November 10, 2021

WALK WITH ME


WALK WITH ME ~ 
A beautiful autumn day, light winds, brilliant blue skies.
Walking, randomly in my own neighborhood, the Mount Vernon historic district.
On streets whose names take one back to the days of our forefathers ~ Lafayette, Madison, Washington, Hamilton and more.  There is nothing special to share about the photos from this walk, just lovely old homes.  Some still showing the fading flowers of summer.  Some with gas lights flickering at their entrance.  Many having cast iron hitching posts still embedded on the sidewalk in front ~ step carefully, don't trip!  Yet, I look up toward majestic church steeples that punctuate the sky and listen for their bells on the hour.  
My wish, how I wish I could wander inside these homes, see what they have to say of their past lives.  I've always had a passion for "old things", antique furniture, was happy to be the repository when someone in the family wanted to hand-me-down something they had treasured.  Passed on now to the next generation, my Grandmother's collection of tea cups and saucers, all different, each unique.  But it was not just their translucent beauty, or the craftsmanship of the artist who had painted flowers on the tea cup ~ it was, what was Grandma thinking that day she drank tea from this cup ... was she happy, content or did some worries fill her mind?  The game table, c. 1800s, at which I sit right now, typing this post.  Whose hands lay upon this table once, were they playing cards?  Was it a great grand of mine, with a cocktail and a cigar?  Was it two old friends, talking the politics of the day?  I wish these things of old could tell me their stories, so much they have seen and heard, now stored in every grain of wood, and remembered in the luster of the cups and saucers.     





 

30 comments:

  1. it's amazing to discover all the little details ... I love such moments when I dsicover something new or something I see for the first time... and often such details have a meaning or a reason and it is interesting to find it out...

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  2. Such amazing architecture, Ann.

    I don't have a passion for antiques per se, but I do love old homes (if the walls could talk!). I recall being at an Egyptian exhibit some years ago, at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto, and being struck by a simple bowl, fully intact. Plainly made for daily use. Others around me were oohing and aahing over more "precious" items, but I was transfixed by that bowl, by the thought of the ancient hands that used it for who knows how many generations. THAT was amazing.

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  3. Mom likes everything new pretty much except for family heirlooms, but she loves seeing the antiques in other places and looking at places from the past.

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  4. JUne first and foremost I love your header!!
    Ann I'd love to walk with you. I've been to Baltimore once. Mainly at the aquarium. You have lovely places to explore
    Hugs cecilia

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  5. What a beautiful stroll! Mom loves the older homes and she loves antiques!

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  6. I love touring old homes and if I have the chance I do. Beautiful.

    Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.

    Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. ♥

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  7. you certainly have a beautiful place to walk, those spires are amazing and the next to last photo of the arched window and flowers and stair rails is my favorite. so much to see and think about. i love the way i feel when viewing very old things or houses or churches...

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  8. Thanks for taking us along on your walk through your neighborhood. We love hearing the imagined stories of your antique game table.

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  9. At first I thought you were talking about MT Vernon, NY.

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  10. Wonderful photos! Your home town is gorgeous.
    Thanks for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2021/11/more-monarchs.html

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  11. So beautiful! Wonderful photos, but the sharing of your love of things and what they meant to the people in the past made this post extra special.

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  12. You live in such a beautiful, historic neighborhood. XO

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  13. Thank you for sharing these images. And I love your introduction words. What is antique has a special energy
    that must be preserved.
    Happy WW and a fabulous week!

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  14. What a beautiful walk...and such a lovely city!

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  15. I really enjoyed joining you on your "walk". What a beautiful area you live in. I was always very intrigued about old things and recently visited an antique museum over in Ft. Myers. Of course seeing a lot of these things really makes me feel very old too. LOL I remember using a lot of this stuff in my early days.

    You live in a very beautiful area and I hope you will be taking another walk soon to share with us.

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  16. Wow! What beautiful and amazing buildings! We have some old dishes too: a very delicate Japanese tea set that is almost translucent!

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  17. Such wonderful things to see along your walk and such incredibly beautiful photos you captured!!!

    Woos - Lightning, Misty, and Timber

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  18. You are so right about the old things and the stories we wish they could tell us. We'd hear some amazing things, i believe.

    That was a beautiful walk, thank you.

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  19. What a beautiful walk! Thank you for taking us along. :)

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  20. It looks quite a place there, and some amazing architecture.

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  21. If you concentrate real hard on a building, and squint, out of the corner of your eye, you can see a glimpse of what happened there in the past.

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  22. Beautiful. There is something about old buildings that makes us think and wonder

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  23. Beautiful photo walk with you ~ awesome and wonderful tribute to our Veterans ~ Xo

    Living in the moment,

    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  24. The Walters was one of my favorite places to spend a day or evening. I do so wish I had asked more questions of my grandparents about their early lives, families and friends. But when we're young, we're so wrapped up in our own little world that we don't think of those questions. When we do, it's too late.

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  25. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful part of your city with the rest of us!

    I love seeing the old things, and its great to visit a historical museum...to see how those kinds of things were used back in their day. Now, like you we can only have imaginations about what they saw/heard.

    That last picture...isn't that an old boot scraper? I thought hitching posts were taller than that...but yes watch out and don't trip!

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  26. Such a beautiful day for sightseeing! I love the old buildings and the shoe scraper is from days past.

    Thanks for sharing your link at My Corner of the World this week!

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