I never showed you my pictures from Mount Vernon! What a perfectly grand time I had when I visited with the ladies from the Dyeing to Stitch retreat. They all know what a crush I have on George, so they made sure to add his home to our list of places to visit when we were in DC in October. It was one of the few places unaffected by the government shut-down, as the estate is privately maintained by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. And what a beautiful place it is, even under cloudy skies!
Here were my companions for the day: Sybil, Norma, Pat, Ann, and Jeanette! What a super fun bunch they all were, and they were very good about putting up with my never-ending search for the ladies' room. (Which, by the way, was affected by the government shut-down, but not on the actual Mt. Vernon property, thank goodness.)
Speaking of ladies' rooms…
Goodness, there were three seats inside, all situated next to each other. I'm afraid I would have had stage fright!
These were Martha's gardens. They were huge because of all the entertaining the Washingtons did, and they needed to be able to have their own produce aisles to pull from at any moments' notice. Back then, it was considered rude to inquire as to how long a guest would be staying, so they never knew if they were to have visitors for 6 hours or 6 weeks!
I loved the sheep!
This was George Washington's horse stable, and I loved it so much that when Pat and Ann invited me to name a new color of R&R linen, I chose the name Plum Street Paddock.
Here's the inside…
This absolutely fascinated me! That a tree George Washington himself had planted would still be there boggled my mind.
It had clearly grown like a weed over the centuries…
Every so often my Canadian sister Jeanette Douglas would whisper, "Hey Paulette," and point to something she wanted me to take a photo of. In this case it was the lantern in the foreground… here you go, Jeanette!
All throughout the many gift shops on the property are weathervane ornaments duplicating the extremely large one on the house's roof that George had commissioned in 1787. (Actually, the one on top of the house is also a replica, as the original needed to be protected from any more elemental damage.)
A storage shed on the grounds to the right of the house…
There was a nice long walk down to the original tomb for the Washingtons…
As I said in the beginning, the day was cloudy, but as we walked around, we noticed it got darker and darker outside. Within minutes we were all dashing into any building we could find, and oh how I laughed at how positively soaked through Jeanette and Ann were! I took the most wonderful photo of them, but lest they set the mob out after me, I won't post it. 😉
The rest of the photos I have were taken on my phone inside one of the buildings, just snapped here and there. I wish I could have taken a photo of George's dentures, but there were signs in front of it that strictly forbade any photo-taking, so I decided I wouldn't even attempt it with my phone. 🙂 You should have seen them though; I have no idea how he could stand wearing them, as they looked to weigh about 3 pounds.
Here is one of his telescope and pistol (which is believed to have been used during the Revolutionary War)…
George loved horses, and was considered an excellent horseman. Two horses he used primarily during war were Old Nelson (a brown horse) and Blueskin, represented below…
I love what was written in a letter by an English visitor to Mt. Vernon in 1785:
"When dinner was over, we visited the General's stables, saw his magnificent horses, among them 'Old Nelson,' now twenty-two years of age, that carried the General almost always during the war. 'Blueskin,' another fine old horse, next to him, had that honor. They had heard the roaring of many a cannon in their time. 'Blueskin' was not the favorite on account of his not standing fire so well as venerable 'Old Nelson.' The General makes no manner of use of them now. He keeps them in a nice stable, where they feed away at their ease, for their past services."
This was quite an interesting quote by George, so I had to post a picture of it, below. And with it, I'll say goodbye, and I'll see you all soon! Thank you for stopping by and letting me share with you all the fun I had that day in DC. And thank you to my Dyeing to Stitch friends for making it that much more a wonderful experience!
