Nesting Ranch: Happy 6th October 15th

10/16/11

Happy 6th October 15th

Below are photos of a fantastic autumn Saturday at the Union County Four Centuries in a weekend. The weather was just perfect. It was also our 6 year anniversary!

Who does not love wine, wife & song
Will be a fool for his lifelong!

We only went to a few select sites after stopping by the Long Hill Senior Center's annual Rummage Sale which is always a hit for great finds and treasured objects - cheap. We have great luck there - except this year, I couldn't believe it - there were no records!

I wasn't low so I guess that's karma - I'll take it!

But we did find two cute matching baskets for .50 each to put various amounts of to be determined bits of various, various in them. And scored 3 very cute hand-made bird houses - will post pictures later... each just $5.

We started the tour in the next town over from Long Hill, New Providence, at the Salt Box Museum. It's two older houses pieced together. There's a lot of great historical objects in the museum as well as some beautiful architectural details. We were fascinated by an old pie cabinet with it's original finish of buttermilk paint, tinted blue by - what else! - blueberries. We're so going to try this, maybe on something not quite as large as a cabinet, perhaps an old stool - can't imagine the number of blueberries needed. The docent was a very knowledgeable man, should've caught his name, he was super informative telling us about this gorgeous, slightly tattered - tres shabby chic! - french gown - that back in the day cost 10k to buy, amazing! And so, for some reason we left the camera in the car and we didn't take any photos - so you'll have to swing by and see it yourself (pdf). Found some photos here on this article about the Salt Box Museum.

Next up was a few places in Summit. We debated swinging by the Summit Antiques or grabbing lunch at Monster Sushi for clear soup, veggie tempura and they have the best ginger dressing for their salad - but we just went there recently and really wanted to see more sites on the list. So instead we went to the Summit Playhouse - again - no photos - a fun and informative tour. We're committed to popping by for a play after having stopped in.

We then headed over to Twin Maples. Love it, would love to renew our vows and get married again here... or live there even if someone wanted to give it to us, we would take it.

Fleur de lis chandelier

Beautiful tile in the sun room in the dappled sunlight

Stain, not inlay - amazing!

Herringbone brick, so nice!

A decorators interpretation on the ceiling of a round room.

Back window from the landing on the main staircase

& from the exterior

The rear exterior of the house

Next we went to the Reeves-Reed Arboretum which has long been on our list of NJ gardens to visit - this is after all the garden state and there are so many under appreciated small gardens. We learned at the Salt Box Museum there was a great deal of flower growing industry in our areas. What a gem of a location and gardening landscape architecture - lots of great picturesque vistas to really appreciate and enjoy. There was much thought put into the placement of so many trees.

Most definitely this is Autumn, not Vulgaris, Calluna.

Normally beds of mulch are so unbecoming and unsightly but here it works wonders with the roses.

Trilolate Orange Tree - thorny, fuzzy and so pretty!

Same log, just a little further down with different lighting exposure as the sun played behind the clouds and use of flash. Moss is just so great.

Wonderful framed views

This table and chair set reminded me so much of climbing up to the Stone Living Room.

And we ended our day at 4pm - even though the tours were to be open until 5pm - as the Littell-Lord Farmstead in Berkeley Heights was closed up when we arrived, but oh well, very happy to still get some nice external photos.