swanning about
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Monthly Archives: August 2013
seagull, east hampton
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sentinel
Was down in Delaware yesterday and went up and down the Christina River by boat. Saw this fascinating old wreck of something industrial. It was like a blind river sentinel.
lighthouse love
I love lighthouses. My favorite is the Montauk Lighthouse in Montauk, NY. On a recent vacation to the Hamptons I discovered another lighthouse. The Cedar Island Lighthouse in East Hampton:
It is really cool, needs to be renovated and is a mile and a half down a beach on foot, and wow I hope East Hampton saves it. Cedar Island Lighthouse has a website.
I also found a video on YouTube about it (CLICK HERE for that)
damage control
There is damage control coming out of Yellow Springs Inn this evening. And I can tell you one thing I don’t know who wrote it but it definitely wasn’t his publicist. She knows the restaurant and hospitality business and this slightly defensive Magna Carta is not her style at all. (Here is PDF of Yellow Springs Update) And I do believe the photo used in the missive is one I took. (Glad to see they are getting use out of the photos!)
Anyway, as many of my faithful readers know I had posted almost a week ago that my sources told me that Yellow Springs Inn was closing. I also said at that time that I had yet to speak to Charlie Orlando of Yellow Springs Inn or his publicist.
Charlie Orlando, naturally, was upset when he found out about the post. He is a self-admitted computer and Internet Luddite, so someone must have told him to look at the post.
He and I texted back and forth over the weekend – I had been away and then had company. He said to me (and I quote) “There is some definite misinterpreting of the current situation and future plans.” He went on to say “I am a lot smarter than that and if that is what someone told you, they had better check their sources.”
So as a favor and special courtesy to Charlie and until I did more research, I made the post private. The post also referenced his new business venture. Basically, it wasn’t so hard to figure out. It’s a place up in Berk’s County called Cab Frye’s which is another restaurant that was having a tough time in the economy.
Here are two articles:
Cab Frye’s to be sold By Karen L. Miller/ Reading Eagle
and
New owner to take over Cab Frye’s in Palm By Ryan Kneller/The Morning Call
I went to Berks County Public Records to see if any of the deed transfer relating to the sale had been posted and something had posted :
Then I went to the searchable database Pennsylvania has and looked up 914 Gravel Pike LLC the new owner. This is what I found:
1657 Art School Road is the address of the Yellow Springs Inn at the Jenny Lind House, correct? So either the ghost of Jenny Lind is acquiring real property or someone at Yellow Springs Inn bought something bigger than a bread box, right?
I was just going to leave this all alone but in part I feel that the e-mail blast that someone sent out for Charlie Orlando is aimed at me and anyone else who has been speculating on the future of the Yellow Springs Inn (and for what it is worth that is a LOT of people). I realize that a lot of people in Chester County don’t really know me as a blogger, but I have been doing it for years. I also do my research. And in this case people NOT in the restaurant industry or anything remotely involved sent me stuff. And what I have seen is not pretty. I do not see this business as being sustainable. I am not trying to be mean, that is my opinion. And legally, I am entitled to that.
And this missive sent out earlier this evening also doesn’t make sense. I have friends who own and have owned restaurants, bars, clubs, and so on. I have never heard of someone buying a liquor license in one county and using it in two counties have you?
So how can you on a “limited” basis use the liquor license in both Chester County and Berks County? I was told one license per address once upon a time, is that not true? Has something changed?
As for the “re-branding” I do not pretend to be a marketing maven, but I wish them the best. Common sense dictates that operating two places at least 40 minutes apart will be difficult, right? Has Charlie Orlando cloned his talented Chef-Wife Barbara or himself?
As far as the liquor license goes I know a lot of people (myself included) wrote letters of support to West Pikeland on behalf of the Orlandos and Yellow Springs Inn so they could have a liquor license again (they had one at the first Inn location up the street but was that license with the building he rented perhaps? I never really knew, or cared truthfully.) So I am not as facile at noodling around on the PA LCB website as some other websites, but this is what I found on the liquor license referred to in today’s e-mail blast:
Then I did a second search on the PA LCB website – this time strictly for West Pikeland Township, Chester County:
Wow that ghost of Jenny Lind is busy. I found another license pending transfer. To a Gorick Enterprises. So I went back to the PA Corporations Database and searched again:
There is that Rick Orlando name again. I am guessing that is a relative of Charlie Orlando’s? A brother maybe? Why not just say so? I would be thrilled to be in business with my sister and many people go into business with siblings, right?
So anyway, obviously change is afoot at Yellow Springs Inn. What was sent out today only makes people more curious.
Will both places survive? I am sure by sometime in the fall we will know definitively. I just wish the swirl of confusion would settle down.
What needs to happen is for some restaurant honesty – restaurants open and close, change and evolve – it is part of the cycle of business. It’s all how you handle the news. And disseminate it.
As my late grandmother who was Pennsylvania German used to say tell the truth and shame the devil.
chickens!!! (as seen in the windows of birchrunville cafe and post office)
I am loving these windows! How can you not like people who obviously admire chickens?
fun with furniture
I am not one for those milky pastel chalk paints and I think chalkboard paint should be banned as a decorating idea. Sorry but I am sick of seeing every piece of vintage and antique furniture looking like it was attacked by kissing cousins of Pepto-Bismol. not everything needs to be in pastel or a chalkboard.
And while I do think that white milk paint look has it’s place in beach houses, I just think it has been too done. And done again. As a matter of fact my sole criticism of dealers who go to Clover Market in Ardmore, PA is not only their pricing at times leaves a lot to be desired (I mean let us get real a lot of those people pick at places I haunt so I really know some of the mark-ups) but there is soooo much of the same stuff and it is all candy coated for lack of a better description. Show me the wood once in a while! Don’t make it all look like a French meringue cookie and think that will hide the fact the piece wobbles.
Mind you I was a long time fan of Rachel Ashwell shabby chic and loved it when she had her TV show. She used to go to flea markets and show you how to repurpose vintage finds. kind of like what Cari Cucksey does on her HGTV show Cash & Cari. But not everything was coated in paint. Moderation.
Do I like some painted furniture? Very much so. My mother for example has a piece I have loved since it came to be. She found an antique country armoire easily 25 years ago and had an artist faux paint it and a carpenter convert the inside so she could store china, crystal and serving pieces. It definitely makes a statement and is useful storage. And the painting is beautiful – and not milk paint or pastel chalk paint. You can appreciate the artistic side of it and the lines of the piece aren’t whited out and it is sturdy enough to survive the apocalypse.
My personal approach to painted furniture is if it didn’t start out life as a piece of painted furniture chances are I will not paint it. It’s just not me in the long run. Maybe my tastes will change on this, but I do not think so.
As far as furniture goes I am definitely of the school that believes older is better. But I want pieces that can be used. I don’t want to live in a mini Winterthur or the Modern Museum of Art.
I make no secret of the fact that I haunt picking barns, resale shops, consignment galleries, flea markets and garage and church sales. I will barter, swap, and hondle. It never hurts to ask if a better price is available. One reason I like places like the Smithfield Barn in Downingtown and Resellers Consignment in Frazer is the prices are not only unbeatable but OMG there is a constant turnover of variety and really cool pieces…and I can see the wood.
Yesterday when I went hunting for my garden bench, I saw this crazy slipper chair with a matching foot stool. The piece was probably late Victorian but a prior owner had reimagined it in yellow leather. The chair was usable as is and under a $100 if memory serves and the foot stool was around $50. The pair was so fun and quirky that if I had the room they would have been a total impulse buy. Oh and the chair wasn’t painted in pastels, an added bonus.
The thing about buying from Resellers that is fun is the listed price of an item will automatically decrease based upon number of days on the sales floor. But the prices are already old school estate sale prices so if you like it when you see it, buy it because chances are it won’t be there when you go back. And I have seen many furniture and antique dealers cruising the aisles of Reseller’s giant warehouse too. IF items last there more than 60 days they go to 50% off.
Some people can’t believe people will go to secondhand stores and picking barns for items for their home, yet amusingly enough if the same items show up at fine furniture dealers and antiques dealers they are “darling” and “must haves”.
When you buy a piece of gently used wood furniture, treat it right. Don’t rush to cover up its natural patina with paint, try cleaning it and polishing it. I am a big fan of Williamsville Wax – it is a blend of beeswax, lemon oil, and other natural oils and supposedly the company uses a recipe for this that has been used since Colonial times.
And don’t be afraid to have fun with your furniture. It can still be fun and comfortable and not look like you picked it all out from Ikea and Raymour & Flanigan. And believe it or not, you can have nice things around kids. You do not have to live with plastic. That is an added bonus of some of these furniture finds- the prices are so good that say an accident occurs you can actually afford to have the piece recovered or repaired and it is actually worth it to do so.
The other thing is this – educate your own eye- go to antiques shows, check out design magazines and Pinterest boards and create your own inspiration. Face it, while many would love to say they had an interior decorator or whatever, the reality is most can’t afford that and when you connect to your own rooms in your own home it is far more satisfying. And it really is home.
more playing in the garden
So this summer I discovered a gardening book I just loved. Truthfully I have not enjoyed a gardening book as much in easily twenty years. The book is called Suzy Bales’ Down to Earth Gardener.
Anyway, I had found this book completely by accident and bought it on a whim. I am so glad I did. It was like this author was speaking to me directly and got how I gardened. And the author happened to like a lot of the same plants as I did, including David Austin English roses. I have a friend whose David Austin English roses have move with her she loves the so much, but I digress.
So I have this rose I planted last fall on a whim when I found it on sale at a local nursery – Del Vacchio’s on 352. It was supposed to be a shrub so I planted it adjacent to a walk. Well, it has developed a far more rangy habit and I was faced with either a rigid pruning or moving it. I did not really want to move it. Something in Mrs. Bales’ book as far as her approach to roses made me think – she said she lets her roses grow how they want, so I thought “why not?” and ordered a topiary form for the garden. The form arrived a few days ago and I put it up. So simple a solution and it so works!
This is part of the fun of doing your own garden– you can try your ideas out and it’s much more cool (at least to me) than walking around after some random landscaper has put their commercial version of your vision to work. It is just more satisfying.
So today I was almost ready for a truss by the time I got it in place, but I finally found the garden bench I had been searching for. I wanted a small to medium sized vintage concrete or wrought iron bench for a corner that is a little wild but felt right for a contemplative spot.
I have been looking and looking and looking. These vintage benches are not only hard to come by but darn tasty in price most of the time. I have had dealers and pickers and flea market pals on the hunt. Saw a heavy white but slightly shabby chic cast iron bench at Brandywine View Antiques but it was a little wobbly and priced too high for me considering the wobbles. You see I wanted a bench that I could experiment with, but not too dear in price if it only lasted through a few Chester County winters. From a practical standpoint, there is only so much garden furniture I was to shift, store, and cover.
Well this afternoon on a whim I stopped at Resellers Consignment in Frazer. They get a lot of odds and ends of all types of garden furniture in all the time. A couple of weeks ago they had some really large concrete garden benches and I didn’t get them….because they were more than the price I had in my head that they should be and big enough that I had no clue how I would move it off their sales floor.
So outside I saw a bunch of great looking vintage wrought iron furniture and so on outside e front door and wondered if I would just end up with a mesh backed garden bench that I would somehow have to find room to store over the winter, but the little bench I saw was part of a pair and well I definitely did not want to store a pair. One of the owners was on site and offered to split up the pair, but then he said “well I do have one old concrete bench that is a little beat up that hasn’t made it onto the sales floor.”
Music to my ears!!!!!!
He showed it to me and it was love at shabby chic bench. I never wanted anything new, I wanted something I could plop in my garden today, yet had the look of belonging there for years and years. The price was right too: $40 because it did have a little mend in the seat.
So I hauled it home and maneuvered it into place. Somehow I managed on my own although I shouldn’t have. I have my bench! I have plans to plant daffodil bulbs around the cement bench “legs” and I think in a year it will be like the bench has always been there.
I get so much satisfaction from my garden. It is a simple pleasure, yet so rewarding. Try a little gardening. It is so good for the soul !
back in the saddle
Snapped this photo while on vacation in Amagansett, NY recently. If I were a horse I would want to live at Stony Hill Stables. That place is immaculate and the animals so happy. And yes, they have a few retired race horses living there with all the right paperwork too I am told.
This photo was just such a beautiful and peaceful, yet unpretentious scene so thank you for the indulgence. I have a LOT of photos to share from the trip, I am still editing (I took over 1000 photos).
Back in the saddle getting back to everyday life means more gardening and barn picking and all that good stuff! Back in the saddle also means getting back to some of the blogging of it all.
I am not some blogging newbie. I have been at this long before it was either fashionable or trendy.
Some might not care for my opinion or some other blogger’s opinion, but opinion is one of those great things allowed in the USA courtesy of our founding fathers.
Just because I blog it does not make me a free publicist or phtographer. I get paid for that if that is what you want.
I also always do my research and trust me there are a lot of people who should deeply appreciate the fact I do not let loose with all the info I dig up on the public record. My sources, generally speaking are honest and above-board, and as a source I am also trusted by the media….because I do my homework. So have a care. And if you want to split hairs and play semantic monopoly, that is fine. But don’t play me or play passive-aggressive patty-cake. Fibs always come out. And telling people different stories catches up with people, it’s a tough game to maintain, yes?
This blog is different from the purely activism/civic activist- based blogging I used to do, but occasionally you will find that here because there are just things I believe in.
Take Justice for Argus & Fiona – the two Bernese Mountain Dog puppies shot months ago. Their family and dog lovers everywhere are still waiting for justice to be served. Mr. Pilotti now apparently wants a jury trial of his peers, so apparently from what the Bocks tell us via the Chester County District Attorney’s office that has yet to be scheduled and there is to be no plea deal – another rumor we heard.
Mr. Pilotti we have not forgotten. Chester County DA? We have not forgotten. What he did was wrong. It was intolerable cruelty. And it is really frustrating to be doing things the right way from our end, yet there is no justice and the dog laws have not moved one bit.
And for those hopping all over my back because I think West Vincent and the District Attorney should have confiscated the gun used to shoot the dogs pending the outcome of a trial? Get over yourselves. That is not something unusual. What is unusual is the fact that one simple thing never happened did it?
Here is the docket link. The first page has a docket entry of bitter end of summer for a new trial date but have no way of knowing if it is for real. My somewhat jaded opinion is it would be easier for the District Attorney and Mr. Pilotti if everyone forgot about the dead puppies but why should we? So it can happen again?
But what do we expect with anything having to do with West Vincent? Normalcy?
Speaking of West Vincent, Chickenman just celebrated his 4th anniversary. Everyone should read his anniversary message because if you live in West Vincent with this local government no one can afford to be an ostrich with their head in the sand can they?
Chickenman 4th Anniversary Missive
http://chickenman.medianewsonline.com/
And in the whole West Vincent of it all, another thing I believe in is the preservation of Birchrunville Village. So check out the flyer titled BirchrunvilleFlyer – you had beter get involved if you love the village because it is about to be super-sized if government officials get their way. a development plan proposes to insert 3 additional buildings plus parking for almost 50 cars, effectively creating a commercial strip mall in front of the historic schoolhouse building!
Birchrunville People sent out a message:
Please join concerned residents for a discussion at the Birchrunville Café on Saturday August 17 at 10AM. Learn what you can do to help make sure township ordinances are properly enforced in order to retain the character of this historic village. Also…Please attend the next scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday August 26. For more information, please check out the web site http://birchrunvillepeople.com
I hope everyone is having a delightful summer! As always, thanks for stopping by!
have a seat
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