|
|
|
|
|
Eliza's cottage was well-loved and well-worn. She placed some chipped china teacups on a little wooden shelf by the front door. Under the cup shelf was a hand lettered sign reading "Smiles Cottage". It emphasized this was a happy cottage and she frequently referred to it as "Smiles Cottage" in her conversation.
The long redwood stick propped the window sill to keep the window frame from sagging. One could see a small summer cabin down the slope behind the house. Her children would sometimes sleep there during the nice weather.
Several iron-rimmed wagon wheels leaned against the house, all in varying stages of decay and rust. Round slices of redwood logs placed on the hardened dirt provided challenging stepping stones leading to her porch.
There is a lamplight visible through the open front door in this picture. It beamed from an iron floor lamp. Its yellowed shade drooped over a small library table placed in the middle of the room. Eliza would put on her glasses and sit in the hard chair behind the table. She wrote many of her poems here.
Her garden was a composite of carefully arranged discarded dishes, chipped enameled cooking pans, light fixtures and metal bedframes and springs. Enameled metal milk jugs, old light fixtures and a German WWI army helmet hung from tree branches in her yard. It was a visual feast.
|
|
