Monday, November 30, 2009

A Jarvis House Thanksgiving




This is a funny little mother turkey flower container that I got at the Community Thrift Shop.

 These are the last remaining flowers in the Jarvis House garden. We gathered up to create an informal arrangement for the table.



Starting with the plooms  from the large grasses and using Sage and Oak Leaf Hydrangea leaves, a turkey tail forms.

The last of the Roses, Chrysanthemums, Rudbeckia, and Veronica fill the pot.

 We add real fruit to a woven cornucopia and more leaves from the fall leaves of the Oak Leaf Hydrangea, with a Rudbeckia flower.


In the kitchen, Aunt Gloria, the best family cook, adds her touch to the stuffing.  We used cornbread stuffing with peeled apples, sausage, celery, onions, raisins, bouillon, and butter.  The pan was my mother's.

The side dishes included green bean casserole, a back to basics classic, sweet potatoes, a cranberry fruit mold that my sister made, mashed potatoes,

breaded carrots, my sister makes like my mother, and a wonderful green vegetable salad.

This gravy boat just the thing when you need it for Thanksgiving.  I had a hard time finding that "pink stuff in a small can" with which to clean it, but finally I got the new version of "Wright's silver cream" cleaner.  We've had this gravy boat since the 60's.  Plated items like this can be discovered at all thrift shops and church sales.  They usually look tarnished and awful, but they can be polished and saved for Thanksgiving.

 Whatever the season, there is usually something hanging from the brass chandelier over the dining room table.

There are holiday decorations all over the house.



The Thanksgiving Cactus blooms in the hallway.  How it does this on time every year is always a mystery.
The table is set, and
 
we carve the turkey,


wood is at the ready for the wood burning stove.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.


Monday, November 23, 2009

Nantucket Lightship/LV-112

Right now the lightship, Nantucket, (click for more info) is docked in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Soon it will be going to Salem, Mass.
 
It was purchased for a non-profit organization, the United States Lightship Museum, Inc. and will be towed by tugs to its new location, and restored, Robert M. Mannino. Jr, president,  center of photo.
A group of lightship enthusiasts gathered to make an inspection of the condition of the Nantucket.
Inside  the wheel house the binnacle houses the compass.  Note the red and green iron balls on either side which  adjusts the compass for magnetic north. This is necessary because the Nantucket is a steel ship.
 
 
This is the ship's telegraph, which transmits instructions from the wheel house to the engine room.  On board, there is so much noise that this instrument was made large for reading and it rings when changed to provide the correct instructions to the engine room.
Down below  is the inclinometer, which is an instrument for measuring the angle that the ship makes with the horizon.
 Going below,
you can see the huge diesel engine.
 This is the side view of the massive diesel engine.  Originally, when the Nantucket was built in 1936 it was steam powered, and it was converted to diesel in 1960's.
This is the rear of the engine showing the propeller shaft.
This is the steering engine,located in the engine room, which assists in steering the ship.
Huge links make up the anchor chain.
The capstan, with the anchor chain.
 
Bunks for the crew.
The Galley.
 
The Salon in the stern of the ship.
Chart cabinet below, and
 beautiful wooden chart cabinet in the wheel house.
An interesting sea worthy table in the officers' dining room.
 
A work room.
The rudder post and quadrant.
Going above on the cat walk.
 
Bell at the bow.
  Bollard with the dock lines made fast.
 
Funnel with the Coast Guard insignia.
Starboard side of the ship looking towards the bow.
 

Starboard wheel house door.
 
Looking out a porthole.
Familiar sailor with a message.
Photos from the ship's history wall below.
Two crewmen from the past.

Nantucket Lightship Basket display.
 

Rescue stretcher, and
a mop and a pail for the decks!
 
Thanks to Richard Koopman for technical  information, and

William Perks for a wonderful adventure aboard the Nantucket.

New information from the journal, Sea History 129, winter 2009-10, page 43, gives more information about the new stewardship of the newly formed U.S. Lightship Museum.  The Nantucket will be moved to Boston for restoration, and then be opened as a museum honoring lightship service. " LV-112 held the most remote manned light station on earth, over 100 miles off the U.S. mainland marking the treacherous Nantucket Shoals."