Afternoon Visit

Aimee bought a new house in Claverack.

There was some drama around the new purchase, which apparently has been explained to me several times, but I’ve paid absolutely no attention because—let’s get real!—why should I? The only drama that interests me is my own!

Anyway, I hung out with her in the new house much of yesterday afternoon, and had quite the pleasant time.

Aimee has a real genius for turning the elements of day-to-day life into something precious and rare.

Her last house was a 19th century farmhouse 10 miles outside Hudson, and of course, it looked amazing because it had terrific bones.

This house is your basic shit-kicker shack on a few acres in the middle of Trumplandia. Nothing special, in other words, except for what its occupant does with it.

Aimee has turned the house into an enchanted castle because she has exquisite vision and taste!



I was most impressed by the way she color coordinated the porch flowers and accessories with the color of the trim! That particular violet hue is one of my favorite colors.

In the back of the house, she has a swimming pool, a small garden (that uses the pool fencing as lattices for cucumbers and pole beans), and a stand of white pines, which are native to this part of the Eastern seaboard but which I can’t imagine sprang up spontaneously on the spot.

“They would have been some kind of windbreak, no?” I said. “And then you have the two symmetrical linden trees. Don’t you think the Big House would have been right where the swimming pool is now?”

“Oh, I don’t think there was ever any Big House,” Aimee said. “It was all orchards and farms. This house was built in the 60s. Those white pines could easily be 70 years old. That means they would have been planted when the house was built.”

And thus we whiled away the pleasant afternoon, talking about trees and gardening and the bright red cardinals and chickadees that hung around her bird feeders.


(Click for closeup!)

Aimee’s new dog, Bentley, looks incredibly like Milo and behaves incredibly like Milo, and took a liking to me, which actually made me a bit teary:


I think of Milo and Rutger all the time. My animal saints.

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Aimee is also a fabulous cook, so she whipped up a wonderful dinner—fish and corn and a fabulous salad with greens whose flavors actually crescendoed into a distinct flavor palate. And homemade cheese cake with homemade apricot/ginger jam! To die for.

And then I got in the new-to-me Prius and sped on home.

The sun was just setting, and a major part of the drive was made in the dark.

What I discovered is that if I could only drive with my brights on all the time, I would be quite fine driving at night. The brights illuminate all the signs and the twisting turns in the country roads.

But, of course, I can’t drive with my brights on all the time because other drivers.
And even though I live in the country, there are quite a few of those.

So, even with a much better vehicle, it's unlikely I'll be making many trips after sunset.