Another Summer Come and Gone...

Sadly, this summer ended up being far less productive than I had hoped. Reviewing my “to-do” list of items that needed addressing, it seems I have only been able to complete a few of them. Now there is only the hope that the coming Fall may serve to be a more productive season as far as the house is concerned.

No, this is not the reason for my lack of productivity. A nice addition to my tiki bar, thanks to the good people at Windsor & Eton Brewery.

A large part of this was due to our trip to the UK in mid-May; between holiday planning and the weather upon our return, this set me back about 3-4 weeks in terms of my usual summer work schedule. In recent years, we’ve been able to open the pool during the first week of May, with another week or two after that to handle annual chores like cleaning the patios, doing touch-up painting on the decks and some outdoor furniture—which all has to be hauled out of storage—tidying up the perennial beds, setting up our tiki bar on the back deck and bringing all the seasonal decorative items out of the garage, shed and basement. This is then followed by planting of tropical-looking annuals in beds and in pots all around the pool.

UK TRIP 2017: London and Environs

Things have been quiet for some time, as I have become involved in a local historic preservation project as well as ongoing work at my own house. But over the coming weeks I’ll try to fill you in on the highlights of my recent trip to the UK, where I was able to take in a number of memorable sights and enjoy a fair amount of good pub ale.

A grand staircase at Hampton Court Palace

To simplify things, we based our stay in London; I had initially planned to book accommodations in three different cities, but there was simply so much to see—and with a pre-booked single day-trip via Eurostar train to Paris—we figured it would just be simpler to stay in one place, which in this case was a wonderful small hotel in Belgravia.

Liberty of London. This department store is just as amazing on the interior.

We took in all the obligatory London sites—Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, St. Paul’s, Tower Bridge, etc. as well as personal favorites like Shakespeare’s Globe and Liberty of London. Half-day jaunts to Windsor Castle and Hampton Courts were also on the list—as was a visit to Highclere, which my daughter requested, being a fan of Downton Abbey. Not my first choice for a country house tour; I would have preferred something more in the vein of Wightwick Manor or Cragside…but that must wait for a future visit.

The Thames at Windsor. Had a lovely lunch at the restaurant across the way.

I will get into more detail in follow-up posts. Suffice it to say that the trip was all that I had expected; the London Underground was superb and so easy-to-use, the pubs were picturesque and delightful, the people were friendly and the architecture was sublime. Everything you could hope for.

Now Available: Mind Your Manors Collectible Country House Card Game

The cards are full color - 54 included

I have always loved trading cards. Collecting baseball cards and football cards is something almost every kid in America has done. When I was growing up in the 60’s, we also collected card decks for our favorite TV shows, like Batman, The Green Hornet, The Man from Uncle and many other popular shows. My own son has collected more modern collectable card games, like Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: The Gathering.

Surfing the internet, I’ve also seen vintage card games like In Castle Land, and been fascinated by the innumerable series of trading cards that were once offered with cigarettes and tobacco.

With all of these in mind, it seemed only natural to utilize my printing and publishing experience to develop a game and a series of collectable cards that featured famous English houses. Naturally, these would initially focus on examples from the Medieval, Tudor, Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

It's hard not to be inspired on a beautiful morning...especially after the summer we've had so far. Plenty of rain has kept everything green, and a number of projects keep calling my name. Just finished the mailbox; next I will be adding some corbels on either side of my bay window and maybe some detail in the gable above the porch - including a finial post. We'll see...