Peninsula In Passage

FINIS All things must end,

The song, The rose, The plaintive note of whip-poor-will,

April’s bright flame, December’s snows . . . The candle burning on the sill. By Elkanah East Taylor Late in 1977 Jim and Kitty Perkinson bought the circa 1736 Taylor house, Shady Lawn, and two acres of surrounding land from the widow of Elkanah and E.J.’s son, East. “The house looked good from the road but needed so much TLC we couldn’t even move in for five or six months,” Kitty Perkinson says. “The Taylors used to say it was less expensive to winter in Florida than to pay the heating bills.” The Perkinsons replaced the wiring, plumbing and some of the floors. They removed the decrepit front porch and redid the windows. “And the repairs keep going on,” Perkinson says. “But we’ve never regretted buying it.” Jim Perkinson, a dean at Tidewater Community College, and Kitty, an English professor at the college, have restored the home to its mid-19th century charm. They tried to buy the 60 acres surrounding the house but it was sold to developers and turned into building lots. Now the gracious old home sits on a shaded island in the midst of a suburban housing development. “It was time for us to have neighbors but it’s still an adjustment,” Kitty Perkinson says. “I used to watch the sun come up over the creek or walk the land in the snow, then the neighbors moved in and we lost the creek view and watching the moon rise.” Day’s End

The task is over for beast and men. Twilight and night. . . what then?” Soft moonlight and a jewelled sky: A shattered rose: a silenced sigh. The cool and lyric winds of night Across a pool that’s silver white; An ended song, an old, old story Of life with all its dust and glory. The soul puts by its trivial things And finds its God . . . and love . . . and wings!

The candlesticks on the sill belonged to Elkanah East Taylor, who wrote Candles On the Sill .

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