The Exterior of Topping Hollow
Click on any photo for a larger version.
This is the vestibule you'd see if you were just entering the house. |
let's back out to outside... |
back up more, so we can see the stone patio, complete with kumquat and ficus trees---those windows are for the mudroom. |
Turn right to see the shed; Bob used it to store tools and repair things for the house. |
Now turn more right. That's woods... |
...and more right, to see white-flowering bushes. (They're like hydrangeas, but with smaller petals... anyone have a clue as to what they are?) |
More to the right, there's more woods... |
...and the primary entrance to the driveway. That thing that looks like a root cellar entrance to me might also have been a coal cellar entrance. |
As we go along the drive, we see a glade of ferns, |
the remains of two large trees, |
and black raspberries! |
I swear we didn't even know these were here. |
Look! Some are ripe! (yum.) |
Let's go back to the parking area. |
Turning 90 degrees to the right, we see a small hill. Let's go there. |
Look! It's the garden! Unfortunately, it seems that the soil isn't particularly rich any more. (Not much has grown well.) We'll need to add fertilizer in fall and spring. |
This is the collapsed bit of the tunnel to the railroad. |
See the collapsed bit? More on this house and the underground railroad |
This is a view along the tunnel path, to the railroad. It's just on the other side of those trees. |
Turning around and looking up, we see the window through which our resident bats travel. |
Here's a 'before' view, as the grounds looked in early Spring 2005. |
That's the outside of the loft/office. |
This is the outside of the kitchen, baths, and Sean's and Tom's rooms. Note the plethora of ferns. |
This is the other side of the driveway; it's shaped like a big ol' horseshoe. The mailbox is just to the right at the end of this part of the drive. |
This is the official front of the house, though we don't use the front door. Notice how there are many more plants to the right of the door than the left? Well, Bob says that one day he dropped by while some tenants were working on the grounds with a weed-whacker, and he stopped them just as they finished destroying the shrubbery to the left of the door. By the way, we discovered that this door is on the Doors of Belchertown poster... |
Here's a view from the inside of the front door. |
We felt pretty safe with such a large crowbar blocking anyone from getting in. |
Originally, there was a door here. You can sort of see the discontinuity in the siding where its top edge was. This entrance was only used for funerals, and so it was called a "funeral door." There were some stone steps leading up to it, and this photo shows the bottom one. |
There is very tasty water here, and it comes from Topping Hollow's very own well. This photo shows the cover of the well, which is in the front yard. |
There is a blueberry bush (behind which is some poison ivy) just to the right of the front door. The blueberries it produced were mostly pretty sour, though. |
There is a tulip tree in the front yard, see? |
The tulip tree is really tall. |
Here's a closeup of the eastern larch (the deciduous conifer). |
Here's a photo of the whole larch. It's also called a tamarack. |
The front yard is quite pretty. |
There are tiger lilies near the mailbox (as seen from the driveway). |
Here's a view from across Bay Road. |
sarah-marie didn't like the old mailbox, so she painted a new one. |
This is the other side of the mailbox, |
and this is the front of the mailbox. The back has a similar decoration, just in case anyone looks. |