Peggy Stewart House in Annapolis for Sale

When I lived in Annapolis many years ago, the Peggy Stewart House was a part of my daily life. I would spot it frequently as I walked to and from work, and on my jaunts around town. It’s now on the market for $3.2 million.

The Peggy Stewart House got its name from the ship named after Anthony Stewart’s daughter, Margaret. Stewart, a merchant and importer, lived in the home for seven years. in 1774, he returned to the US with a ship full of tea, paid the duty on the tea which was a violation of non-importation agreement. There was a riot, and Stewart was forced by the mob to set fire to his ship and its cargo. Stewart fled Annapolis soon after.

TheStewart House includes five bedrooms, four bathrooms, eight garage parking spaces (which may account for the high price – parking is at a premium in Annapolis, year-round), a roof deck, and an elegant rear garden, all on an unusually large lot.

The house is adjacent to the wall of the US Naval Academy and looks over the historic chapel.

Many of the original details of the house remain, including dentil molding,

the original center-hall stairs,

and beautiful plasterwork.

The colour scheme is sympathetic to the house’s historic origins.

However, the house also is full of mod-cons, including a great kitchen with all of the big name appliances, and central air-conditioning, essential in this part of the world, and, of course, indoor plumbing!

Having lived in Annapolis, I can tell you it’s a great place to live, and this is a fabulous house!

Weekend at Reggie’s

Have you ever met someone with whom you click right away? You have common cultural references, you like the same things, you read the same books, you laugh at the same jokes… That’s the way it was with Reggie Darling when I met him and his partner Boy Fenwick last summer when they were in Baltimore. And that’s the way I felt all over again when I spent the weekend with them at their house.

I drove to Upstate New York on Friday, a beautifully clear and sunny day, all while listening to my friend Mary Kay Andrews’ new book “Ladies’ Night” on CD. It made the miles just fly by and I loved the book.

After getting hopelessly lost on the small country roads, I finally met Reggie and Boy in the town near their house, which was just as charming as could be!

We had a lovely home-cooked dinner and talked well into the night! Every topic imaginable was brought up, examined and then moved on from, only to find another equally fascinating topic.

We rose at the crack of dawn-ish to make our way over to Trade Secrets, about which I’ve written. There was so much to see and buy at the show.  After a disastrous, but fun lunch during which our waiter managed to break a glass and tip over a jug of soy sauce letting us clean it up, disappear for long chunks of time and manage to draw out our lunch for three plus hours, we headed to do some drive-by shooting, specifically of Carolyne Roehm’s house, Weatherstone. Like a lot of houses we saw, it had the most magnificent lilacs in front of it as a hedge. Truly magnificent, especially when you realize that this house had burned to the ground several years ago.

There were lilacs almost everywhere we looked, which was great because they’re amongst my favourite spring blooms!

This stunning arrangement graced the kitchen table and lasted the entire time I was there. I can never get lilacs to stay fresh more than a few hours! And these smelled amazing, too!

We stopped in a small town on the way home to visit a shop that Reggie and Boy thought I’d like, which I did! It’s called Hunter Bee and they were also at the Trade Secrets show. The shop was filled with unusual objects both large and small.

They had an interesting range of items, including some fun china that I really liked.

They’d taken plain china and added engraved transfer prints to make a fun new piece!

We headed back to the house to prepare for an elegant dinner, featuring this luscious cake for dessert.

The table was beautifully set with crystal, linen, china and lots of silverware!

Of course, the star of the weekend was the adorable Pompey, who’s full of personality and a variety of funny expressions!

I wouldn’t mind cleaning up from a dinner party, as long as I got to look out at this view whilst doing dishes!

It was a great weekend with old and new friends. Thanks again to Reggie and Boy, and of course, darling Pompey!

Trade Secrets Show

One of the main reasons that this past weekend was selected as the one for me to visit Reggie Darling and Boy Fenwick, was that it’s the weekend of the Annual Trade Secrets plants and garden ornaments and antiques show in Sharon, Connecticut. It was the impetus for the Ladew Garden Festival that took place a few weeks ago.

Bunny Williams is one of the leading lights behind Trade Secrets and I was lucky enough to have a chance to catch up with her at the show.

The show takes place at Lion Rock Farm, a working farm, which also is an events venue. There are numerous out-buildings including a barn, a pool house and some other large structures.

A lot of shops, dealers and nurseries from the general region participate in the show, about 60 in total. Some of the ones I liked follow:

My friends at Pennoyer-Newman.

Privet House

Huntington & Hope, which I LOVED!

Mainly because they had things like this:

Guy Wolff Pottery

Hoffman & Woodward, whom I saw at Ladew a few weeks ago.

Marston House with their huge collection of linens and great French baskets.

There were some great pieces of garden furniture.

Lots of fun plants, including this “fiber optic” plant which I bought.

It was really a great event, with lots of fabulous things (and people) to see!

More tomorrow!

New York State of Mind

I am still recovering from my weekend along the Hudson River with friends, Reggie Darling and Boy Fenwick, as well as their dear old pug, Pompey at their house, Darlington, and at the Trade Secrets show. Also recovering from six-plus hours of driving each way, lots of great food, delicious drinks, many laughs, broken glasses, spilled soy sauce, new friends and beautiful scenery.

Many more pictures, and lots of details tomorrow!

Sunrise at Old Hilltop

One of the traditions the week of the Preakness is attending “Sunrise at Old Hilltop”, Old Hilltop being the traditional name of Pimlico Racecourse. While the event begins at 6:00 a.m, we didn’t arrive until about 7:15, which was early enough to watch some of the horses go through their gallops. We listened to some of the trainers talk about their strategies, although there were so many children there, I didn’t pick up any hot tips. We then went to the Jockeys’ Changing Rooms, where a valet walked us through the pre-race process. Jockeys are very small in flat races, and weight is everything. The valet told us about the jockeys sitting in the 160* sauna for several hours, coated in salt and oil, trying to sweat off those last few pounds.    He talked about their helmets, which are covered by nylon caps which match their silks. And the silks are extremely important, as you can see by this notice. The jockeys wear several pairs of goggles at a time, depending on how muddy the course is. As you might imagine, there’s dirt and mud being kicked up by all of the other horses, and so the jockeys are constantly flipping their goggles up. There are dozens and dozens of pairs of goggles everywhere, and we each got a pair.

The valet showed us the saddles which are tiny. They can weigh as little as five pounds and if the jockey needs more weight to make up the handicap weight, they can add pieces of lead to pockets on the saddle. Although you might think the wonderful black jockeys’ boots are of the finest leather, they’re really paper thin, just to save them weight. Each rider also has several whips, some are stiffer than others, and each has a favourite. The valet mentioned that after each race, the jockeys come up to the changing room, get out of their silks, sponge off from the prior race, put their dirty silks in a laundry bag, get dresses again in new silks and head down to mount up again. The time between races is pretty short, so if a valet has several jockeys, it’s a real challenge.

After that, we headed over to the barns to see some of the contenders. The Preakness stalls are set up especially for the big race, and on Saturday, the stalls will be filled with straw and hay, and the horses will be saddled here and then taken out to the course.

The barns are all freshly painted and have loads of hanging baskets, flowers and plants to cheer the place up. We had a chance to see Goldencents being washed down after his workout by his groom. There was a nice piece in the New York Times today about the life of a groom – particularly this groom, Dagoberto Lopez. Here. We also had a chance to meet Goldencents’ jockey, Kevin Krigger, the first African-American jockey to have a chance to win a Triple Crown race since 1902. Kevin’s a pretty incredible jockey, and has been aboard Goldencents on all of the horse’s seven wins. Kevin has won 937 races, with earnings of nearly $18 million! He was the most charming man, and answered our questions easily and patiently.   There’s a great story about Kevin here. I wish him all the best, preferably second place, mainly because I want the hometown-ish horse, Orb to win!

It was a great morning and I managed to get to the office before 8:45 .m. I will look forward to watching the race on Saturday afternoon!