The Haunting

No one lives any nearer than town.

No one will come any nearer than that.

In the night...in the dark.

I'm surprised anyone would want to stay at Bellosguardo, aka the Clark Estate in Santa Barbara what-with the stench of dead bodies wafting through the air from the Bird Refuge.....drag it or drain it and you will find corpses I bet from hundreds of years ago to recent unsolved murders...

some say Bellosguardo means 'Beautiful Lookout' in Italian but you and I know it means Hill House

I read the stories, first in the Independent then the always-spooked News-Press about the state of the estate..the whole shebang is interesting because the place is such a mystery...copper barons and uppity daughters and art and old money, scandal, murder, insanity, suicide..what more could you ask for?

perhaps it is haunted by the ghost of Huguette... Huguette Clark was a musician, an artist and preferred speaking French... et Je parle un peu francais aussi!

but I found out she decided to turn the marsh into a freshwater lake in cahoots with the City of Santa Barbara back in the 1920s...so I guess there's enough blame to go around...or meybe Huggie did it on purpose?? for her sister?? that needs to be investigated

but the Indie and New-Press were both griping about the goings-on at the mansion...parties, no accountability to the public being that it's a non-profit which is to say it's a scam...ex-mayor Helene's boyfriend is holed up there and it appears he's not leaving...

why should he? he's getting paid to live there and do nothing except throw parties for rich Democrats!!! if I was the caretaker I wouldn't want the public in there either, the ruddy-bummed bastards

but what I'd do for Thanksgiving at Bellosguardo after they drain the lake and build a cement pond, is invite all my family and friends and roast some ducks smothered with cherry sauce...boil some turnips and sweet potatoes and fresh creamery butter with goblets of red and white wine..and for dessert, pumpkin and blueberry pies with vanilla ice cream...then after dinner, brandy and cigars on the veranda as we watch the sunset in silence... 

against the wood and stone of Hill House