Come oh come ye tea-thirsty restless ones -- the kettle boils, bubbles and sings, musically. ~ Rabindranath Tagore
Good evening, Kibitzers! On Sunday, I filled in for side pocket and posted a diary about Fosterfields Living Historical Farm in Morris Country NJ. I didn't get to see the inside of the 1854 Gothic Revival house, The Willows, shown above and below -- that requires a guided tour.
But I did see another house, which you can also make out in the top photo. It's a little cottage built by the daughter of the family, Caroline Rose Foster (1877-1979). Although her family was very well off, she never married, but lived on the farm until her death at 102. As best I can tell from the limited amount online, her mother died when she was young, and there were no other children. So, she was filling the social role of mistress of that estate for her father, from the time she was quite young. In the early years of the 20th century, though, she found life with her dad rather confining. She enjoyed carpentry, so she built herself that one-room cottage. (When I first read the sign, I assumed she'd done it in her 20s, but she was nearly 40 when she started on it.)
Below the orange vine are photos of the cottage and its garden, and the text of the very interesting interpretive sign. The garden is still in the process of restoration, and it was much too early in the year for flowers when I was there, but I would like to get back there and see the recreated garden bloom.
The Temple and the Garden
Caroline Rose Foster built this small cottage with her own hands between 1916 and 1919. In her diary she called it her "Temple of Abiding Peace". It was her workshop and garden retreat, as well as a place to entertain her friends. She based the design on the traditional New England architecture that she saw on her trips to Cape Cod.
Caroline planted a lush flower garden in front of her cottage. Lilac, peonies, iris, phlox, and daisies bloomed in their turn. In honor of her middle name, the garden was filled with roses. This 1920 watercolor, painted by her friend, Hattie Evans, gives a sense of the blossoming, colorful scene Caroline created.
The left side of the garden was designed in a formal Colonial Revival style, laid out as a circle enclosed in a square. On the right, Caroline planted more naturalistically with asymmetrical, curving beds and rustic cedar arbors with climbing roses.
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"Pa said I couldn't do it, but at night he would sneak out and see what I'd done, then boast to his friends about it," said Miss Foster in talking about her building the cottage. As a finishing touch, Miss Foster attached the knocker from the original farmhouse (which burned to the ground in 1915) to the front door of her cottage.
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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