Historic Benicia: Frisbie-Walsh House - Marker 18

Right up the street from Wellington is the house with perhaps the most historic significance of any house in Benicia - known as the Frisbie-Walsh house. John Frisbie was General Vallejo's son-in-law. He had this house built in Benicia in the 1850s. It was a "pre-fab." The timber was cut and numbered, then shipped to Benicia. Captain Walsh actually lived in this house until 1880.The two photos above were courtesy of the MLS. This house sold two years ago. It was starting to get a reno when we moved into Wellington, but things seemed to be on hold until just a few months ago, when renovation began in earnest.

I first talked about the Frisbie-Walsh house on January 12th in this post.


The pic below was taken on June 12th, right after they finished replacing some siding that had visible dry rot.The three photos below were taken today. The chimneys were repaired a couple of months ago, then the new roof went on - just like the old one. Now they've finished the siding, primed everything and painted the house a bright yellow - probably the original color. They've also done a great reno job on the detached garage. You can see it from the alley. The Benicia Historic Society has a lot to say about renovations of historic homes, and I'm sure they wanted this one to be as true to the original as possible.The black and whites below are old photos taken from the Library of Congress. You can see that the neighboring properties were not built at the time these photos were taken. Other than that, not much has changed with this house. I got the photos here , the Library of Congress (dot) Gov site. This is the entry on the Frisbie-Walsh house in particular.

Bungalow For Sale - Long Beach

I needed me a bungalow fix, and I got a good one. This absolutely fabulous bungalow is currently for sale in Long Beach for a mere $875,000. It was built in 1913.

Here is the sketch. Is it the cutest thing? And the kitchen has a Buck's Stove.

It has four bedrooms and two and a half baths in 2507 square feet.

There is also a full basement, but they didn't include a picture of it on their site. It's my new favorite!

Wellington, The Penguin

Wellington is not the only Wellington in the world. There's a much older Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Wellington, New Zealand has been in the news a lot lately because this chubby emperor penguin recently turned up on the beach there. No on is sure how he got so off course, but they've decided to leave him alone and hope he finds his way home. Biologists are afraid if they scoop him up and bring him back to Antarctica he might introduce diseases to his friends and family. Besides, he's been busily munching on sand which doesn't agree with his delicate digestive system. Poor little guy.

This is a cool old picture of Cuba Street in Wellington in 1883. Mary Taylor, a friend of Charlotte Bronte owned a general store on Cuba Street in the 1800s.

Below is a pic of Cuba Street today. It's a pedestrian area. I kind of like it better in the 1800s, except for the mud.Alas, my quest for Wellington-type architecture (bungalows) in New Zealand proved fruitless. But I did run across this evocative pic of three modern apartments on top of a 1908 warehouse in Wellington. Courtesy of Dwell. Couldn't be less like Wellington, but we don't mind. We like it anyway.

Garden Update 3 - Nasturtiums Galore

It's true, this is not a nasturtium. But isn't it gorgeous? It looks like a great big blackberry. You know what it is? It's a pincushion flower! Otherwise known as scabiosa which is a very ugly name. It's almost as bad as glechoma, which I also have in the garden and love. I've had the standard lilac-shade scabiosa in my gardens for years, ever since I saw it growing in Half Moon Bay and snagged a flower that had gone to seed. It's very easy to grow. Like dandelion, but better! This one is off a plant I noticed in the alley last year. It's in the garden of this really awful black house. I'm not kidding the house is painted black. But I use the word "painted" liberally because it's not only black, but it's pealing. The word "garden" can't really be used to describe the mass of overgrown bamboo and nasty bits of plants going to seed. I postively rescued this little seed from that awful place. Their poor little fig tree can't even grow a fig! Mine is swarming with figs (not ripe yet).

Anyway, I snagged this one little seed clump last year, and now I have this lovely blackberry pincushion. It's even gorgeouser in person.

Now to the nasturtiums. 70. That's how many I had growing in my garden at last count. I bought a bag of seeds from Home Depot in the early spring and scattered them absolutely everwhere. I have 40 plants in the front and 30 in the back. They're almost all orange, but some are yellowy and others are more reddish. I just love them.I just finished a lovely morning of gardening. I mostly pulled out the overgrown coreopsis which has gotten so stuck up you can't even SEE the other plants! A couple weeks ago I pulled two out on one side, today I pulled to out on the other side. They started life as a $3 six pack last year. And ended life in my green waste bin this year. Poor things. I still have two though. And I didn't take a picture of that area because right now it looks kind of sad. The other plants were so overwhelmed, they're currently gasping for air and need a few days to perk their little heads up, then I'll snap a pic.

Alright, just a little glimpse. Here:

This is our new door mat we got for $6. There's one on the back porch too. I love it, but Hugo isn't so sure about that bird. Everytime she comes in the house she steps very gingerly, as far away from that bird as she can get. Don't judge her. She's old.

I Forgot to Revel in Spring

The new West Elm catalog just arrived. The catalog includes a section highlighting their fall line. Fall! Fall? It isn't even SUMMER yet. But it is. Just today. It started at 10:16 when I wasn't looking. I forgot to revel in spring. I was too busy wishing the rain would stop. The weather would warm up. I could get up in the morning and come downstairs without putting on a sweatshirt. And now it's hot, it's summer and spring's gone.

That just goes to show you. You always want what you can't have. But in my defense, we didn't have much of a spring this year. Very recently it was stormy and cold, and today it was close to 100 degrees. Come to think of it, we didn't have much of an autumn either. I remember wishing for winter because my Halloween pumpkin was baking on my front porch. What is up with the seasons?

Enough lamenting. Look at the pics I took today while on my special quest (details to follow in the Turtle Blog). They go very nicely with the previous post published just today! If you missed it, be sure to click the "Older Post" tab below, then you'll know what I'm talking about.

But for now I'm going to go outside and revel in summer.

Guess What's Famous: Benicia

I just loving living in Benicia. It's the perfect blend of friendly home town and weekend destination. And we don't even have to go anywhere. As a matter of fact, I'm having a very hard time planning our summer vacation since we're already here! My neighbor is a member of that club where you swap homes with someone, ala The Holiday. So any day now I expect to encounter a strange European lurking next door. I'll direct him/her to the Visit Benicia site, because that's a great place to keep track of the goings on. Or you can just walk right down 1st Street and play it by ear.

And to top it all off, my new little home town is now famous because LOOK someone wrote an article all about it! I borrowed the picture above from this lovely article in Sunset Magazine. I'm awfully proud. They never put Wellington in there, though. Just some other house. Which incidentally just got a brand new owner - real estate in Benicia is HOT. You didn't hear it from me but the new people paid a cool mill for this darling Victorian. You can see it in the article. Go on. Have a look. And the house that is referred to in the article, the one that got shipped "around the horn" and reassembled in Benicia - lives in the next block up the street! It's getting a reno right now!

Chicken Update: Narrowing the List

After speaking to Garland at Distinction Farms, whose name or may not be Wayne, I have decided on the following breeds of hen:


Barred Rock Hen - the beautiful striped one above. Is she gorgeous? And apparently she's snuggly and lays big brown eggs.


Buff Brahma Hen - the cute little one below. She is snuggly and lays brown eggs too. Plus I need this color.


Black Sex Link - bottom picture. I have to say that I hate the name black sex link and I was a little scared to google it, and I don't think I need to explain why.

But the reason it's called Black Sex Link is fascinating. This chicken was bred so that you tell the males from the females very easily, as soon as they hatch. The girl chicks are all black and fluffy, the boys are all black and fluffy with a white spot on their heads. Is that so cute! But best of all, they lay big brown eggs and like to snuggle.


The photos were taken from my two favorite chicken sites: Backyard Chickens and My Pet Chicken. Who would have thought so many other people would love chickens, too? I was reading in one of the chicken books I got from the library
that there was a huge chicken craze in the 1800s and chickens shot right up to $70 a piece for some breeds. That's like $1,200 in today's money. I'm remembering the figures right off the top of my head because I'm lazy. Plus I don't want to plagiarize. But it was something like that. A person can buy a perfectly lovely hen, like one of the ones above, for about $10 a piece. That's like 2 cents in 1840. I call that a bargain.

Okay, that's the update for today. Thank you to Wayne/Garland for all of his help in making my decision. I'll keep you posted.