Postcard from Switzerland

 

Postcard from Switzerland #2

Good morning from Switzerland. 

View from our back yard.  

 

Justin Morrill Homestead

 On a beautiful Sunday in May, Dan and I drove west to Strafford, Vermont to visit the Justin Morrill Homestead.  Their website said they would be open for tours of the house on the hour beginning at 10 am.  We arrived shortly after noon expecting to be too late for the noon tour but still hopeful that they may have started late.  Well there was no noon tour and no expectation for any tour because the folks that were there were only volunteers working on the garden. And their understanding was that there was no one  available at all to do tours that day.  They said we could walk the grounds which we did.

Justin Morrill was not a name familiar to us until we read about this estate and passed it by the several times we were in Strafford. The estate was hit hard by the flooding in Vermont last summer and had just reopened after repairs.

Morrill went on to serve in the Senate and the combined years of being a Congressman and Senator resulted in a length of service record of 43 years and 299 days that was the longest in US history at the time of his death. 

Here are the photos of our walk around.

Renovated barn is now an education center.

View of house from the back. The flat roof addition on the left is the library.

Someone labeled this but we wondered how such a short length could have been such a court.

Side of house with library on the right.

Library

This entry ramp is one flat stone.

Gardens with barns in background

Roofline and the number of chimneys struck me in this photo.

Some of the many barns each with a separate purpose.

The ice pond was up the hill beyond the barns. 

Another rock slab for a bridge

The stream Dan was crossing above had this grist stone in it.

Here looking down stream.

And here on the other side.

Not sure why my photos make the house look askew.

Some members of the garden crew took pity on us as we prepared to leave and told us what they knew of the house.  They showed us the painted screens in the windows there where we were standing.  Photos of them were impossible.

Mrs. Morrill's bedroom was above the bay window of the dining room and apparently it's done all in pink.  They said she was responsible for color of the house.

One day we'll return for the inside tour.

Postcard from Switzerland #1

 

Luzern. Spending our first day here killing some time before we go to our rental an hour south. 

Jennifer Rubin Writes

 The Washington Post

June 21, 2024

by Jennifer Rubin

President Biden steps off Marine One in Los Angeles on Sunday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

What caught my eye The vast gap between what engaged voters know and what disengaged voters know will shock you. Millions of voters either do not know basic facts about the Biden presidency (e.g., he expanded NATO, crime is way down) or what they think they know is wrong (e.g., falsely believing we are in a recession). It is noteworthy that Biden does much better with voters who actually know what is going on. Biden, it stands to reason, can make strides by engaging voters just as they are beginning to pay attention. The debate, in addition to the convention, provides Biden with his largest audience this election cycle, where he can expose voters to reality and remind them of the consequential choice they face. If he can convey seven discrete facts during the debate, he can make headway with voters while reminding Democrats that turnout is essential to prevent our dissent into authoritarianism. Donald Trump is an adjudicated rapist and liar: You may know all too well that civil juries found felon and former president Donald Trump had sexually abused E. Jean Carroll and lied about it, but you would be surprised how many voters never focused on this astonishing case. Trump might well wig out if Biden reminds voters that ordinary people, a jury of Trump’s peers, found him liable for this vile conduct. Because there will be no live audience, Biden cannot invite Carroll to the debate. However, he can certainly conjure her up for those watching while forcing Republicans to grapple with their party’s nomination of an adjudicated rapist. Multiple judges and juries in civil and criminal cases found Trump committed fraud: Again, informed voters remember that Trump was fined $2 million for fraudulently misusing charitable funds on himself and, separately, was found liable for $355 million for fraudulently inflating the value of his properties. The criminal trial in which ordinary New Yorkers found he falsified business records to pull the wool over voters’ eyes is just the most recent case in which Trump’s deceit caught up with him. Biden, both to puncture the aura of Trump’s business prowess and to infuriate him, should emphasize that fellow Americans repeatedly found Trump to be a con man. Now, he is trying to con the voters. Biden’s economy is much better than Trump’s: Trump’s voters believe his economy was the greatest of all time. The media, meanwhile, seem disinclined to credit Biden for substantial economic accomplishments. Biden needs to tick through the facts. He can run through the numbers on the stock market, jobs, inflation, manufacturing and wage growth. Voters should hear a stark contrast between the mess he inherited and the current American economy, the envy of the world. For good measure, Biden might also explain that one reason Trump’s economy was so terrible was his refusal to take covid-19 — and coronavirus inoculation plans — seriously, leading to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Let Trump holler that it is “All lies!” Biden has the numbers — which his campaign can put up on a website to verify each data point. Trump wants to become a dictator: Here, Biden should draw purely from Trump’s statements and his 2025 plan, which envision deporting protesters; deporting “15 million” migrants by building dentation camps; using the military to quell protests; pardoning violent criminals from the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021; targetingmedia companies and journalists that won’t regurgitate MAGA talking points; instituting a nationwide abortion ban and ominous surveillance of the mail through the Comstock Act; banning mifepristone; and installing cronies in government to do his bidding. Biden’s website should provide links to Trump comments and items in the 2025 plan so voters can check for themselves. Trump will make the Supreme Court even worse and America, therefore, unlivable: At a fundraising event, Biden reminded the audience that “if he’s reelected, he’s going to appoint two more [justices] flying flags upside down,” a dig at Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Biden added, “The Supreme Court has never been as out of kilter as it is today. I mean never.” Biden should explain that, with more partisan reinforcements, the right-wing justices can follow Justice Clarence Thomas’s road map to attack a slew of other rights (e.g., access to contraception, same-sex marriage). Trump sides with authoritarians and will make the world less free and stable: Biden expanded NATO; Trump says Russian President Vladimir Putin is welcome to invade NATO countries that don’t spend enough on defense. Biden has secured international aid for Ukraine; Trump wants to force Ukraine to capitulate. Biden defends democracy; Trump has idolized and flattered authoritarians in Hungary, China and North Korea. And Trump has even taken to quoting Adolf Hitler (whom former chief of staff John F. Kelly saidTrump praised behind closed doors). People who know Trump best won’t support him: Trump’s own former vice president, dozens of former cabinet officials, former press secretaries, a former chief of staff and top military figures have all warned that Trump is dangerous and unfit. Never in American history have so many people who served with a president repudiated him. People who he chose and who saw Trump up close tell us he is incapable of doing the job or understanding his oath.

Second

 And third day lilies. 

Obviously I missed the first yesterday. 

And here is my one and only peony bloom. 

Car Show

Here's a walk through the volunteer Fire Department's car show.  Dan had the entry spot duty collecting donations in a right foot boot.  When I got there at noon time it was almost filled. The day's collection from visitors, participants and the food concession was $5500!  The weather was very amenable that day which helped a lot.

Enjoy these all you car buffs.

I took this last photo because Dan had a Mercury Comet which was the same as this Ford Falcon.  Dan called his a Mercury Vomit!

136 car owners exhibiting voted this one as People's Choice.

This one would have been my choice.

Strawberry Pie Season

 

Made this to take to friends tonight for dinner. 

Going and Coming

In going, going, gone soon category in the deck garden:

 

In the coming soon category:

And in the Energizer Bunny category:

And then there's this poor butterfly:

The loss of the bottom half of one wing doesn't seem to affect it too much.  It did fly rather strangely though many of them do that.