The Histories: Fence Painting

William Gillette was a nationally known stage actor, from the early 1900s. He had a retirement house built overlooking the Connecticut River in Hadlyme, which is an area around the boundary of the towns East Haddam and Lyme. His house and grounds is now a local tourist attraction and state park with hiking trails.

Above is an aerial photo of that house, what's now known as Gillette Castle State Park. It's stone on the outside and mostly woodcarvings on the inside. It was donated to the State in 1943. On the tour, you are shown intricate doors and passages, which allowed the actor to either make grand entrances or quick escapes, depending on the desirability of who was at the door. It's said that Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin were among the visitors.

Gillette is best known for portraying Shrerlock Holmes. To bring Doyle's character to life, Gillette supposedly invented the tweed hat, pipe, and the phrase "elementary my dear Watson!".

Hadlyme and the surroundings are full of fine homes. The Connecticut River is the largest river in the country without a big city at its mouth. So instead of barges and factories, there are fine homes and scenic views. I cruised through Hadlyme and Lyme for ideas on how the tastefully wealthy paint their fences. One home had an idea that I liked, a purplish-gray fence with stained post caps.

Things went fast after that. The fence before:

The wooden caps on top of the posts were dried up and falling apart. Below are replacement caps (the squares) and two finials (with the round ends), about $50 total from Home Depot.

You can see the wooden caps, after staining, in photo below. Below is the finished product. Fence is painted with a Behr color called Orion Gray and the caps and finials are stained with semitransparent color called Cordovan.

It took a day and a half of prep, mostly sanding and scraping the pickets. Painting took a little more than half a day. I only painted the three sections and gate by the back entry. The entire back yard surround would take too long, and much of it is overgrown or otherwise not in bad condition.

The next house color, presently undecided, will need to match the fence!

Part 2: River Sunset!

Route 149 between Moodus and East Haddam rarely fails to enchant.

Around 8pm in late June, the sun's rays seem to summons the spirits...

There's one spot along this stretch of road, with enough of a gap in the trees, where you can glimpse the sunset. If you brave pulling over. The picture below, is taking from that gap, overlooking where the Salmon River joins the Connecticut River.

Below, is not far down the road from that previous photo. Here's the sunset looking up-river. The river has a slight easterly course in this area, which is why the sun appears up-river.