Lately it seems like I haven't been witching much. Other things going on, distractions, life tangling me up in its strands. Yesterday I got to go visit a beautiful old house with Mizz A, and at the same time be a Witch.
It sits not far from the road that winds through the countryside, hills and farms, churches and cows, horses here and there, and giant rolls of hay that look like unripened or lightly toasted marshmallows waiting for the harvest. It's on 49 acres, much of the land let to go wild-ish, because that's a lot of land to care for when you're one woman, kids not interested in the place or the work involved. No blame, there, they have lives, but one person with a dicky back cannot wage that kind of battle with nature and her kind of entropy.
It was a plantation, once, and had a post office/store kind of place, and slaves, and then not-slaves, and there's a graveyard somewhere among the weeds. The chicken house is still standing, and a barn, and one of the slave cabins and a storage kind of barn thing.
The owner called Mizz A because Miss A is part of a paranormal investigations group, and the owner was concerned about some odd goings on in the house. Concerned enough that she moved out, cleared a little patch of land nearby, and built a new dwelling there. Maybe it's haunted, or cursed, and maybe living there is a chance she didn't feel like taking any more.
So the old house? Sits empty.
She loves that house, though, can't let it go just yet. She has hopes and dreams, hopes and dreams that won't dry up and blow away just because of some...oddities.
Mizz A asked me if I could maybe come with her to visit the place and maybe despook or decursify it. I like old houses and outbuildings, and figured a day out of the Casa, sans kids, might be a good thing, so I agreed. We planned our jaunt, and yesterday was the day so off we went.
As soon as we drove up, I loved the place. You know the kind of place that's home, even when it isn't? That's quiet and peaceful and maybe a little sleepy? Friendly and welcoming and a little quirky, like your crazy Aunt Edna with the crooked straw hat that makes you cookies and tells inappropriate stories that make you laugh? The kind of place that wraps you in a gentle hug and tells you it's okay, you're safe here, and comfortable, and time slows down a littel? Yeah, that kind of place.
And as soon as we drove up, I knew there was no haunting, no curse.
The house, it's lonely.
(A view of one side of the house, shot from a little table that was waiting in the yard)
It's been empty for a minute. It used to be full of children, and laughter, and tears; life. The family that has lived there since forever, the family that used to fill it with noise and motion, the family that steeped its walls with their history, that family didn't want it any more. No heat. No AC. All kinds of updating, restoration, modernizing needed. No thanks, we have different lives to lead. No sentiment. No attachment. No roots. They gutted it, sold off everything that once made each room a living space, sold the property, brushed the dust of it from their hands, and left it to its own devices and the whims of its new owner.
(Roof and chimney, sound and ready to serve)
She saw its bones and felt the lull, the gentle tug of a house that wants to be lived in, and she was caught fast in its spell. Love me, the house says. I'm strong, sturdy, I'll weather the storms and keep you safe. Here, you will have a haven. Love me.
(Slave quarters, one room with a fireplace, now used as a kind of guest room)
And she does love it. Every inch. Every creaky board, every crack in the plaster, aver stone of it. The house, it knows. Some of the things she experienced in there, the not-hauntings, not-curse things, were the house trying to welcome her home. It remembers, and it wants to share that it was a living place, once, and wants to be again. It wants to welcome her, here, sit on the porch swing and relax with me, be calm, drink tea and let the world go on around us, we're fine right here.
(Oh, this chimney...how I adore this chimney)
You can feel its age. Smell it. It was built in a time when air conditioning was the wind, and doors and windows were generous and placed to catch every bit of moving air, let it wander through the house and back out again, carrying the heat with it.
(A barn, still in pretty good shape)
Despite the day being on the hot side, temps around 90F, the house wan't unbearable. A modern home would feel like an oven, but with doors and windows thrown open, arms spread wide in welcome, high ceilings ready to catch and hold the rising hot air and leave it cooler down below, it wasn't unpleasant.Warm, but not unpleasant.
(The post office/shoppish building, exterior)
We walked around outside, looked at the outbuildings, chatted about the history of the place. The owner offered us lunch, an unexpected treat of home made tomato sandwiches, sliced and seasoned cucumbers, apples, deviled eggs, radishes. Chai tea. We sat and ate and chatted some more, and I told her about the house's loneliness.
(Interior shot from the side door of the post office/whatsis)
She is afraid she will have to sell it. There's a good bit of work that must be done before it is habitable, and even more to be done to fully restore its splendor. She has a bad back, and a small bank account, and it's just too much. Too much, but oh, the heartbreak of having to give it up. She sees, appreciates, this house and its beautiful bones.
(An old saddle, waiting around)
We are kindred in our love of old houses. There's something in the way they smell, of wood often polished and plaster, and memories.
(Shelf space...jars...shelf space...ooooh...)
She could do many things with this house. Live in it, yes, but...
A bed and breakfast? An event site, perfect for weddings and celebrations, parties, bonfires, music.
A museum, perhaps, or a gallery, or an artist's home.
So many things could be done in such a fine old place.
But you have to get there, don't you? All it can be right now is a skeleton awaiting flesh, and that kind of flesh requires dollars.
(I wonder how much penny candy this old thing rang up...)
Love it all she may, the owner can't afford it.
(Dear old house)
She might be able to sell some of the land, but not too much, to fund the restoration. That would be good, because the house doesn't care about the land. It cares about feeling so empty and alone, and if land has to go in order to live once more, fine. Make it happen, the house says.
(Front door)
It's not the land that makes the magic, here, although land is living and magical in its own right. It's this house. Something I can't quite name, but like the owner, I felt it. heard it. A humming, thrumming, in my center.
(Main hall, center through, similar to the house in Little Compton where I spent much of my early life)
As we sat on the lawn and munched our lunches, I felt the happy, tuneless song of the place; happy because people were there, eating, talking, sharing space and time, and even if it wasn't much compared to the past, it was something. Stay, the house said. Rest. Relax. Enjoy. It crooned a soothing song, and even the occasional traffic on the road was hardly noticeable though we sat only yards from the pavement.
(The wood...the wood...I love the wood, great big planks of it running along the ceiling)
No curse needed lifting, no vengeful or restless spirit needed sending off. I gave the owner a blessing I'd written, in Cherokee no less, and offered to do a little blessing but reassured her that there was nothing wrong there. None of the sad or tragic things that had happened in the history of the place were anything more than life happening. Nothing evil or angry. Just a lonely house wishing for a family to fill it.
(The fireplaces all need work, but the chimneys are sound)
We went inside again, in where the feeling of the place was even stronger, the wistful welcome, and I lit some incense, mixed some things up, said a blessing for the house and its human, scattered the mojo mix around, and then played my flute for a bit.
(The kitchen fireplace. I always wanted a kitchen with a fireplace.)
While Mizz A and the owner went out and chatted on the front steps, I went back inside and shot more photos. I talked to the place. Patted the door frames. Tried to reassure it - someone will come love it, come live in it. You, the house said. You come. I can't, I told it. No money. No resources. No way to do it justice. Maybe if there's a lottery win...
(The root cellar, currently full of cobwebs and a small water heater. Yes, I went down there. It was nifty!)
I felt like weeping. Some houses are homes, yes, but they aren't alive. They don't breathe. They don't remember. Some houses are just buildings. No history, nothing and no one tied to them.
(Chai tea in a chipped cup.)
This dear old place, though, was full of its past and hoping for a future. One person, 20 people, it doesn't matter as long as there's life within, life without.
(Our hostess prepared a feast!)
I could see, in my mind's eye, what it could be. Restored, lived in, this room a parlor or music room, center hall the living room, that room a library, those rooms bedrooms. Dining room full of wooden furniture, kitchen modern but showing respect for the history of the place, maintaining the integrity of its origins in architecture. Porches with rocking chairs. Attic made into a finished living space, a staircase added in the front or side hall for access.
(The windows were glazed with old style glass, small ripples giving the world a watery look.)
I could see how I would finish the wood, paint the walls, arrange the kitchen. I could imagine my family living our lives there, smells of baking, sounds of play, music, wind, fireplaces crackling in winter.
(Fireplace and closets in what would be the master bedroom)
For brief moments here and there, it was so real I could touch it. The house, offering me possibilities, showing me what could be if only...
(A modern addition, the owner enclosed a bit of porch and added a bathroom - the house had none!)
Alas, I cannot bank if only, nor use it to pay for the artisans needed to do the house justice. Sorry, house. Oh, I can love you from a distance and daydream about you, and I certainly will hope that the owner can find a way to bring you back to your glory, but short of a miraculous lottery win, I'm afraid I can't do much more than write about you and wish you the best.
(More of the bathroom and a bit of the space beyond that could be a closet, but right now contains the attic access)
It's funny how old houses draw some of us in.
(At the back of the center hall, looking at the back door and side hall that leads to the dining room)
The owner told us that when she first saw the place, she wept to leave it. She drove away crying. So quickly, she was attached.
(The dining room and the kitchen door as well as a glimpse of the side door that leads to the side porch)
Do you know that feeling? That feeling of this is the place, this is the one, this is where I belong, and my roots are already sinking deep?
(The kitchen, from the dining room door)
She invited us to come any time, perhaps to have a bonfire. A drum circle would fit in nicely, there. A witch could live happily there. She was relieved to know that the house is not infested with ghostly remnants of the dead, nor cursed. She was touched that I felt it too, the house's sense of desolation and wish to live again.
(The kitchen and pantry, from the small enclosed porch door)
We agreed that it needed an owner who would love it for that it is, and shared a horror of the idea that anyone could buy it, knock it down, put in tract housing, erase something so fine.
(A nifty plant hanging out in the yard)
I hope something wonderful happens and the owner can keep the Lonely House in Carnesville. I hope that she can find a way to restore it fully, live in it, enjoy it, and sometimes maybe invite a certain witch and her friend for dinner.
If you know of anyone who'd like to help keep a bit of history alive, who can donate time, talent, or money to put the shine back into it, get in touch with me. I can repay you in smiles and possibly cookies, and the owner would be most grateful for the assist.
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