2023 Life Logs, Day 280: Trip to Cohasset
Date: Friday, October 6, 2023
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Sprinkles Late; High 69, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
This mostly cloudy day was brightened by a day trip to Cohasset to tour the home of Karen and Peter Baranowski’s daughter, Lyn. Karen invited a few women friends to come see the showcase home and have lunch.
Cohasset is a lovely little town on the shore south of Boston. The first written record is from 1614 when Captain John Smith was exploring the coast of New England and described an encounter with four Native Americans in a canoe at “Quonahasit.” The name comes from the Native American people who lived there long before the Europeans came and one meaning of the word Quanahasit is “long rocky place.” The location of Lyn Baranowski’s home certainly bears that out. It sits majestically on a granite hillside overlooking an inlet of Cohasset Cove. The home is a spectacular example of a mid-twentieth century modern architecture in the vintage of Frank Lloyd Wright.
There were nine of us visiting and as we moved from room to room
and then outside,
the words “breathtaking” and “spectacular” were uttered over and over. The furniture and artwork Lyn has chosen perfectly compliment the architecture of the home. My favorite painting was one that the original owners passed on to Lyn. It was on an interior wall with no windows, but was painted in such a way that it made you feel as if you were looking through the wall to the cove outside.
After touring the inside of the home, we went out to the screened in room that leads out to a patio with a little waterfall going into a pond with Koi
and from there you look down to a pool that was carved out of the granite hillside.
The home sits on almost three acres of land and overlooks an inlet of Cohasset Cove. Much of the home is glass, so no matter where you are inside, you feel like you are outside.
Just as we started to eat lunch inside, the sun came out, so afterwards we went back outside to the pool area that has a pergola covered with wisteria on one side and granite steps leading uphill to the wooded side of the property on another. I felt like I had been air-dropped into a magical autumn fairy land as the foliage on the South Shore has started to turn. Lyn has left no stone unturned in restoring this home and the grounds. It really is spectacular. So, thank you to Lyn for letting us invade her home and to her mother and my good friend, Karen, for inviting us on this tour.
Lynne left this morning before my 9 am meeting. We had a lovely, laid-back week together in between spurts of productive activity. We got rid of a carload of things I no longer need from my basement and a huge bag of clothing from my closet. Thank you, Lynne, for encouraging me to “downsize” by getting rid of some stuff stored in the basement and the old clothes I haven’t worn for years. It felt great to purge and I need to do more of it. Lynne was headed back to Nyack to visit with family and then on to Michigan on Sunday.
