Longwood Gardens – September 2015

There were a few more photographs that I wanted to share from our road trip to Longwood Gardens last month. They don’t fit in any particular category.

I liked the colors in these buds. It would be a good photo to experiment with a blurring tool if I ever get around to spending the time to learn a photo editing tool. I’d blur everything except the bud!

I loved the curls and waxy colors of these leaves.

Light pink and green…with the bit of yellow…one of my favorite color combinations in flowers. The shape and orientation is unusual enough that I looked twice. I tried taking a picture from under the flowers – up into the flower that hangs downward – but I didn’t like the vantage point as much as this one from the side.

Pink and white….and a myriad of petals. This vantage point makes it easier to see that the petals curve inward the closer they are to the center.

The orange and green seemed like the typical October color scheme to me…but the plant was not typical at all. The color appears….and then elongates into a very unusual tub type flower.

I always make a point to visit this garden in the Conservatory. If I ever have a garden room – I would like this type of water feature in the floor – gently flowing with the plants surrounding it.

Sometimes a spot of sunlight just makes a plant glow.

The water in the Italian Water Garden fountains goes off and on in a sequence. I managed to catch the side fountains just as they reached the point of stopping for a few seconds…so the last drops of water were suspended in the air rather than a steady stream.

On the way out – I noticed a maple leaf….fall is coming!

Longwood Gardens Meadow – September 2015

This was our first time to walk around the meadow at Longwood Gardens since it was renovated several years ago. It was a sunny, breezy fall day – great for walking around but a challenge for photography. The meadow has grassy paths. There were some that were already closed for regeneration…and new ones mowed.

I liked the planters on top of the bird houses throughout the meadow. Some of them were not growing as well as the one below that happened to be near the beginning of our hike through the meadow. The birds that utilized the house – probably tree swallows or blue birds - are done with the box for the season but the ‘green roof’ makes it worth noting.

The meadow is full of yellow – sunflowers and goldenrod.

There is an occasional splash of purple from asters

And thistles.

There are buds and seed pods on the same plants sometimes.

I was disappointed that there was not much milkweed. Perhaps more will grow next year since there were a few seed pods spilling their seeds into the breeze.

August 2015 Road Trip

Our August road trip was from Maryland up to New York (south and south west) primarily for waterfalls in New York State Parks from a base in Mt. Morris NY. I have several subsequent posts planned about the state parks. I’m focuses on the drive itself today.

Our first rest stop had Monarch friendly milkweed among their plantings….but no butterflies.

The sunflowers were in all stages of development and harbored quite a few different insects:

Bees

Wasps

And wheel bug (with a much smaller fly).

Several other rest stops along the way had similar plantings.

My husband was driving leaving me free to take pictures while we were moving down the road. The drive through the middle of Pennsylvania is through the Allegheny Mountains so there are sections of raised highway and

Steep road cuts.

The day we drove up was sunny (and hot) with fluffy clouds building.

On the way back it was somewhat cooler because it was cloudy much of the time. The high humidity made it feel hotter than it was. I manage to get a picture of the replica of the Statue of Liberty on an old bridge support in the Susquehanna River as we zipped past.

Wheatland Arboretum

The grounds around Wheatland and the LancasterHistory.org building have been transformed into an arboretum with careful plantings and signage for the trees. There was a map provided but I decided to walk around and photograph rather than reference it frequently. It was a very warm day and I found myself staying to the shady path whenever possible. The bright sunlight made the pine needles glow!

There was a large camellia in a shady area and I did some close…and closer shots of the flowers.

The dogwoods (non-native ones) were still blooming. I’d seen this same kind at the National Arboretum a few weeks ago.

The tree that caught my attention the most was the ‘tri-color beech’ which is an import from Europe. It was a striking tree in an otherwise green landscape.

And after my walk - I was ready to be in an air conditioned environment for a bit before heading out for lunch and then driving toward home.

Wheatland Gallery

There is an exhibit gallery next door to Wheatland - in the same building as LancasterHistory.org . The furniture displayed was similar to some seen at Winterthur - and in Wheatland itself - but it was easier to photograph because of the lighting in the gallery.

The entry contains a very large white a blue basin with herons (1). There were displays of sturdy pottery (2), desks with small draws and slots(3), a collection of chairs (lots of sizes) with designs painted on their backs (4 and 5), and small carved decorations on cabinets(6).  I like the little chairs the best. There was a loveseat for small children…or maybe dolls as well.

I like the painted decorations - particularly on objects that were used all the time - not just for special occasions. Or course - the ones in this gallery must have been valued enough by someone to keep them for many years.

Wheatland

Wheatland (the home of President Buchanan in Lancaster, Pennsylvania) was on our itinerary the day after Winterthur (in Delaware) and it did not disappoint. I was there for the first tour of the day; since no one else was as early, I go a private tour with the very knowledgeable docent. The tour starts on the back porch - where a workman was replacing part of the porch. The house was already its present size when Buchanan purchased it as he became the guardian for a niece and nephew.

There are many decorative features in the house that appeal even today. The windows have sturdy Venetian blinds with wood cut valences. The cords of the blinds are wound around glass knobs (a very practical idea!).

The robust cricket doorstop kept a door open.

The carpets are reproductions and produced in strips that are laid together to form the pattern and ‘fit’ the room.

There is a doll that ‘looks like’ the niece

And some pink ceramic pieces from her dressing table. She inherited the house at Buchanan’s death. Her name was Harriet Lane - known in relation to pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and the St. Albans school in Washington DC.

I liked the egret pitchers

And thought about the practicality of the ‘bath’ before plumbing (or when water is scarce).

I also found some items that are Zentangle prompts (just as I did at Winterthur).

One of the Buchanan items recently returned to the house from a Buchanan descendent was this artful mulit-bell. I wonder what the two bells meant in the household.

The house seen from the front shows a bit more about its division into three parts. Buchanan had his law office on one side. Note where the windows are…the ceilings are higher in the center than in the two wings. The external shutters appear to have been removed from the windows of the wings although some of the hardware is still in place.

As I walked back around to the visitor center, I photographed the privy. The trellis forms a rose bush arbor that hides the entrance to the 5 hole privy (with different seat heights and hole sizes!).