putterings 434 < 435 > 436 index
with grapes with place with soil; where the nerves would find a lofty disregard
I wanted the joy of rejuvenating and restoring it to its pristine beauty, and I wanted a place for placid and playful puttering, where the nerves would find the soothing balm that comes from contact with the soil. ₁₅
If you are wise you will escape both the lazy farmer and the literary agriculturist. Neither of them will permit you to enjoy your country place to the full — that is, if your enjoyment comes from pruning, planting, and puttering with place, and not from mere ownership. ₃₄
He [Nathan, hired man] sees the tonic effect upon our minds and bodies of all this planning and puttering, and he tries faithfully to carry out our directions. ₃₆
Buildings and fences will not grow from the soil. The first and most important thing is to get in the shrubs and trees so that they may be growing into a picture of vernal beauty while you are puttering with things that have to be made with human hands. ₁₄₃
It was while I was puttering with the grapes and was enjoying to the full the satisfying pastime of lifting the heavily-laden vines to the sunlight and tying them to the upper wires that my neighbor came over to tell me what kind of an “animal” I had on my hands. ₁₇₁
So much for the business side of my first real venture in grapes. I have said nothing about the mental exhilaration and physical relaxation that comes from puttering with grapes. One of the interesting diversions that engaged the curious interest of my neighbor was the bagging of several hundred of the larger bunches. ₁₇₈
I find this Farm is making me indifferent to dress. I find myself neglecting little matters of personal appearance. Since I began puttering with the soil almost any kind of apparel seems to suit my bucolic tastes. I am acquiring a lofty disregard for the conventions of life. This is somewhat alarming to my wife. Never a Beau Brummel in my dress, I am growing more careless every day about the fashions... ₁₉₀
seven “puttering’s”
ex Truman A. DeWeese, The Bend in the Road and How A Man of the City Found It (1913)
(illustrated, artist unknown)
U Minnesota copy/scan (via google books, initial landing) : link
same (via hathitrust) : link
Truman A. DeWeese (also De Weese) (1860-1936)
- advertising/public relations specialist
Director of publicity, The Natural Food Company [originators of “shredded wheat”]; in charge of special publicity for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis (1904), etc.
ex author description (facing frontispiece portrait), The Business Man’s Library — Volume 7 : Book on Advertising By Truman A. DeWeese (1907) : link) - author of several books (and a collection of speeches) on “the art of advertising”
- possibly associated with (graduate of?) Notre Dame —
Booklet: “A Tribute to Notre Dame” with Photographs and Text by Truman A. De Weese [original and photocopied versions which have slightly different covers], c1887
University of Notre Dame Archives, GNDL 30/19 : link - findagrave (includes photo): link
- several convention, etc., speeches noticed, via California Historical Newspapers collection : link
- discussed in Frank G. Coolsen, “Pioneers in the Development of Advertising,” Journal of Marketing 12:1 (July 1947) : 80-86 : jstore : link
3 June 2024