a lovely surprise...

This morning as we set out on our walk I found this sight..... a plastic bag attached to the mailbox.

huhhhhhhhhhhhh?????????

I hadn't a clue what in the world was in the bag or who would have left it.

I walked up slowly, a little apprehensive, and

this is what I found inside!!!!!
CONKS!!!!!!!!  A bag full of conks!

I knew instantly who it was from....a gift from our painter/handyman, Seth,  who knows that I collect conks, aka tree fungus!!!

Isn't that just the nicest thing?!  I think they are absolutely beautiful!

 I don't think I would have been more delighted if it were a bag of diamonds..... (well, okay maybe if it were diamonds;), but you get the point of what a kind, thoughtful gift it was!!

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday too!

the winter house

I realized I had not shown you around the house in the winter... 
We already had about a foot of snow on the ground, and I am very happy to report that we only received another 12-inches in this latest double-storm that hit our area, instead of the 20-inches plus that were predicted!  While the difference might not sound like much, it makes a huge difference in life after a storm.

It's difficult to remember that the house looks like this too!

The stone beehives at the entrance of the driveway in their winter splendor!

Our road. 

And, our beautiful mailbox that sits across the street from our entrance surrounded by reflectors and pink tape that blows in the wind and reminds the town plow to stay away!!

My plow guy...Dan on Big Blue!
  Dan clearing a parking pad for the workers, who have taken a "snow day," but will be back tomorrow.  Dan has found that it is easier to use the front "scoop" on the tractor to "pick up" the snow rather than to plow with the snow-blade which is attached to the rear of the tractor and only pushes the snow off to the side- and you have to drive backwards to use the blade.

Scooping snow onto the snow pile... one of many piles!

Plowing the drive to the house.

This is a good sight:  a "plowed" driveway!

Ella hopping off of the front steps. Check out those "bunny" ears! 
Like her Mama, this Texas-girl loves the snow!  The sound and feel of walking on snow is magical to me!

View towards the back meadow.
It is absolutely beautiful, but what truly surprises, delights and amazes me on a daily basis is how natural this winter scape is to the soul of this born-and-raised Texan.
When we told family and friends of our decision to move to New Hampshire we were asked over an over how we would survive the winters??  In all honesty, the winters were the wild card for us, as neither of us had ever lived anywhere that had a true winter.  People would ask what we would do if we couldn't tolerate the winters.  Our answer... we'd move back. 
Lets just say.... we don't see that happening any time soon!

I hope all of you who were in the path of this winter storm are safe and warm.

And, to my Australian friends in the eye of Yasi.... continued prayers for you and your country.

the mailbox is awaiting your letters!

If you missed the part about the very last, large Smith and Hawkin mailbox, the antique granite fence post found on our property, and the antique iron lantern arm that comprise the mailbox you can read about it here!

This is the view head-on, and you can see there are some natural curves to the post which made it a bit difficult to get everything level! This is the view you see when you drive down our driveway; the mailbox actually sits across the street from our properly. I am going to have our house number engraved on the granite post above the mailbox.


Side view facing North.
Isn't the antique iron lantern bracket the perfect scale for the piece?! We've received some really nice compliments from neighbors, but my favorite one is that the mailbox looks like it has always been there! Dan did a fabulous job of engineering all these disparate pieces together!


View facing South.
The antique stone wall with the row of maples is our property.

This is the entrance to our house.
It shows how the mailbox sits across the street and is now centered on our driveway. The stone walls ends in stone "beehives" at the entrance to the drive, which are very unusual here in New England. To give you some perspective, the huge maple on the left at the entrance is 75 to 80 feet tall, and probably 150-175 years old. The driveway splits at the large hemlock tree you see in the center of the driveway. If you go left it takes you down to the garage, and if you go right it takes you up to the front door. The house sits on top of a hill, and people are always surprised that there is such a great view from the house, as you wouldn't know it seeing the house from the road. I love surprises!
We are using this year to get ready to get ready to do landscaping! The driveway will be gravel. We will plant grass along the stone wall (hopefully this Fall.)

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For those of you who enjoy seeing the whole process (yes, I know you crazy kids are out there!) here are some "in progress" photos. The mailbox on the right is the one we replaced. In this photo the granite post is being moved via chain and a wooden "belt" that Dan built for it's transport so that the chain wouldn't mar the granite.

I have no idea how we would survive here without Big Blue, the tractor! Here, Dan is removing the chains from the granite post as he has placed wood supports to keep the post straight while the concrete dries.



This photo shows the old mailbox and the new!


Luckily the concrete took only 30 minutes to set!


The generator was brought to the job-site by Big Blue to complete the install once the mailbox was leveled. The generator powered the electric hammer-drill that Dan had to buy (at least that's what he told me!) to drill into the granite. Hey, I'm all for any purchase that gets my projects done!! You can see the iron arm/bracket resting at it's base.


And now...here's to hoping the check's in the mail!!

mailbox design

Last summer we bought the very last large copper mailbox that the much beloved Smith & Hawkin sold... ever. The story of how we acquired this little beauty is here.

I immediately began a hunt for the perfect post for the box. I didn't find anything that I liked last Fall, and since the ground freezes here in the winter I mentally put the project on hold. With the arrival of Spring I have been diligently looking for inspiration on-line, and when we go for drives around New England.

Nothing.

Then.... a couple of weeks ago Dan found in our stone and rock quarry (yes, we literally have our own small quarry going- I'll post about it soon) an antique granite gatepost original to our property.

Perfect!

We are at the design stage. What that means is I design, and then Dan has to figure out how to turn my design into reality!! This is never an easy job since elements are usually antique, and were never meant to go together!

Here are the mailbox design elements:

.

This is the granite gatepost- it is over 7 feet tall.


Another view of the gatepost. This is the side the mailbox will be placed on.


A few days after we found the mailbox I remembered this antique iron lantern arm that we found in our antiquing years ago. We have learned that if something speaks to you, buy it. You will generally find a use for it! It fits perfectly under the mailbox, and will act as a support bracket.


Here is the mock up I did, with the help of Dan and the tractor!
It's laying on the ground, but it really gives the idea of what it will look like when installed.
The part of the iron "bracket" that extends beyond the mailbox door will be trimmed to fit under the mailbox. You can see the old iron bolt at the top of the granite.




Opposite side view of the mailbox. From this side you can see the old iron hinge for the gate.

The use of a granite post as a mailbox holder is a common sight in New England (New Hampshire is the "granite state" after all!), but the posts are generally newly cut, perfectly square and smaller in scale. Due to the snow plowing in the winter you see lots of damaged mailboxes that get hit by the sanding truck. For obvious reasons you don't see them hitting granite post mailboxes, so that's a plus!!

I'll post photos when Dan completes the assembly and install!

the last one...

For years I have coveted a copper mailbox from Smith & Hawken.
I remember being introduced to their catalog probably twenty years ago, and then was delighted to go into their retail shop when it opened in Dallas. It was always a great source for that garden inspiration you needed when it was 100 degrees outside! When I learned that they were closing their doors my garden-heart sank.

In our past homes the mail dropped directly into the house, so I didn't have a need for a mailbox. Here we have a small box and the mailman has to bring small packages up to the house. So, we have been looking for an old rural farm mailbox- large, you see them often on country roads..... we passed on an old one a couple of weeks ago because it wasn't the one.

Yesterday we were in Boston and stumbled across a closing Smith & Hawken (it was close to Cape Cod, and come to find out, was the only store in Massachusetts and we were told it had been the most profitable store in the chain, which was so interesting since it was about half the size of the store in Dallas... .)

And there it was... one lone large copper mailbox... on sale. It had a wee bit of a dent on the door (nothing a rubber mallet couldn't fix), and so we asked if they had another one in the back. The salesperson left us, came back and said they didn't have another one, and in fact she looked on line, and it was
the last one in their whole system.
So, we bought the last large copper mailbox from Smith & Hawken...
that makes me happy and sad at the same time.