An envisioning. 1996 and high summer up in the Laurentians.

Oh to be here.

Québec and the summer house just as wonderful as it had been the first year Father and Mother had packed up the station wagon, folded the back seat down, and let everyone young ride in the way back. Long into the night it had been with dawn coming up filled with birdsong, and the general store stopped off at to get a thermosful of Grandfather’s favorite Hawaiian organic coffee loaded with farm fresh cream and exactly two cane sugar packets. Funny. Grandfather willing to eat just about anything but his coffee, no. One way, like a red arrow leading only one way, with no detours and no Maxwell House out of a jar.

My new fiction piece. Please click through the link to read the rest- https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1996-and-high-summer

Starlight Mints. American. Oil on canvas. Pamela Michelle Johnson, artist. © Pamela Michelle Johnson. Fair use license. @p.m.johnson.art on Instagram. via Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p.m.johnson.art/p/DMEPzAIv9AZ/?hl=en

Spending my afternoon time traveling my way back to 1900 with a special ticket to the l’Exposition universelle. Imagery from French architect Antonin Raguenet’s “Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris.”

Specimen d’une planche TRES RÉDUIRE. Le format exact est de 45 X 34. Croquis Architecturaux. Page 4 of A. Raguenet’s Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris. Published in Paris in 1900 by C. Schmid. Collections of the Getty Research Institute. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/lesprincipauxpal00ragu/page/n4/mode/1up
Facade des campaniles et coupoles. Palais par Messrs Larche and Nachon, Architectes. Palais C. Page 4 of A. Raguenet’s Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris. Published in Paris in 1900 by C. Schmid. Viellemard Fils & Cie, Paris, lithographers. Collections of the Getty Research Institute. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/lesprincipauxpal00ragu/page/n5/mode/1up
Guirlandes sous l’entablement et entre les grandes baies des façades. Mr. C. Julien, sculpteur. Palais par Messrs Larche and Nachon, Architectes. Published in Paris in 1900 by C. Schmid. Viellemard Fils & Cie, Paris, lithographers. Palais C. Page 10 of A. Raguenet’s Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris. . Collections of the Getty Research Institute. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/lesprincipauxpal00ragu/page/n10/mode/1up
Chapiteaux et bases des flèches pyramidales. Mr. Jacquier de Caen, sculpteure. Palais par M. Tropey-Bailly Architecte. Published in Paris in 1900 by C. Schmid. Viellemard Fils & Cie, Paris, lithographers. Palais A. Page 17 of A. Raguenet’s Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris. . Collections of the Getty Research Institute. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/lesprincipauxpal00ragu/page/n17/mode/1up
Couronnements et balcons des facades en saillie sur l’Avenue des Invalides. Messrs Jacquier Freres, sculpteurs (detail). Palais par M. Tropey-Bailly Architecte. Published in Paris in 1900 by C. Schmid. Viellemard Fils & Cie, Paris, lithographers. Palais A. Page 23 of A. Raguenet’s Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris. . Collections of the Getty Research Institute. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/lesprincipauxpal00ragu/page/n23/mode/1up
Entablement et attique décorer des armes des principales villes de France; Fragment des façades en quart de cercle.Palais par Messrs. Toudoire & G. Fradelle, architectes. Published in Paris in 1900 by C. Schmid. Viellemard Fils & Cie, Paris, lithographers. Palais D. Page 28 of A. Raguenet’s Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris. Collections of the Getty Research Institute. In the public domain due to age https://archive.org/details/lesprincipauxpal00ragu/page/n28/mode/1up
Deux des trois frontons couronnant la partie centrale de palais, a droite et a gauche de la grande place servant d’entree a l’Avenue de l’Esplanade. Sculpteurs Messrs. Mallet et Pinard. Palais par Messrs. Toudoire & G. Fradelle, architectes. Published in Paris in 1900 by C. Schmid. Viellemard Fils & Cie, Paris, lithographers. Palais D. Page 53 of A. Raguenet’s Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris. Collections of the Getty Research Institute. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/lesprincipauxpal00ragu/page/n53/mode/1up
Vue d’ensemble d’une des deux façades a l’interieur d l’ancienne galerie des machines. Les nombreux pavillions d’exposition places devant le palais ne nous ont pas permis de donner ces façades en perspective. Il manque a cet ensemble deux petites portes, a droite et a gauche, que nous n’aurions pu faire figurer ici sans réduite encore l’echelle du dessin. Mr. Gustave Raulin, architecte. Champe-de-Mars, Palais pour La Salle des Fetes. Published in Paris in 1900 by C. Schmid. Viellemard Fils & Cie, Paris, lithographers. Palais D. Page 104 of A. Raguenet’s Les principaux palais de l’Exposition universelle de Paris. Collections of the Getty Research Institute. In the public domain due to age. https://archive.org/details/lesprincipauxpal00ragu/page/n104/mode/1up

An envisioning. 1969, and dawn starting to arrive at the house in Elizabethville on a fine morning in May.

Oh to be here.

The sky turning red and then orange. A cup of steaming hot coffee to sip out on the porch with the colors bouncing off the Hudson.

My new fiction piece with the rest at the link if you would like to read it

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1969-and-dawn-starting

with this image from the archives of Mount Holyoke College

An envisioning. 2003, and one o’clock on a blustery March afternoon at the apartment on Roxelana Place, a few exits down the interstate from Cleveland Heights.

Oh to be here.

A small lunch with the end of the sharp cheddar cut into thin slices, eaten between the last two pieces of rye bread. Funny. Not much like it was back then, what with always being stuck trying to be skinny, but cheddar and rye. No, always loved, even back at school with the fire escape for a refrigerator in December with squirrel teeth-sized nibbles or in the June heat on a corner of the desk, sweating bit by bit until school broke for summer.

My new short fiction piece over on my Substack.

The rest is at this link:
https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-2003-and-one-oclock

Oh! To live the life of a Valois princeling and his bride. Watercolors by architectural watercolorist Tavernier de Jonquières (Brice Tavernier) who lived from 1742 to some time after 1830.

Vue de la porte de Vaux qui conduit à Notre-Dame-de-Liesse. French. Drawing in pen and brown ink with watercolor. Tavernier de Jonquières, watercolorist (1742- after 1830). Collections of the @gallica.bnf.fr, the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Artwork in the public domain due to age. https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&query=%28gallica%20all%20%22Tavernier%20De%20Jonqui%C3%A8res%22%29&lang=en&suggest=0
Valois. Tour de Vez. French. Drawing in pen and brown ink with watercolor.  Tavernier de Jonquières, watercolorist (1742- after 1830). Collections of the @gallica.bnf.fr, the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Artwork in the public domain due to age. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7741063h.r=Valois?rk=21459;2
Ruines du Château de Pierrefonds. Oise, France. French. Drawing in pen and brown ink with watercolor.  Tavernier de Jonquières, watercolorist (1742- after 1830). Collections of the @gallica.bnf.fr, the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Artwork in the public domain due to age. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b77410497.r=Tavernier%20de%20Jonqui%C3%A8res?rk=85837;2
Vue du cloître de la Chartreuse de Bourgfontaine. French. Drawing in pen and brown ink with watercolor.  Tavernier de Jonquières, watercolorist (1742- after 1830). Collections of the @gallica.bnf.fr, the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Artwork in the public domain due to age. https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&startRecord=0&maximumRecords=30&page=1&query=%28gallica%20all%20%22Tavernier%20de%20Jonqui%C3%A8res%22%29
Vue du palais des Rois de Soissons à Saint Médard. French. Drawing in pen and brown ink with watercolor.  Tavernier de Jonquières, watercolorist (1742- after 1830). Collections of the @gallica.bnf.fr, the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Artwork in the public domain due to age. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7741260z.r=Tavernier%20de%20Jonqui%C3%A8res?rk=643780;0
Vue de l’entrée souterraine du Château de Pierrefonds, Oise. French. Drawing in pen and brown ink with watercolor.  Tavernier de Jonquières, watercolorist (1742- after 1830). Collections of the @gallica.bnf.fr, the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Artwork in the public domain due to age. https://gallica.bnf.fr/services/engine/search/sru?operation=searchRetrieve&version=1.2&startRecord=30&maximumRecords=30&page=2&query=%28gallica%20all%20%22Tavernier%20de%20Jonqui%C3%A8res%22%29

An envisioning. 2016, and two in the afternoon in May at the shop in Quantrill Bay.

Oh to be here.

A new shipment from New York to start the season off. Helium balloons to decorate the front door, along with new awnings in pink and prune something stripes that are coming tomorrow. The prune ones looking more like the purple in an acai breakfast bowl, drowned in octopus ink, but the latest thing according to the buyers. Them one doesn’t argue with.

my new short fiction piece. Please click through the link below to read the rest of it if you like. Thank you!

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-2016-and-two-in-the

An envisioning. October 2002, and seven o’clock in the morning at the house on Puffinball Island.

Oh to be here.

Life just darling with two pancake griddles going at once, each one with little pancakes spun out in a circle like a clock so the children can learn to tell time between episodes of Sesame Street. Not quite Swedish pancakes, the kind Grandmother made from a mix they had at the grocery store, but the closest thing to them that Martha Stewart knows about.

my new fiction piece. Please click through the link to read the rest-

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-october-2002-and-seven

Oh to be the queen of something and ride in convertibles in parades for a year. Various photographers, years and archives.

Mary Ann Mobley, rides in a white convertible. The sign reads, “Mississippi’s 1955 Travel Queen.” Jackson, Mississippi. 1955 photograph. American. Hugh W. Shankle, photographer. Hugh W. Shankle Photograph Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/shankle/detail/4839
Linda Lackey rides in a white convertible. The sign reads, “Linda Lackey Of Forest 1961 Maid of Cotton.” Mississippi, USA. 1961 image. American. Hugh W. Shankle, photographer. Hugh W. Shankle Photograph Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/shankle/detail/4846
Miss Flame for the Civitan Club riding in a convertible in the Fire Prevention Week parade down Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, Alabama. October 4, 1954 image. American. John Engelhardt Scott, photographer. John Engelhardt Scott Negative Collection, Alabama Department of Archives and History, 624 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama. https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/photo/id/27999/rec/7

Alabama Poultry Queen riding in a convertible during the Peanut Festival parade in downtown Dothan, Alabama. October 1967 image. This image was taken for (but not used in) the photo spread “Two of Everything,” which appeared on page 3 of The Southern Courier for October 28-29, 1967. The issue is available online (not on the ADAH website). American. Jim Peppler, photographer for The Southern Courier Newspaper. John Pepper Southern Courier Photograph Collection, Alabama Department of Archives and History. https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/peppler/id/4770/rec/28
Miss Wichita Falls in Armed Services Parade: Photograph of Miss Wichita Falls, Kathy Green, on the back of a convertible, and Doyle Davis, Jaycees president, driving the convertible past the reviewing stand in the Armed Forces Day parade in downtown Wichita Falls, Texas. Undated image, ca. 1965. American. John Cochran, photographer for the Wichita Falls Times. Jimmy Cochran Photographs Collection, The Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1276365/?q=convertible
Princess of Port Neches Texas: Postcard of a man driving a woman in a convertible in a parade. The woman is sitting underneath an umbrella, and a sign on the car reads, “Princess of Port Neches.” The man driving is wearing a suit and a hat, and the car is decorated with streamers. There is a large building or house in the background with spectators watching from the porch. There are two other visible cars behind the one in the foreground. 1923 postcard. American. Museum of the Gulf Coast via The Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201824/?q=convertible
Two women riding in Armed Forces Parade: Photograph of two beauty contestants riding on the top of a convertible in the Armed Forces Day parade in downtown Wichita Falls, Texas. Undated image, ca. 1965. American. John Cochran, photographer for the Wichita Falls Times. Jimmy Cochran Photographs Collection, The Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth802702/?q=convertible
North Texas Homecoming Princess riding through campus in a convertible. Denton, Texas, USA. 1963 image. American. Photographer not given. University of North Texas Special Collections via The Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth164248/
Photograph of a beauty queen riding on the top of a convertible in the Armed Forces Day parade in downtown Wichita Falls Texas. Her sash reads, “MISS MISSLE 1965.” American. John Cochran, photographer for the Wichita Falls Times. Jimmy Cochran Photographs Collection, The Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth802358/
Kendall County Fair Queen in Parade: Contact print of people sitting in a convertible car decorated for the Kendall County Fair parade, including an unidentified man in the driver’s seat and a young woman in a formal gown and gloves perched on top of the back seat. There are garlands, the car fringe is attached along the bottom, and a sign that says “1954 Queen Kay Cartwright.” The car is parked at the side of a road and houses with fenced yards are partially visible in the background. 1954 image. American. Friedrich Gustav Hillmann, photographer. Patrick Heath Library via The Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1560409/

A new grouping of beautiful hand-fans, taken from the July email from Fan d’Eventails, Paris.


Souvenir fan for the Exposition Universelle, held in Paris, France, from April 14 to November 12, 1900. Wooden sticks and guards, the paper leaf being printed with a view of the Porte Monumentale, designed by the architect René Benet. Image © Fan d’Eventails Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/historic-fans/4410-1900-paris-exposition.html
Hand fan with mother-of-pearl sticks and guards, the fabric leaf being painted with a view of a bay somewhere in the world. Late 19th c. Maker not known. Image © Fan d’Eventails Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/19th-century-fans/4413-3.html
Fan with blond tortoiseshell sticks and guards and a silk leaf painted with a scene depicting a rider in a valley somewhere in Switzerland with a view of snow-capped mountains in the distance. ca. 1890-1900. Maker not known. Image © Fan d’Eventails Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/19th-century-fans/4392-a-valley-in-switzerland-fan-circa-1870-1900.html

Hand-fan, the fabric leaf painted with a view of Guernsey. ca. 1900. Image © Fan d’Eventails Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/19th-century-fans/4409-guernsey-fan-circa-1900.html

Large fan with wooden sticks and guards, the printed paper leaf depicting a view of Lake Geneva and the town of Evian les Bains, part of the poster designed by Gauvain for the Paris-Lyon-Méditerrannée railway. Inscribed on the back: Le lac Léman affiche pour Evian. ca. 1905.  Image © Fan d’Eventails Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/19th-century-fans/4393-le-lac-leman-vu-d-evian-eventail-d-apres-gauvain-vers-1905.html
Souvenir hand fan from the French Embassy in Moscow, Russia. The bistre-colored paper leaf painted with musical attributes, torchères and garlands of flowers. Painted bone sticks and guards. Inscribed on the reverse: EMBASSADE DE FRANCE
MOSCOU MAI 96. Signed on the reverse by the Parisian fan-maker Ernest Kees. With a luxury case from Kees. 1896. Image © Fan d’Eventails Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/historic-fans/4406-souvenir-from-the-french-embassy-in-moscow-1896-fan-by-kees.html
Hand fan with wooden sticks and guards, the fabric leaf painted and inscribed Cotes de Normandie. ca. 1900. Image © Fan d’Eventails Paris. Fair use license. https://www.fandeventails.fr/en/19th-century-fans/4398-washerwoman-on-the-normandy-coast-fan-circa-1900.html

An envisioning. 1997, and four o’clock on a winter’s afternoon at the cottage in Glenwillow Falls.

Oh to be here.

Back home after a walk along the lake. Everything drenched, with the housekeeper helping first with the jacket and then the galoshes. Ohio fine, but Mariposa County way better. Warm and sunny and all that, but children who like freezing their fingers off and living where lakes ice up instead of drying up with the end of the wet season. Getting sick, needing help and stuck. No one about to move to California and Ohio and a life staring at sleet instead.

My new piece of short fiction. Please click through the link to read the rest if you like.

https://sarahbguestperry.substack.com/p/an-envisioning-1997-and-four-oclock

Salute for Freedom, advertisement for Bianchini-Férier, Harpers Bazaar, August 1945. Erwin Blumenfield, photographer (1897-1969). Image © Estate of the photographer. Fair use license. via https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/feb/20/smuggling-art-into-fashion-erwin-blumenfelds-high-style-in-pictures?page=with:img-7 though I found it here on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/thats.so.classic/p/DLr4wiQgK4U/?hl=en