New Jersey
This beautiful day got started with brunch in the front window of Kathleen’s Tea Room in Peekskill. Our table really was up two steps and literally on display in Kathleen’s front window! Breakfast and tea were superb and the meal was followed by a very short walk to the Bruised Apple Bookstore which was just delightful. (My camera was cooling it in the car for some reason. My bad! However, Meredith’s phone saved my bacon!)
It would be a shame if you couldn’t read the title of the book I am holding in the Bruised Apple Bookstore - Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart. What a hoot!!
After a drive into the heart of New Jersey (Long Valley, NJ to be exact) we arrived at the home of Richard’s sister, Tina and husband Rick. Tina is the consummate hostess and welcomed us with this clever chalkboard greeting.
Starting in the dining room, we were shown many creative adaptations and restorations with every nook and cranny cleverly repurposed to house collections of all description.
Stunning reuse of a Chinese screen which now serves as the doors to a pantry housing glassware and other accessories. All of this one “stud depth” into the interior wall.
I think this is one end of the kitchen.
Here is the other end! Rick, Tina and the boys did virtually all the work themselves, transforming a 200+ year-old shell of a house into this showplace. Quite a transformation.
The attic which was just dead storage space has been made into a cosy guest room and music room.
What a great little reading nook. Look at the complex angles of this dormer.
This placid steam wanders through the back of their property. The far bank is really the near bank of an island in the middle of the river.
Two of the tea party guests have just noticed the island. Look at the beautiful and tasty morsels so carefully arranged by Tina and her son, Steven.
Much too soon we were off to visit Richard’s mother and father in Whitehouse Station, NJ. This little water feature graces their front yard.
Richard, his mother, Gloria, Cathy and Meredith in the late glow of a New Jersey afternoon.
