Blithewold (meaning happy woodland) was built in 1909… originally as a summer home (of 45 rooms) and while not nearly as grand the famous Newport cottages…
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It was still quite lovely.
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The entrance hall was bright and sun filled.
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The dining room a good bit darker. Sadly most of the original furniture is gone, and the replacement table doesn’t quite fill the space.
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The butler’s pantry.
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With a funky arrow board pointing out where “servant needed”.
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The family loved their gardens and most of the china patterns reflect this.
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The daughters.
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And the naughty butler.
The kitchen was cordoned off the day we visited as it was being used to cater a wedding on the grounds that evening.
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The breakfast room also served as an indoor patio with large windows and doors that opened the house to cool breezes off the bay.
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Floral tile and pinecone lighting. These people loved their plants.
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A pillared hallway led to the billiard room.
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And the telephone room with hand painted wallpaper.
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The living room had a few scattered pieces of furniture …
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Including this rather ugly throne.
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About to head upstairs, we noted the hanging cherub lights.
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And I don’t know about you…
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But to me it looks like the little gold plated darling wants to bash someone on the head.
I kept strolling the gardens of Blithewold by myself…
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Giving my husband time to exhaust the unsuspecting strangers who’d begun chatting with him.
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I strolled.
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And strolled.
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And was tempted to check out the bamboo forest…
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But turned around and realized he would go on all day without an intervention.
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Working my way around the greenhouse…
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I flanked the group, whose women were looking around, shuffling their feet and trying to politely escape.
As I joined them, the man was telling my husband about the line of trees that was pruned like shrubs in the background of this picture.
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He said the tree was native to the Chinese mountains and had been extinct for a thousand years until a horticulturist retrieved some seeds from a fossilized specimen and brought it back to life. The man told us he had just collected some of its cones and intended to plant them on his property, suggesting we do the same.
Which my husband did.
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Steering my spouse away, we continued exploring.
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Blithewold is known for its fabulous old growth trees.
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And some of them are hella impressive.
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Sequoiadendron giganteum,
The Giant Sequoia.
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This is the tallest one on the east coast.
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But I loved these big beauties.
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Weeping European beech.
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Even the roots were awesome.
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And this next tree?
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A Dawn Redwood.
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Whose surrounding ground was littered with little cones just like the ones my husband collected.
Thousand year old extinct tree my ass.
😒
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Turns out this was the rare specimen.
A Franklin tree.
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Extinct in the wild but cultivated and grown by gardeners.
We stayed at Club Wyndham Newport Onshore which is part of our timeshare.
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The location was perfect, it was clean, well kept and fully staffed. Hot and cold running housekeepers brought my husband more coffee, firmer bed pillows, and even a toothbrush since he forgot his.
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Some of our timeshare properties assign you a unit of their choice with no chance of switching. But this resort gave us the two bedroom, two bath top floor condo on the harbor I requested… and we were happy campers that this building had 3 separate card keyed lobbies with 3 separate elevators and only one other unit on our floor.
Peace and quiet is never over rated.
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Indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, outdoor grilling areas, wine and cheese nights… I’d stay here again. But that doesn’t mean it was perfect.
Parking was limited, and definitely an issue. So much so, we were assigned three different spots during our stay and had to wiggle in and out every morning hoping not to hit anything, or anyone.
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We started in the underground area below our unit. It was tight, but doable. And then….
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The resort began replacing all its patio furniture and those areas were blocked off.
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So we moved outside to space #13, which was fine, until we came back one afternoon and found this…
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No way we were parking there.
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Our final spot was under cover again, but pulling in and out with a lot full of diagonally parked vehicles made me glad the husband was driving.
The condo itself had been newly remodeled, but once again I questioned the interior decorators. I realize everyone’s taste is different, but the colors and “art” on the walls was….
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Well…
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A bit much.
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I get it, Newport is on the water and they wanted a nautical theme. But couldn’t they find something more attractive than anchor chain and rigging?
We woke to a good bit of fog on our first morning back in Newport.
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Of course we’re those annoying resort neighbors who are up at 4:30:-5:00am to start the day so we often beat the sun.
As we sat on the balcony with tea and coffee, a friend was making his presence known directly below us.
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Most people who live on or near the coast hate seagulls…
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But we love all creatures… so naturally the husband started feeding him.
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This is not recommended.
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Before long, our friend from down below became our friend up top.
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Seagulls are opportunists.
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If they find a food source, they’ll take full advantage.
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My husband started with Cheetos, but then laid out a wheat bread buffet.
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And though the railing proved a bit slippery.
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Our new friend soon figured out a drive (fly) by maneuver.
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And then he told a friend.
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And another friend.
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Three squawking, circling gulls at 5:30am was enough to prompt the man staying on the sailboat below us to holler up at my husband to please stop feeding the birds, which he did.
Reluctantly.
And as we were sitting on the balcony ignoring the still hungry and now pissed off birds…
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My husband realized the nice little cafe where he had breakfast every morning on our previous trip was over there.
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A not insignificant distance, but you know he got dressed and walked over there anyway. Every morning …to eat breakfast and more importantly, chat with the locals.
The man loves to talk.
🤣
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 