Hi Everyone,
Greetings from beautiful East Hampton, Massachusetts. I’m here because yesterday, my son Cale and I went to Hudson, NY, to fetch my old/new sconces!
Okay, this wasn’t supposed to be the topic.
But, of course, I want to spend some time with Cale. I’m going back to Boston by noon on the 22nd. Oh, and yes, I did blow off the HOT SALES last night, which is very rare. However, it was a very full day. The pages were all updated on Thursday, so please check them out.
Many of you may recall that I spent several weeks in Northampton, MA, during the early months of the pandemic. Cale loves western Mass and is subletting a room in an old home in Easthampton, MA, nestled in the Connecticut River Valley and also the foothills of the Berkshires.
Easthampton is directly south of Northhampton and west of Lovely Mount Tom, which you can see quite easily from most of Easthampton.
Above are all four of the Hamptons of Massachusetts. Cale’s house is where the blue dot is. I think my Macbook did that because I have geo-location turned on. Cool!
While out for coffee late this morning, I went for a walk and took a few images of the gorgeous fall foliage in Cale’s neighborhood. In the background, you can see Mount Tom.
Seriously, NO FILTER! Although, yes, I did rearrange four of these leaves. But, only four! haha
Okay, the main reason for the trip is that yesterday, I drove from Boston in a car my darling friend lent me for the weekend. (yes, wow is right!)
I met Cale in a town just west of Springfield, MA, and we drove to Hudson, NY.
Hudson, if you don’t already know, is a mecca for antique aficionados in upstate New York, about 127 miles north of New York City. Below is a map of the entire trip.
Laurel, did you get the sconces you won in the auction?
Yeah.
Well?
Well, they are even more magnificent in person. In fact, they are so stunning that Laurel forgot to take pics of them before we packed them up at Stair Gallery. Believe me, I’m so kicking myself over that one.
In my defense, I was also a little stunned at having to cough up 8% NY State sales tax because I picked them up IN New York instead of having them shipped from New York to Massachusetts.
I wasn’t going to argue with the woman. However, I purchased them eight days earlier from Massachusetts, a week earlier. If UPS had picked them up instead of me there would’ve been no tax.
hmmm…
Of course, shipping them would not have been cheap. Still, for those who warned me about so-called “Taxachusetts.” Please go to New York, and then we can discuss. ;]
Of course, you will see these lovelies sometime soon. The glass is so gorgeous. As for the shells, they are incredibly impressive and a little larger than I had envisioned. They also look whiter than the image, and there are light whispers of what looks like a gold leaf but is probably a really good gold paint.
However, I did take a few interesting shots while in Hudson.
The first was this cool and very loud freight train. I was amazed there were no booms, but there was a lot of horn blowing, for sure. I hadn’t been this close to one of these since my childhood in Indiana.
This was on our way to a very late lunch (dunch, lupper, linner) with a dear friend of Cale, Sam.
Cale’s known him since high school. They both went to Manhattan School of Music pre-college and then New England Conservatory, graduating in 2012.
Before and after, college, they played in a rock band for several years before Sam left Boston. Sam, who’s married, now lives in Catskill, NY, on the other side of the Hudson River. He is an extremely talented guitarist and songwriter.
In addition, he comes over to Connecticut sometimes to work in construction with Cale. Plus, the still play gigs together on occasion.
While at lunch, I noticed an old photo on the wall. I imagine it’s well over 100 years old of, Hudson.
What caught my eye were the quarter-round windows. We’ve seen these before, and I poopooed them because I thought they were “too contemporary” and nothing that had ever been done.
Clearly, I was wrong about that one!
Once was in this post about the bossy builder.
And in this post, with the bland living room.
Plus, the follow-up post.
Here, we can see that these windows did exist decades earlier.
After lunch, we said goodbye to Sam. Then Cale, and I went for a stroll that included a very expensive gourmet food place where we got this outrageous Banana Cream, not Pie, but more like a BCP English trifle.
While most of the homes in Hudson are Victorian, this home is earlier and of the Federal period.
As I love to point out, these homes were frequently (and still are) painted all one color, except maybe for the front door.
Along the allies, we also passed numerous dilapidated old buildings, doors, and fences. I think they make interesting images.
Finally, I’m finishing with two more images from my walk in Easthampton this morning.
It’s been wonderful getting away for a couple of days.
In closing, many of you already know the sad news that the fantastic interior design blogger Joni Webb of Le Cote de Texas passed away the other day.
While I never had the chance to meet Joni, we shared numerous emails over the years. And, she left a darling comment on this post where we all learned something about sisal rugs that went against long-standing beliefs.
If you haven’t seen or would like to read 100s of beautiful comments or contribute, there is a memorial on Joni’s Instagram, initiated by her daughter, Elizabeth. Joni was deeply admired and loved by thousands and will be sorely missed.
Love to all!
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