A Christmas night, with fire

It is Christmas evening… a cold night (at least for us in the land of no snow and orange trees) There will be frost on the roof tops tomorrow… I will leave the Christmas lights in the orange tree on tonight (big C-9 bulbs… inefficient heat generating bulbs… my anti freezing plan)

The others have gone to bed…

There is a fire burning on the hearth… It has been burning for the last 4 days… dying back overnight… but with more wood, and maybe a bit of kindling it will burst back into flame again each morning… It will burn all night… I will add more wood tomorrow morning… If Tina and I were home tomorrow night I would stoke it again, and it would continue to burn… in the past I have kept the fire alive for as long as 3 weeks at a time…

It creates warmth… not just a higher temperature as measured by a thermometer… but it makes the home warmer… The fire is alive… it glows…

Some years ago in spring, or maybe early summer, a friend, from Maine told me his mother, still in Maine… “Had let the fire go out…” I realize that this wasn’t an unintentional result of lack of maintenance… but a statement… A deliberate act… winter was over… and she could choose to let the fire die…

Now fires, fires in a fire place… real wood fires (gas logs don’t count…) are uncommon and occasionally illegal… At least in urban northern California… they contribute to air pollution… A maker of “fire place logs” aka fake wood, pressed wood, (they don’t count either) has commercials about limiting pollution from fires… and instead, when fires are legal, we should use their pressed wood imitation fire wood… a log wrapped on paper… traditional wood fires are under siege…

We “did” a program for 3 year olds at the farm earlier this month… I built a fire in the wood stove in the granary… our public space… to heat the space… to make it warm for 3 year olds and parents… Many of the three year olds were awe struck… a parent said… “He has never seen a real fire…” I believe that it was a revelation for her… But, we are fast losing the relationship between fire and warmth…

One local TV station offers a Yule Log program… tune (tuning a TV or radio is probably a forgotten idea as well) in to the picture of the burning log… Christmas songs playing… It’s almost as good as a fire… or not.

A well maintained wood fire in a masonry fireplace (not the tin things that house gas logs) while not efficient can warm… beyond the light, the smell and the bit of heat… they warm the heavy masonry mass… a giant heat battery.

There is more to it… the gathering and splitting of fire wood… the storing of the wood… staging it for the fire place… This is more than a thermostat… it requires one to think about how one could heat his house… how to maintain the fire…

I am not a Luddite… I really heat my home with a “modern” gas heater… but I still know how to heat with wood… and occasionally do… I know that fire is not always dangerous and can be a friend… I sit here blogging, on my laptop, by the fire… A fire I value.

In our modern world we are far removed from the need for fire to heat our house… But fire, elemental, visceral can still warm us in many ways… Its Abbey’s beer can again.

Solstice

Yesterday was Solstice… winter solstice… The shortest day of the year… the moment in time when the blue planet we call home changes directions and we move from the days getting darker, to getting lighter…

For those who worship Earth as a god it is possibly the most significant holiday of the year… significant enough for the Romans to usurp it for their Christmas celebration… So the Christians have taken over the Wiccan’s, the witch’s holiday… even if sloppy and missing the day by a bit…

In celebration, I scanned some old slides… Taken as Stonehenge, on Salisbury plain, many, many years ago… August 1973. I was on a trip to Europe to celebrate graduation from high school… a grand circle trip… At the time, visitors were allowed to walk among the stones… to explore… by 1977 the stones were roped off… I generally don’t believe it the supernatural, in ghosts, in haunting… but on a couple of occasions I felt the power of place… Stonehenge was one of those places…

My background… mostly… back nearly 400 years, is English… there is some Dutch and German maybe a bit of Native American… but mostly English, and if English probably Druid… all long forgotten…

In celebration, I lift a glass of mead to the Druids… May their world survive… Merry Solstice.

Our Christmas…

It is the second wave… our Christmas… not the public Patterson House Christmas… not the Google parties… not the City parties… but our family Christmas…

The tree is up… the lights are up outside… the street, our neighborhood is decorated for Christmas… a neighborhood Christmas… a c community Christmas… a Christmas… a celebration.

Five days before the day… there is a fire lit… We have dined… we (at least the ladies) are decorating the tree… the tree which has resided in the house for the last week… We (I) put up lights immediately… we put up beads, the garland soon after… then we stopped… waiting for the decorations…

I had brought down the boxes of decorations… but had missed a box… THE box… the box of glass balls… reflective balls… Christmas balls… We retreated to the attic… to the storage place… and found the missing box containing the Christmas balls… All is good… for it is Christmas and Christmas balls are important…

Earlier, this day, I braved the crowds to purchase the roast… the Christmas roast… Almost 16 lbs of Christmas roast… a standing rib roast… aka a “Prime rib”… our Christmas evening dinner… the center of our Christmas eve dinner… served with Yorkshire pudding… a true English Christmas dinner… my families tradition, a family separated from England, the Christmas homeland for something close to 400 years… The butcher, if he is called that… the meat purveyor at the local mega mart wanted to sell me a trimmed roast… but I need the roast… with the fat… to make the pudding, the Yorkshire pudding… I prevailed… I got the full fatty roast. Fat equals flavor… fat renders for the York… the Yorkshire pudding… Fat is important…

The Ladies continue to decorate the tree… There are conflicts… I am hiding, writing the blog… Apparently there are still “globs of empty space” on the tree… They continue their efforts.

The menu is developing… Hollandaise, asparagus to go with the meat… and pudding… There is a salad involved… this is dinner, our Christmas dinner…

Apparently my wife does not know the Pickle story… so says my daughter….I continue to write the blog… They call me over to hang ornaments… I resist.

The tree is decorated… it is done… Christmas is here… more Christmas will follow… a dinner… a good dinner… with a fire and food and lights… most importantly with family and friends… too all, and too all a goodnight...

Christmas is fast becoming Christmas…

It has been an interesting couple of weeks… too much to do, too little time… not really thinking, just reacting… Until a couple of days ago I did not enjoy Christmas… I was providing other people’s Christmas, ignoring or too tired to attend to my own, our own Christmas. Dealing with issues… computer issues… house issues… too busy… then, imperceptibly, things started to turn… to change…

Scene one… Butterflies lots of butterflies… Saturday, I was at work, at the historic house at the historic farm… Volunteers were giving tours… there was a fire burning… two long time volunteers were on the poach, making lace… Someone mentioned butterflies… the lace makers didn’t know we had butterflies at Ardenwood… we walk out… to the butterfly grove… the butterflies take flight… silhouetted against the sky… flashed of orange… magic…

Scene two… Parties… a story in three or four parts…

Saturday Night We were invited to a "private" Christmas party… someone from Tina’s workplace... at a private home... snow on lawn... valet parking... a temporary ice rink with its own Zamboni in the backyard... 3 bars... and a coffee bar… lots of food, really good food… really good wine… a cookie decorating area… Lots of people… Movies and a desert bar downstairs… and Gavin Newsom and Joe Montana (what, you don’t party with Gavin Newsom?!). The hostess drove the Zamboni… she said she would… not just a lap around, she really groomed the ice… All in all an over the top, too much party, really nice party… fun… could fun be possible? Apparently Yes...

Wednesday, we had a party at work, Turkey and ham, and lots of potluck dishes… People I work with but never sit down with… people who’s name I know, or who I might pass in the hall… all sitting down together, eating, laughing… We were lacking a Zamboni, but three people showed up driving street sweepers…

Thursday… lunch… another work gathering… before a couple of co-workers visit the house… the farm… It is the first time one has visited… we have fun walking around… its nice to see the place through another’s eyes… then we meet again at a Japanese theatrical restaurant nearby for the department lunch… everyone from department made it… lots of laughs… relaxed… fun… not really Christmas, but really the holidays…

Friday… Good news… lots of good news… Steph received the acceptance letter from the first of many colleges… Tina got a big raise (not unexpected, but much bigger than expected….) and I am now off for two full weeks, and finished up the arraignments for a job… a side job… consulting for a group in Hawaii… in January… a trip to Hawaii… a working trip… but Hawaii… and a job I love… To celebrate, the three of us do dinner… a nice dinner… we celebrate privately in a public place…

Tomorrow, Saturday… the next party… the railroad museum’s annual dinner… a nice time at the farm… a nice dinner… with friends… I will enjoy…

Next Friday… Christmas Eve… my families traditional Christmas celebration… we have invited many, and all seem to be coming… family, Friends, Friend’s family… co-workers… a full house… a full table… for Roast Beef, Yorkshire pudding… Asparagus and Hollandaise… there will be shrimp before… Rice pudding afterwards… I can only hope that someone shows up at our house riding a really nice lawnmower… It would make Christmas… at least our Christmas.

Scene Three… the setting… outside, the Christmas lights are on… ours and our neighbors… many neighbors… there is a wreath on the door… Inside… the tree is up… it has lights but not yet decorations… The hearth is ready for a fire… Pans and pots and stuff to cook Christmas dinner are being found, being readied… we are preparing for the big dinner…

I think Christmas has arrived…

I survived Christmas…

This may seem like a strange statement to make on December 10^th… but for me, a historic house manager the crisis and stress of Christmas ended today at about 9:48 pm when I locked the front gate at the farm and headed home…

Christmas started on November 15^th… this is not everyone’s Christmas start date… Many, no, most prefer to celebrate Thanksgiving before starting Christmas… Laughton Wainwright has a song about this… a too early Christmas… But my house museum Christmas starts in mid November… and ends in mid December…

I started my day getting ready for too many 3 yr olds… lots of 3 yr olds… with parents and sibs… building fires in the fireplace, in the stove… cookie dough ready… lamps lit… Father Christmas was in my office… getting ready, for 3 yr olds…

I welcomed the 3 yr olds… I got the horse… harnessed ( a halter) the horse… and brought the horse out to meet the 3 yr olds… Father Christmas was on the porch welcoming the 3 yr olds…

I and the horse visited the groups of 3 yr olds… we walked about… the 3 yr olds and the horse (Jiggs) enjoyed the visits… Jiggs and I visited Father Christmas…

I put Jiggs away… in his corral, his home… I returned to the house, where Father Christmas held court… the 3 yr olds were visiting Father Christmas… Father Christmas was entertaining the 3 yr olds…

The 3 year olds (and parents) left… and we transitioned to “regular” visitors… we gave tours… regular tours in the afternoon… I ran to City Hall to turn in paper work, paper work which should have been turned in earlier, but didn’t happen due to too much Christmas and a broken computer… but the too much Christmas is now mostly over, and the computer is fixed, and it is now time for paper work… possibly too much paperwork, safety reports, warrant requisitions, budgets, marketing plans… all in all too much, but too needed…

We prepared for our annual Christmas evening in the afternoon, while giving tours of the house… We were putting out oil lamps to light the path as the light failed… the sun went down… the house glowed, wreaths in windows silhouetted by room lights, Christmas trees glowing…

The evening event started about 5:00…. People arrived… they looked about… they said “wow”… I checked on how things were going… I walked back and forth between the train station, the entrance to the park and the house. I tended fires. I talked to our guests… people seemed happy, they liked the house… all was good.

Eventually the event ended… the people left… the lamps were put away… the fires dying… the park, the house locked up… I went home.

Now it is all about the few tours left… and about thinking about next year and the year after… and about the other Christmas celebration… at home…

Weirdness at work… with Reindeer...

At Patterson House, It’s the season of too much Christmas… too much work… too many visitors… too hectic… too much to do…

Around the too much, the too weird has set in and found a home… There is a box of rocks on my desk… There is a story… of course there is a story…

Tomorrow the three year olds arrive… lots of three year olds… invited into our Victorian home… Some think this is the definition of insanity… instead, I think it’s a moment of clarity… On the other hand the rocks may be insanity…

In the middle of all of this my work computer has imploded… dead… blue screen of death dead… a thoroughly dead parrot… About as useful as a rock… I have called I.T. they will address it eventually, but not immediately… leaving me with less work to do at work… at least for now…

The 3 years olds are coming tomorrow… I may have said that already… Steph (aka, the daughter… she has appeared before in this blog) is in the kitchen making sugar cookie dough… we will cook them tomorrow on the wood burning stove in the Victorian home full of antiques and too much Christmas and way too many 3 year olds… and a box of rocks… a really interesting box of rocks…

The 3 year olds, and parents, and siblings are coming to the farm, and the Victorian house full of antiques and too much Christmas (and a box of rocks) for a Christmas field trip… We have Father Christmas, we have chartered a train… we have butterflies in the trees… we have horses and turkeys and a farm full of wonderful things to see… and a Victorian house full of too much Christmas… for the 3 year olds to explore…

Flashback, to Christmas memory, of a Christmas long ago… many, many years ago… when I was a child, not 3 years old, but probably less than 10 (I am old… at least by some definitions) when my grandmother would take us, each Christmas downtown, to downtown Los Angeles, when Los Angeles had a downtown and a downtown shopping district, with numerous department stores… each of which would decorate their windows for Christmas… Magical windows full of too much Christmas… We would view the windows… we would walk about… then we would have lunch… either at a downtown cafeteria… Clifton’s Cafeteria… when downtown cafeterias were stylish and exciting… decorated with rocks as I remember… or at Grand dad’s club…

The trip to view the windows defined my childhood Christmas… Maybe Patterson House’s too much Christmas can define the holiday for a new generation… I hope so… hence clarity… A new Christmas tradition for a new generation... and continued meaning for our old house...

That leaves the box of rocks…

Early during the Christmas decorating season we had an accident… while hanging garland we (me) dislodged a glass lamp shade… a 1903 glass lamp shade… it fell to the ground… it shattered… Being a professional, I knew the shade in question was still available… I knew where… I thought I might have a spare in the attic… among the push button light switches, the knobs and tubes, and the curtain rods… there are also lamp shades and bits of wooden rain gutter… all the things that define a Victorian house…

There on the shelf of spares was a box with a tag marked “lamp parts”…. A promising box with a tag suggesting the possibility of a replacement shade for the 1903 kitchen light fixture… The box itself was interesting as so many things in the attic of Patterson House are… It was old (most things in the attic of Patterson House are old… ) It was a pre-war (this would be World War II… ) a pre-war box from Gump’s department store… (we are back to department stores… department stores used to decorate their windows for Christmas… I might have mentioned this before… but today, instead of windows with too much Christmas, Gumps has a web site… called “Holliday Shop”) back to our box… A box marked Gump’s, San Francisco and Honolulu…

The box, the promising box was addressed to Miss Sally Patterson, Newark California… a box, a cardboard box… addressed to a Patterson, living at the time, a time long ago, before 1941, at our Patterson House, now a museum filled with antiques and too much Christmas… A box with three 4 cent stamps… an old box…

Of course, I opened the precious cardboard box… and found… rocks… non-descript rocks… the now well known box of rocks… The box is special… the rocks may have once been special to someone… but now, they are just a curiosity… and currently live on my desk next to the very dead computer…

The frustration of the dead computer has an upside… I can’t do my work… I get frustrated… the work calls… I get more frustrated… unable to do work, I go outside, behind my office… There resides the fire wood pile… I take an axe… a splitting axe… I use said axe to hit the firewood… to split the firewood… preparing the wood for use in the stove to cook the cookie dough the daughter made for the too many 3 year olds viewing the too much Christmas… The physical exertion helps ease the stress… It warms me… and now I have wood for the stove, to cook the cookie dough for the 3 year olds…

To all a Merry Christmas, and to all a good night…

A fire burning on the hearth…

There is a fire burning in the next room… A wood fire…. in the fire place, the hearth… the place for fires… in a brick fire place… a masonry fire place… This is becoming socially unacceptable… Fires give off “particulate matter”… soot and smoke… We have days when it is illegal to have a fire… We have “no burn days” I may object… I may burn… (wood)

Edward Abbey talks of throwing beer cans our of his pickup window… because he can… it’s not good for the environment… He does not defend the littering… but he understands the littering… It is of the environment… right for the place… and right for the person throwing the few beer cans now found rusting by the road side… this make sense to me… In the wilderness, trash is not the same as it might be in a different place… This is the West... I am of the West... This makes sense...

He describes a place in which there are few people, and much space… wide open space… a space where one might toss a beer can… might pee on a bush… defile the landscape, but not defile the landscape… the wide open landscape…

I don’t plan on throwing beer cans out of the Escape’s window… but I am building a fire… a big, roaring fire in the fire place… I may try to keep it going through Christmas… not the house museum Christmas, but the real calendar Christmas… December 25^th…

Fire is important… it may define us as human… we have one burning on the hearth… It will continue to burn for the foreseeable time… the hearth fire which defines home (and hearth.)

Our fire place is made of brick, of masonry… it has mass… mass which absorbs and releases heat.. heat from a fire… a wood fire… a coal fire… the fire which defines…

The fire drives away the cold… it drives away the fog and damp… it creates a warm refuge… it creates home (and hearth)

Tomorrow we have the school classes visiting the house… 300 or more, maybe 600… then the weekend… 400 or so a day…. Then next week the Tiny Tots… lots of Tiny Tots… 300 three year olds with parents and sibs… Bring on the 3 year olds… I am ready…

Abbey would hide… I won’t

Christmas… It’s here… and here… and here

Tonight we started Christmas at Patterson House… not the preparation, the decorating, the garland and trees and such, but Christmas, the party and celebration…

Tonight we held the preview… for the Historic Patterson House Foundation… our supporters… or friends… a small party… about 50 or 60 folks… visiting the house, the new visitor’s center in the railroad station, the granary for a party… There were Christmas decorations… Christmas cookies… kerosene lamps lighting the walkways… fires in the fireplace and wood stove… wine and libations… a party…

This is our traditional beginning… tomorrow I take the day off (kind of, I will visit work… visit city hall) resting before we start the slog… Christmas weekend… at the park… too many school kids… too many visitors over too many hours… over three days (too many) but fun… and Christmas… our celebration.

We take a day off (Monday) at work but no visitors… then… dive into the fray again… into Christmas… too much Christmas…

The three year olds arrive Tuesday (and Wednesday, and Friday… ) lots of three year olds…aka Tiny Tots… and parents, and siblings… lots of very young people… into the house… (I am not panicking, really not panicking… I think) overlaid with a week of more tours, followed by a week of more tours… and I have jury duty… then, after we finish our special Christmas on Sunday Dec. 19, I am furloughed for five days… a economic issue… which with 4 holidays and a paid day off and weekends equals a couple of weeks off… not working, not allowed to work… off… off… crazy busy followed by enforced leasure… I am not sure what I will do or how I will survive…

But I will survive, enjoy, and thrive... This is the way of the world...