Sunlight

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 16, 2012

A few weeks ago as I was vacuuming the Birth Room in preparations for closing the Mitchell House for the winter (always a depressing thing to do!), I turned and looked back into the 1825 Kitchen to see the sun streaming through the windows and casting its light and shadows across the floor. Simple. Beautiful. I thought about how this pattern of sun and shadow across the floor is something that has played out since the kitchen was built by William in 1825. Lydia, William, Maria and all of her siblings saw that same light and the shadows of the sashes and mullions that I was looking at for the thousandth time as well. That has not changed – for over 187 years. Wow!


I also thought about how lucky Lydia and the Mitchell’s were to have a kitchen so filled with lovely afternoon sun. In the summer that made it a bit too warm especially with the fire going for cooking, but in the winter and during cool fall and spring days, that afternoon sun was a help for lighting and warmth.


Now not much has changed in the Mitchell House since it was built in 1790 and we also have many of the family pieces owned by the William and Peleg (William’s youngest brother who later owned 1 Vestal Street) Mitchell families, as well as Maria. But something so simple as the sun – and it remains the same. I think it is important to remember that we are just the caretakers of a home or building – even if it is our personal home. Owners of a home will come and go but the building will remain for generations and it is our privilege to live or take care of that building or home and our responsibility to preserve and protect it for the future so that someday, say in a hundred years, someone else will look upon a moulding, a fireplace surround, a riser, or even the sun coming through the window and know that someone else admired that one hundred, two hundred, three hundred or more years ago and that it has not changed. It connects you even more to the past and the people who inhabit the past.


JNLF

Recent Posts

A Graceful Lady

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 3, 2025
We have finally gotten out of significant drought status into mild drought. I would say we had nothing to do with it, but with climate change, we do. However, I appreciate Mother Nature’s recent gifts though these days they come hard, fast, and extreme. I always say that the May rains create a “whoomph factor.” With each rain, it seems the leaves grow over night to a new stage, of the underbrush does, of the plants in your garden. Its several “whoomphs” over the month as it rains. One “whoomph” brought about the Pink Lady Slippers. They seem a bit early this year – I usually look for them in early June – but on a walk the other morning at 6AM with our Siberian Husky, I decided to look at two places – one along the street behind where an old pine tree, now dead and gone, was located, and along our driveway in the scrub oak. And low and behold, they were there – one at the pine tree stump and two in our driveway. These are endangered in many places, including here on island. These are all plants that Maria Mitchell would have found in abundance depending on where she was walking on the island. Unfortunately with overdevelopment and someone thinking, “Oh what a lovely flower, I will take it home,” and over mowing along roads, these are quickly disappearing along with other plants like the Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus, Pearly Everlasting, Sea Lavender – the list goes on and its depressing. So please, make yourself aware, and try and find ways to avoid mowing or digging these up. Mow AROUND them instead. Leave their areas undisturbed. They are not just lovely to look at; they are important parts of our ecosystem.  JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: June 2025

June 1, 2025
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews

The Ancient Vine

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 27, 2025
This is what our landscaper for MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House this is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF
Show More