♫Leaves on the Water♫ We woke up to the sound of rain. Today was the Tasha Tudor House and Garden tour! I did this tour in 2012 and it had rained then, too, while I was on the tour. Oh, well. Last time our group lucked out and was in the house when it started to pour, but the house was so dark it was hard to see every thing I wanted to see. We were not allowed to take photographs, so I had to depend on my mental camera to record every detail. The photos and paintings you will be seeing were taken off the Internet, or scanned from books about Tasha by Richard W. Brown. A few are from my last visit which you can read about here. Afterall, how can one expect to talk about Tasha Tudor and not show pictures?! We needed to be in Marlboro, VT by 8:45. We got there in plenty of time and I didn't have any trouble finding the place this time, now that I knew where it was. The family does not put out signs even on the tour days because they do not want passersby to just pop in. People come from all over the world for this tour, and I'm sure would feel they had a right to sneak a peek for their efforts even if they weren't invited. You turn off the main road and travel a mile or so on this road.... 2012 Soon we found the sign for the Rookery which means gathering place.... 2012 Ken had his own plans for the morning so he dropped me off, and I dashed inside under my umbrella. I remembered that I kept a poncho in the car, so I brought that along, too. Everyone gathered here until it was time for the tour.... 2012 I had a few minutes to spare so I used that time to decide what I wanted to purchase at the end of the tour. There were two little rooms that were chocked full of Tasha Tudor books, stationery, aprons, stuffed Corgis and lambs, soap, candles, miniature furniture....well, I'll just let you see for yourself.... They handed out bug wipes. I'm so glad I took one. With all the rain the mosquitos were terrible. There were, I'm guessing, about 32 people on the tour because we were broken up into eight groups and there were four people in my group, the little boy digging in the dirt.... I donned my poncho and headed down the driveway to the lane. We walked a short distance and were at Tasha's drive. The Lupines in the meadow on either side were in bloom like in this photo of Tasha with her goats.... We paused here at the gate while we waited for Tasha's grandson, Winslow, who would be leading one of the groups. You are seeing the back of the house. We are at the end where the various barns are located.... The last time I went on this tour Marjorie, Tasha's daughter-in-law, led the house tour and Winslow led the garden tour. This time Marjorie led our group and another along the path behind the house into Tasha's azalea garden. She pointed out a large boulder that Tasha liked to sit on to admire her azaleas. When no one made a mad dash for it I declared, "I'm not going to let this opportunity pass!" You had to kinda crunch under the greenery, and the rock was wet, but I can now say I sat where Tasha Tudor sat. One other brave soul followed and then we all continued on back down the path to the side garden where Tasha's famous Bay Tree was planted, just across from her little greenhouse.... You will have to use your imagination for the rest of the garden tour. I could use photos from the books done about her garden, but they would not be a true representative of how her garden is now. The rain did not help--many of the flowers were delayed in blooming, too, because of the cooler temperatures. Marjorie led us along the paths, past the vegetable garden, down to the pond where she would sometime use her birch canoe, which now sits up on the rafters in the barn. Her Corgis loved taking dips in the pond. We walked over a narrow foot bridge and followed the path around the pond back up to the garden. Marjorie pointed out plants and talked about their plans to bring back Tasha's garden. We eventually wound our way back up the hill, climbing the stone steps to the terrace along the porch. By then the roosters we'd been hearing in the distance were running about near the barn. The group still in the house weren't finished, so I spent some time roaming the garden. When the rain started coming down in earnest we waited in the barn. Until then I only needed my umbrella occasionally. The hood of my poncho kept my head dry. I couldn't say as much for my feet, though, especially after I stepped into a marshy area by the pond. When our time came our garden tour group was split up. One was taken elsewhere in the house by Marjorie to start their tour while our group was led by Seth, Tasha's son. He took our group of four out the door on the other side of the barn to the back of the house and brought us in through a little store room just down a ways that looked much like this.... Seth pointed out that Tasha collected antique implements and crockery but not always to be used for their intended purpose. Instead they were her models for her artwork. Next, we were taken into a hallway that led to the barn if you went right, but we went left into the kitchen. In the hallway and just inside the kitchen you could see where Tasha wrote names and numbers on the wall and door. In her cookbook she tells us, "I keep all important records, including births, deaths, marriages, goat-kid arrivals, corgi whelpings, goings as well as comings home, first frosts, first snows, sightings of birds in the springtime, and so on. I never fail to mislay paper records, but a wall is not to be lost. To prove to you that I know whereof I speak about the frailty of paper notes, my parrot, Captain Pegler, once ate my town tax bill!" There was one spot where the phone had once been where she doodled a drawing and wrote a little poem that for the life of me I can't remember! Oh, to have a photographic memory! It was so clever, too. I felt as though she was bored with the conversation and was occupying herself or maybe she'd been put on hold.... Once inside the kitchen you could see the blue cabinet as illustrated below. To the right of it was the back staircase to the upper floor. You can see the cooking fireplace in the next room that she used as her dining room when she had company. She also did her painting there also, but I'll show you all that further down.... The yellow china cabinet on the left in the above painting is the cabinet you see in the photo below.... In this drawing the scene is of the window that is out of sight to the left, in the above photo....but notice the blue cabinet. She took artistic license in placing it there rather than where it really stood.... Here is a photo of this window and cabinet.... If you back up from the above photo you will see the rest of the kitchen. This is an accurate depiction of the room's layout. The room you're viewing through the open door was her electric kitchen, as Seth called it. She had a modern stove and refrigerator. When I saw it the first time I must say I was a little disillusioned, but I can't deny my icon some conveniences!.... This collection of china was on the wall above that table you see in the above painting on the right.... Now, turn around and you'll be able to go out onto the porch and listen to the rain, just as we did. Natalie, their Office Manager, posted a video of the rain last year on YouTube, but first this is what the porch looks like from the garden.... By now it was raining very much like this! Our group really lucked out in doing the garden first.... Seth took us to Tasha's bedroom next which was just past the porch door. There was a room we had to walk through first where she had a loom that took up most of the space. Her bathroom was beyond that and contained a copper-lined tub set in a wood "box". The toliet was the kind with the tank up on the wall with a pull chain. The room was quite large and contained a painting of a nude woman done by her mother, Rosamund Tudor, and a china cabinet where she had more of her china collection and . Seth, being a man, did not seem to appreciate why Tasha would have china in her bathroom! To enter the bedroom you must walk by the alcove where Tasha's doll house furnishings have been brought back from their exhibition in Williamsburg. It wasn't there two years ago and was why I wanted to visit again. This photo is from one of the books, but what I saw looked very much like this except that Seth has added a glass-door front.... The first time I entered Tasha's bedroom I was struck by how small it was and that it was on the first floor. I'd only seen this photo of it.... Her bed is up against the wall in the corner and is where she passed away six years ago this month. This is the room that juts out next to the porch and therefore has windows on three sides. If you look out the window that Tasha is facing you will see the dovecote which is attached to the barn.... After lingering a little longer at the doll house we were escorted back through the kitchen to the dining room I mentioned earlier. You can see the opening to the kitchen in the back right and just to the left of that on the fireplace wall is where we'll be going when we leave this room. That will take us to the parlor.... In the right-side background is the portrait that Tasha's mother painted of her brother, Frederick.... When the table isn't used for dining it's placed against the wall as in this painting.... Tasha used this end of it as her art table.... The parlor faces the front of the house, but also juts out on the other side of the porch. This is the room where she'd have her Christmas tree. Seth showed us the little mechanical singing bird in a cage that you may have seen in the Take Peace video. We then crossed the front door entryway into a very small book-lined library that contained many books handed down to her from her mother and others. From there we stepped back into the entryway and headed up the very steep, small-stepped stairs to the second floor which only contained 2 small bedrooms and some attic space over the kitchen. The larger room had a full-size 4-poster bed. The smaller room held only a twin bed, chest, and small desk. This painting shows the chest.... In each room Seth had something to say about the furnishings or a memory about his mother. I had enjoyed Marjorie's tour of the garden and her tour of the house two years ago, but I felt a little closer to Tasha hearing her son talk about her. I hadn't thought to bring along a flashlight this time, but he did which also enhanced the tour for me. I think, also, I didn't feel as emotional as I had the first time and therefore took more of it in. We walked down the narrow, steep back stairs into the kitchen, then made our way down that first long hallway, pausing to read more writings on the walls, until we got to the barn. From there Seth took us around a corner along another passageway to a small barn Tasha had Seth add on to the barn so she could have one of her marionette shows. Marjorie sent us this photo of the puppet theater, taken during a subsequent tour.... It also contained a loom, spinning wheel and other cloth-making implements, along with tools for making baskets. Tasha loved old-fashioned crafts and would invite artisans in to share their knowledge with her guests. "English Cottage Gardening for American Gardeners" has a chapter on Tasha's garden which includes this birds-eye-view sketch of her house. . . . At the end of the tour we all gathered outside again in the rain to have our group photo taken. . . . We pretty much felt like drowned rats! As we headed back to the Rookery for light refreshments the rain was just a drizzle. Along the way I started talking to a lady that was there with a friend. I'd heard them mention they were from Pennsylvania so I asked her if she was part of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Tasha Tudor Museum. They were! Barb and Beverly! And in fact, we met at the first meeting two years before. They've continued attending the several get-togethers while I did not return because of the distance. When we got back to the Rookery I made my purchases first. Here's a photo of the things I bought or were handed out, except for the two books in the top left corner, "A Tale for Easter" and "Linsey Woolsey," two books I already had. I'm showing them because I bought the lamb they had for sale because it reminded me of the one Tasha drew in these books and, of course, I'm thinking of Olivia June who will love holding it while I read these books to her.... I bought more seeds from Tasha's garden, too.... I'm not the best gardener to grow plants from seeds, but I have managed to get a couple Hollyhocks to grow from the seeds I bought last time, like this one.... I also bought more of Tasha's special blend of Welsh Breakfast tea. I got the can on the right the last time. This time I got the one pound bag. You can also get a smaller sample, which I got for my neighbor who checked in on Poetry for me every day.... Phew...this is getting rather long isn't it. Time for a break! Have some of Tasha's Stillwater Punch.... And some sandwiches, deviled eggs, or fruit. Amy, Winslow's wife, is going for more lemon and raspberry tarts, but there are still brownies on the table.... Their older daughter, Ellie, is a little camera shy, but seems perfectly at home amongst all these strangers milling about.... As I leave, Seth poses for a photo for me. Goodbye until next time! Because I'm pretty sure I'll be back. Maybe it won't be raining next time.... Ken is already waiting for me. We are on a schedule and have a couple stops before we're due at my brother's at 5:30 in Connecticut. It is raining again, but I really want to stop at the statuary outlet I saw along the road earlier in the morning. I'm so glad I did--such bargains I found. The toadstool is just the right size for Olivia June to sit on if her little legs get too tired (in a year or two, that is), and of course I had to get the Westie to stand guard at the front gate, and the mother duck with her duckling.... We will tour the Tasha Tudor Museum, then head for Connecticut, stopping at the Salmon Brook Shops in Granby that I saw recommended on Susan Branch's blog. We'll have a late lunch there, then head to my brothers. The museum and gift shop is housed in three rooms of the Jeremiah Beal House in Brattleboro, VT from May to October. Each year they change the exhibit. This year the theme is "From Scratch".... The display cases housed some of Tasha's handmade animals, greeting cards, handwritten letters, jams, art work, and clothing. To enlarge the photo, click on it.... It also contains a collection of her books and books about her.... These next two photos are window shades that were made for the museum. I've made the suggestion that they should make them available for purchase. Wouldn't you like to look out your window and see Tasha in her garden?!.... After my guided tour I looked through the gift shop then went into the third room where the two videos made about Tasha were available to watch while sipping her Welsh Breakfast tea. I highly recommended these videos: Take Joy and Take Peace.... The museum hopes to eventually build their own site. Because of the narrow country roads and zoning, as well as fragile condition of Tasha's house, the family would like to purchase land and build a little village. You can read about their mission here. Help spread the word so the donations will start pouring in. I want to be able to visit this incredible dream of a place while I can still get around.... ☔Rain☔ As we left Brattleboro on I-91 the rain began to pick up and soon was the kind you really don't like driving in. We'd only driven about 45 minutes when our 15-year-old minivan hiccuped....then sputtered. Thankfully it happened just before an exit, so we were able to get off the Interstate and hopefully find a gas station. My Mercury Villager only has about 119,000 miles on it. We bought it new while our oldest was in college. We still had two boys at home. It has taken us on long trips, hauled the boys' belongings to and from college too many times to count, hauled my yard sale finds, and helped with numerous house moves for our sons. It has carried 7 people on long weekend vacations. I LOVE my minivan! But it is an orphan since Mercury went out of business and parts are getting harder to find. We'd already spent more than we could sell it for on a brake repair earlier in the year because a computer component went bad. They had to track down the necessary part in some other state and buy it used in order to get us back up and running. At least we were in our own town and could take it to our own mechanic. I tell you all this to explain my frame of mind as we came to a stop light and the minivan died.....somewhere in Massachusetts....on a Friday afternoon around 2:15....in pouring-down rain. But at least we were off the Interstate. Ken got it started and we made it across the intersection into the Twin Stop convenience store lot. To make an even longer story shorter, after several phone calls to tow companies, garages, our insurance company when the road service we thought we had said we didn't, several more attempts to start the minivan, sympathy from the same stranger twice (he came back to the store a couple hours later and was surprised to see us still sitting there), and the service department of the Ford dealer that couldn't help us because it was too late in the day and they weren't open on Saturdays, and Ken's persistence in asking to speak to the service manager who was able to suggest we call the Jerry Rome Nissan dealership (the Nissan Quest was basically the same) who WAS open on Saturdays. We had their recommended tow company come get us.....but we'd have to wait for over an hour because there'd been a bad accident on I-91 in the meantime and the tow truck was busy there. At least the rain had stopped. Now this is the part I really want to tell you about. I'd brought along Elizabeth Groudge's book, "Scent of Water" which had been recommended by Dotsie on her Blog. In it the Vicar told Mary that when she started to have what today we would call a panic attack she should pray these three things: Lord have mercy....Thee I adore....Into Thy Hands. This had stuck with me so I prayed it and found myself relaxing enough that I spent the next hour reading while we waited for the tow truck. At one point I looked up at Ken and asked him if our minivan had a distributor. I don't know where that came from because I don't know anything about cars. He said not in the way I was thinking because cars have computers to do that now. It was just that somewhere in the recesses of my mind I felt the sound the minivan had made before dying sounded like a problem something called a distributor would be in charge of. I'd called my brother and left a message on his house phone about our predicament. They were on the road themselves that afternoon and I'd neglected to program his cell # into my phone so he wouldn't get the message until late in the afternoon. When the tow truck arrived around 4:30 I was so excited it never occurred to me to take a photo. Perhaps I really didn't want to have the image of my minivan being towed away! We were able to hitch a ride in the cab of the truck (sans seatbelt for me which, of course, my mind ran with before I reigned it back in). It was only five miles to the dealer in West Springfield where our service manager angel, Eddie Lopez, checked our minivan in. He wouldn't be able to look at it until mid-day the next day, but he'd do everything he could to get us back on the road he promised. Then when I told him it would probably be 6:30 before my brother could come get us (it was now 5:15 and they were closing in 15 minutes) and asked if would it be OK for us to wait there with all our luggage, he said he'd be right back. When he returned he handed us the keys to a brand-new Nissan SUV as a loaner! We just had to have it back by 4:30 the next day with the same amount of gas in the tank. As we headed off in our chariot we discussed what we'd do if the minivan was unfixable or if it took a week to get a part. Our family would be at our house Sunday afternoon to celebrate Father's Day. Gabriel's and Poetry's continued care would need to be seen to and I was already concerned about how long we'd been gone. That's when the needlework on the wall came to mind: There's No Place Like Home. That's all that really mattered to me at this point--getting home. For now, though, we were covered. We had a way to my brother's for the night, and I had transportation to Danbury, CT in the morning to the Friends of Gladys Taber Reunion. That's right. I was going to meet Susan Branch, finally! For everyone who has stuck it out and read to the end of this tome, I will be giving away my extra 1969 edition of the 1941 book by Tasha Tudor, "A Tale For Easter".... Since I'm also having a bigger give-away for Day 5 this is how I plan to do it. If you leave a comment on this post and another one on Day 5, you will be entered twice into the drawing. Then on the last day of the month in my Out and About post I will draw two names. The first will receive the Day 5 prize and the second will receive this prize. Before I go....if you are counting days you will have noticed that today's events took place on Friday the 13th! To some it might look like we suffered bad luck, but I think we may very well have been spared being involved in that accident on I-91. The fact that we found a dealer that could handle our orphaned minivan and worked on Saturday, who also gave us a loaner car.....well, I don't think we could have gotten any "luckier" than that! Yes, that black cat under our car was a Scottish cat, indeed! For Tasha Tudor aficionados: Tasha Tudor and Family website Winslow's Tea Stories about his grandmother Rookery Ramblings Blog by Natalie Wise Article about Tasha's early life Another article about Tasha's early life Rosamund Tudor's Redding House is Now for Sale (where Tasha lived for a time as a teenager and after she married until she moved to the New Hampshire farm) Another Blogger's photos of inside the house My 2012 visit to the Tasha Tudor Museum My 2012 post about the first Pennsylvania Chapter of the Tasha Tudor Museum gathering Other Blogger's posts about their visits to Tasha's house and garden: Blueberry Cottage, Lady Linda, Audrey Eclectic Shopping: Tasha Tudor and Family Cellar Door Books