticello Part 3

The Dome Room. This is my favorite part of the entire house. I love everything about it.

This particular window has a mirror on the bottom half because of the roof line. It also helps reflect the light really well. Why a mirror and not just a half window you say? Because that would not be symmetrical. Symmetry was Jefferson's favorite architectural character.

Don't you love the yellow walls. They are exactly the color of my kitchen at home. Sometimes I have a dream of painting my whole house this color. Don't worry. I won't. But I want a quilt of this yellow and various blues for my next bed spread. Blue and yellow are my favorite color combination right now. Happy colors.

The Dome Room skylight is a single piece of hand blown glass from Germany that is 48 inches, 4 feet, across. The glass that was there in Jefferson's time was made in Boston and never lasted very long with out cracking.

 Beautiful moldings. The floor moldings are actually like 28 inches high. They seem disproportionate to the room, but they are actually proportionate to the room in regards to the rest of the house. Because of it's very high ceiling, 36" I think, they actually fit right in.

The third floor hallway with the entrance to the Dome Room on the left.

Next post I will show you the portico and cute little story that goes along with it.

Monticello Part 2

Our upstairs tour.

There are 4 levels to Monticello total. Basement, main floor, second story and third story. The second floor has windows on the floor level and the third story has only sky lights.

East Front

The first windows you see there are from the Madison room.

West Front - Pay attention to the portico and the dome room.

We went in the door that you normally exit, and then up the stairs to the second floor, above the Madison room. (See first picture where I note the window on the floor level. 

 Floor level windows. The ceilings are the standard 8 foot ceilings of the time.

 This is the room that is believed to be where Lafayette stayed when he visited Monticello.

Alcove bed. These were in multiple places in Monticello. Jefferson's, Madison's room, this room, his daughter's room on the other side of the second floor. He felt beds took up too much room and wasted space, so he put them in the wall. He also liked these octagonal rooms because you did not have any sharp angles and dark corners. 

From the second floor to the third floor - the stairs. 

They had about an 8 inch rise. You can see all the way to the basement. 

We headed up to the third floor to this room, that was most likely a room where multiple children slept. This room is on the east front of the house. (I pointed out the skylights in the first photo.)

 This room has two recesses in the wall where alcove beds were placed. The wall section, below picture, to the right, is where the chimneys from below pass up. They probably helped keep the room warm.

Stairs to the roof.

Door to the storage room, on the west side of the house. The hole in the door? It's so the cats can get in and out to kill the mice.

Then down the hall to the Dome Room. My favorite. 

Next post. 

Monticello Part 1.5

This was the tour where we got to go upstairs. So now you know there is an upstairs. Do you know how many levels Monticello has? Guess.

Monticello Part 1

Monticello is one of my very favorite places to go when I go to Charlottesville. Its the home of Thomas Jefferson.

The grounds are beautiful.

 His garden.

 The east front of the house - the tour entrance.

 The west front.

 Flowers and the west lawn.

Flowers.

 1 - The octagonal bedroom that is called the Madison Room. It's where James and Dolley Madison stayed on their frequent visits to Monticello.

2 - A parlor
3 - The East entrance hall.

4 - The family sitting room.
5 - Jefferson's library
6 - Jefferson's portico and green house
7 - Breakfast room
8 - Dining room - it used to be light blue, matching the decor on the fireplace. But recent research and paint technology has revealed that it was Chrome Yellow. It's pretty bright.

 9 - West parlor. This room has pianos, game boards, paintings on the walls. It was used to entertain his guests.
10 - Jefferson's bedroom

11 - Thomas Jefferson's Office.
After touring the downstairs we got to tour the upstairs. This is a new special tour available at a price.

It was pretty cool.

That's the next post.

Bridgewater

One the Friday we were there we drove "over the mountain" to Bridgewater and Dayton. There is a Farmer's Market there fun by Amish. It has a store that has lots of yummy treats. Caitlin's favorite is the bag of marshmallows. It's like Lucky Charms, without the cereal part. They are pretty yummy to munch.

It's a pretty drive.

This is Bridgewater College. 

 Most of a statue of a horse and buggy at the cemetery.

We succeeded in getting our desired treats. Afterward we picked up my cousin, Maxine, to spend the night with us at my grandma's. We headed out early to Monticello for a special tour. That's my  next post.

The countryside

My sister and covered a total of 700 miles or so, mostly on country roads. My sister has a thing for quaint country roads. She availed herself of my nice camera and it's highspeed shutter. Here are some of the roads we spent time on.

I wish I'd had a Weismann Roadster to drive these roads. It would have been so much fun.

 We saw some houses we really liked along the way and in Charlottesville.

 I liked this little country church. We saw them everywhere.

Charlottesville itself is another post.
We had a good time driving around enjoying the beauty.