October 4

Roosevelt is a Dutch name meaning field of roses.

Red Masterpiece, one of 28 varieties of roses in the Rose Garden.

My usual morning walk turned into a morning focused on horses and trees.

Mr. James Roosevelt (FDR’s father) was an avid horseman, raising primarily, Trotters. He built this barn in the 1886 and you can still see his initials, JR.

There is a story about this empty frame. A prize horse, (Glossimer?) was killed in a train wreck. The horse’s tail was removed and mounted into this frame. It hung in FDR’s bedroom in the White House and then moved to the stable. As the story was told to me, the tail was removed several years ago due to objections of a animal groups. No clue what happened to the tail, but the frame remains in the stable!

FDR listed his occupation as “tree farmer” and added over 500,000 trees to Springwood. He specified in his Will that no tree will be removed unless dying or diseased. Thus there is no view of the Hudson River as trees block the view. Here are a few of the 500,000.

Old Oak along the driveway.

New Oak along the driveway

One of the many Apple Trees..but NO apples. I trust that my 2 Springwood apple trees are thriving.

My Hyde Park Apple trees..from seeds

The afternoon was another tour of Springwood with Ranger Bob.

Inside Springwood, 2 photos of the entry room.

On the wall is FDR’s collection of political cartoons of Am. Revolution and War of 1812..pretty anti-British

Prior to the arrival of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in June 1939, Sara told her son (FDR) to remove the cartoons. The cartoons stayed on the wall. King George walked over to view and then said ” I believe you have some in your collection that i do not have in mine”. Ice broken. Time for cocktails.

This statue of FDR at age 29 is in the main room. It depicts FDR without legs and sitting in a kitchen chair.

This was 10 years Before polio. And FDR used a kitchen chair modified and equiped with bicycle wheels as his wheelchair. To me, this is Spooky.