Crossing the Susquehanna at Harrisburg PA

Usually traffic jams are unwelcome events that slow down a road trip…but we had and exception while we were passing through Harrisburg PA crossing the bridge over the Susquehanna River. I’ve always wanted to photography the river from that vantage point but we were moving too quickly. This time the traffic was stop and go (more stop than go) so I had time! There are a lot of bridges cross the river at this point.

Some pylons from older bridges remain. I was surprised by one that had a small tree growing on it…and birds enjoying it as perching place.

Just as we neared the far side of the river…..a train started to make it way across the river! Good timing.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - August 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are my top 10 for August 2015.

Eggplant balls - I finally found a recipe made with eggplant that I really like. The balls are good as appetizers or with spaghetti sauce (i.e. like meat balls) or cut in quarters and used in a stir fry. The recipe I started with is here; I substituted flaxseed meal and ground oatmeal for the bread crumbs.

Great cantaloupe and watermelon from the CSA this year - I always associate the best cantaloupe and watermelon with August….and this year was true to my memories. The watermelons were big, heavy things and very sweet; not the seedless and less flavorful varieties that seem the most popular in many grocery stores.

A visit from my daughter - My daughter had an opportunity to travel to our area for work….and she stayed on for a visit over the weekend. Wonderful serendipity.

New tablet (provided under warranty) - I got a notice about a month ago that my tablet was being recalled and that vendor would provide a replacement. The process worked! My new tablet arrived in the mail and was configured the way I wanted very quickly. I was braced for a glitch that never occurred.

Windows 10 - I was running Windows 7 and decided to upgrade to Windows 10 to be on a more current operating system. Again I anticipated a glitch of some kind. There was a minor one that cost me a few hours but otherwise it was easier. Most of the configuration I had previous was maintained during the install….that’s the part I celebrated.

Anticipating a road trip - I always enjoy the time just before a road trip....finding information for along our route, packing….celebrating that we are getting away for a little while.

Letchworth State Park - We had been to the park in New York once before during a spring time and wanted to go when it was warmer. Arriving first thing in the morning meant that we didn’t have lots of people in our photographs.

Taughannock State Park - Initially we had not planned to visit the park but I’m glad we had the time. We only went to the overlook of the falls but it brought back lots of memories of visits there with my daughter when she lived in the area several years ago.

Stony Brook State Park - This was a new park for use and was initially a disappointment because we were there on a hot afternoon and there were huge numbers of people. We came back on our way home and had the park to ourselves…and that the day I celebrated this particular park.

Nature Photography with summer campers - Celebrating a volunteer gig that was a joy - for me and the elementary are summer campers....sharing the wonder of nature.

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.

3 Free eBooks - August 2015

Last month I focused on plants, mammals and birds. This month the three books are about places.

Okey, Thomas; illustrated by Katherine Kimbell and Orlando Frank Montagu Ward. Paris and its story. London: J.M. Dent. 1904. Available from the Internet Archive here. Colorful illustrations of Paris in the time before World War I. I clipped 2 that included the Eiffel Tower from different perspectives. A lot has changed in the intervening years.

Okey, Thomas; illustrated by Nelly Erichsen, W. K. Hincliff and Orlando Frank Montagu Ward. Venice and its story. London: J.M. Dent. 1910. Available from Internet Archive here. Another city from the same time period and by the same author….but different artists. I like the composition of the image I clipped: bridge - reflections - people for scale. The same ideas work for composition of photographs. As I looked through this book, it occurred to me that while painting/drawing is slower than taking a photograph - they have the advantage of not including extra people or an awkwardly placed boat!

Hichens, Robert Smythe; illustrated by Jules Vallee Guerin. The Near East: Dalmatia, Greece, and Constantinople. New York: The Century Co. 1913. Many of the illustrations in this book were in morning light. The one I clipped is of the mosque of Suleiman at Constantinople.

Mt. Pleasant Farm - August 2015 (part 2)

I am continuing the series of nature photos from my trek around Mt. Pleasant Farm last week. Friday’s post contains the earlier ones.

The last hike of the day started in the Honor’s Garden….and a frog in the lily pads. It sat very still ---- plenty of time for the campers to get a photo.

There was one water lily flower nearby….quite a scene in the small pond.

The garden is planted with plants native to the area. It is full of summer color in August.

There are several water features.

And the Joe Pye Weed is very popular with all kinds of insects.

I was pleased to photograph both a male

And female tiger swallowtail within a few minutes!

Just outside the garden was a sweet bay magnolia with seed pods is very stages of development.

We hiked down toward the meadow and along the path that borders the stone wall and line of large trees.

We reached the stream and many of the campers focused on trying to capture ripples and reflections. I liked the small leaf that was the bright color in the rocks along the bank.

We started back up the hill from the stream and noticed that dark, angry clouds were taking over the sky. We took a few more pictures as we walked back…..and were very close to the nature center when the first rumble of thunder came. That was the end of the outdoor nature photography for the afternoon!

Mt. Pleasant Farm - August 2015 (part 1)

I was at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm earlier this week to lead a nature photography activity for their campers (ages 5-12). By the end of the day I had over 1600 photos from the children that I needed to review during the evening and a few of my own. Now that I’ve had a chance to review my own - there are a few worth sharing via this blog….in the same order that I took them so they do reflect the hiking we did.

Just behind the nature center a large limb had been cut recently.

We went past the bee hives…down the hill…past the butterfly garden

And stopped to look at the mossy logs that have fallen over the stream.

Then we walked along the path toward Hodge Podge Lodge. The goldenrod was starting to bloom along the grassy path.

The shingles of Hodge Podge Lodge caught my attention….lichen, moss, and leaves.

The path to the side of the Lodge down to the stream looked wet from the rain the night before.

And we started to close the loop by walking toward the community garden. I didn’t notice the bugs on this plant until I was looking at the photos…and have not identified the plant or the bugs!

We started the hike for the second group on the path downhill from the back of the nature center. This red bud was early on the trail….with lots of seed pods.

The jewelweed was near the stream.

The mile a minute seems to be taking over this bird house.

Back up the hill and down the road toward the meadow - we stopped in the old orchard. The apples were beginning their turn to red.

There was lots of milkweed pods (still green) in the meadow….and some had beetles.

And every flower seemed to have an insect of some kind.

To be continued in Sunday’s blog post…

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 8, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Washington, DC sinking fast, adding to threat of sea-level rise - Evidently the sinking is not due to human influence (like groundwater withdrawals)…but the effect of the long ago glacier further north --- a bulge under the Chesapeake Bay from the weight of the ice sheet that covered the area north of Long Island NY. The bulge is now settling back down and will continue to settle for a long time to come.

Money Talks: New Climate Pledge Enlists 13 US Businesses worth $2.5 Trillion - The American Business Act on Climate Pledge. The companies are big ones: Alcoa, Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Cargill, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo, UPS, and Walmart.

Why to babies laugh out loud? - Lots of people (Darwin was one) have been interested in the question. This article talks about a recent study. One finding: babies are far more likely to laugh when they fall over, that when someone else does.

NRDC: EPA’s Clean Power Plan Is Economically Beneficial for USA Due To Health Benefits - The Natural Resources Defense Fund report can be found here. Some of the focus areas in the report are: extreme weather, the health imperative, benefits (which far outweigh the costs), business opportunities, and the moral imperative.

The Healthiest Cities in the US - The criteria for choosing these cities is interesting. But does having higher percentages of people with insurance always mean a city is ‘healthier’ than a city that does not? I am not convinced.

Bering Sea hotspot for corals and sponges - Endangered by bottom trawling…maybe before we even fully know they are there. The research points to Pribilof Canyon as an area that could be conserved without disproportionately impacting the commercial fishing industry.

A Simple Guide to Neurotransmitters - You’ve probably heard the names of the neurotransmitters - the graphic provides a nice summary of their role and structure.

The Wild Alaskan Lands at Stake If the Pebble Mine Moves Ahead - A photo gallery from this area of Alaska.

Black Bears of Yosemite National Park - Includes a video…with lots of bear action about what happened when the park closed the trash heaps in the 1970s….and the continued challenge to keep bears from becoming acclimated to getting people food

Growth (2015) - I enjoyed this video. It is just a little over 15 minutes long...photographyed from overhead.

Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy - August 2015

We made a second trek to the see the butterfly exhibit at the Brookside Gardens conservatory - a great outing for a guest in town for the weekend.

Often the contrasting colors of the flowers and the butterflies prompts me to take a picture.

Sometimes a tree trunk seems to be a favorite resting place for butterflies. One had at least 6 on it as I walked by.

I wondered how this morpho was still flying. Parts of both wings are missing.

There were several that hung gracefully upside down on their flowers.

Others fluttered to keep their place or move slightly to the next flower. Sometimes the slightly different motion of the two parts of the wing can be detected.

Some butterflies are more colorful on the underside.

When butterflies perch close to each other - resting - I often wonder if they are aware of each other.

Last but not least….I am always on the lookout for Monarchs. I wish we had them in our neighborhood like we did 20 years ago…but now I seem them most often in exhibits like this one.

Brookside Gardens Walk

When we went to Brookside Gardens last weekend, the parking lot at the conservatory was already full just after 9 AM…so we parked in the Nature Center lot. I will be glad when the main lot is finished but the estimate now is late fall or even into winter. We walked over the boardwalk that traverses the woodland and stream between the Nature Center and Conservatory.

Hibiscuses are blooming where the boardwalk joins the Brookside path.

Instead  of turning toward the Conservatory - we walked toward the Tea House with woodlands on the left

And the renovated ponds on the right. A dove was getting a drink from the rocks where the overflow water from the ponds runs off.

We walked to the far end of the gardens and out the gate toward the larger pond in Wheaton Park in search of dragonflies. We saw the insects but they were not sitting on anything long enough for photography. I liked the islands of vegetation in the pond…and their reflections.

Occasionally there were leaves already changing color. It’s a little early for that but it is not uncommon to see colors like this pop out of the greenery.

Back in Brookside Gardens we saw a toad crossing the path

And pink lilies like my parents have in their garden in Texas. These are near the visitor center and there were more in the woods seen from the path between the visitor center and conservatory.

The Wings of Fancy exhibit is inside the conservatory but there were a lot of active butterflies in the gardens. This tiger swallowtail is reaching way down into a petunia.

Some flowers were very popular. Even the mothers that often look rather drab - are photogenic with a pink, yellow, and green background.

The most butterflies I got in a single picture was three!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 1, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The art of the interchange - Where megahighways cross….17 interchanges seen from above.

Mammoths killed by abrupt climate change - Rapid warming….rather than sudden cold…appears to have been the cause of massive extinctions in the past. The research is based on DNA analysis of ancient DNA and improved statistical processing of the data.

Dumbledores and Bumblebees - Take a look at the great pictures…then read the article. Did you know that Dumbledore takes his name from an Old English term for the bumblebee? And this is an upbeat article…pointing to ways individuals can help out the bumblebees! There are about 250 species of which 25% are in that ‘steep decline’ category.

Explore 25 Lost Cities with This Video - How many of these lost cities have your heard about before?

U.S. breast milk is glyphosate free - Good to know.

Summer Bugs that can Bite You - A summary from a medical perspective. I was disappointed that they didn’t suggest Epsom salts soaks and/or baking soda to reduce discomfort. I often find the calamine lotion and/or hydrocortisone cream ineffective for bites - particularly chiggers.

Sea Otters Use Tools and Archaeologists Are On the Case - ‘Tool making’ used to be thought of as a uniquely human trait…but now there are other animals that make tools. In the Sea otter’s case - they use rocks as tools to break open shells of their food. This article discusses how archaeologists are figuring out how far into their past the animals have been using tools.

The Subway Stop to the Underworld - A beautiful spot in Zion National Park.

Link between intelligence and longevity is mostly genetic - The study involved comparisons of fraternal twins….and probably raises more questions than it answers.

Here's the Weird Reason You Get Tartar on Your Teeth - The info about calcium in this article is more interesting to me than the tartar aspect.

Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy - July 2015

Brookside Gardens has a live butterfly and caterpillar exhibit in their conservatory running from July 1 to October 25. We tried to go last Saturday but it was too crowded; parking is very limited because of ongoing construction of the lot associated with the visitor’s center. Sunday was better; we arrived at 9:30 AM when there was still plenty of parking and took a look at the outdoor gardens before the exhibit opened at 10.

The exhibit was warm and humid - wonderful for butterflies and only a little uncomfortable for humans. I was glad the space was not overly crowded. My husband and I managed 45 minutes in the sauna like conditions!

There were lots of butterflies to photograph and we made several rounds spotting butterflies that were feeding or resting at every turn. I challenged myself to try capturing butterflies in different poses than the usual wings-spread/from-the-top view.

The patterning on the underside and the intricacy of the head parts show up better in many of these views.

Sometimes a bit of structural color shows up that wasn’t noticeable before…like the bit of blue along the lower edge of the wings (below).

Sometimes it is not clear how they are balanced on the plant…and I’m always surprised when they look ‘hairy.’

I was trying to capture butterflies but noticed that this plant looks a lot like a fiber optic light! The butterfly seems so precariously perched but it was stable enough feed on the flower.

Many of the butterflies looked battered but could still fly effectively and continue to feed.

The one with the pale green area and darker green iridescence might be my favorite for this year.

The large morph butterflies are difficult to catch with their wings open. This one feeding on watermelon had lost part of one wing so the blue color of the other wing was revealed. I saw several with wings like this - and they were still flying!

A clear winged butterfly sat on an elephant ear leaf…and sipped at a water droplet.

Belmont Elm

Just before I got home from Texas - a friend sent me the news (Baltimore Sun from June 10 story here) that the large tree in front of Belmont Manor has Dutch Elm Disease and will be cut down soon. I took some pictures of the tree when I was volunteering at the park last week. It is a 250 year old tree and will leave a hole in the landscape that will take some time to fill. Hopefully the other large elms nearby (three between the Manor House and Carriage House) will be not succumb to the same disease.

The tree in front of the manor house looks partially dead even to the untrained eye but one side is still full of leaves that frame the pond looking away from the house….

And the Manor House looking up the hill.

There are many exposed roots on the hill where the deep shade has thinned the grass. The damage from mowers over the years is evident.

I’m always sad when an old tree has to be cut down. This particular one is a piece of tangible history….planted before the United States was a country!

Zooming - July 2015

I enjoyed traveling over the past month and many of the places provided ample opportunity for some close photography. Some highlights in this set of zoomed images are:

• Bluebird
• Hollyhocks
• Bees
• Cone flowers
• Milkweed
• Butterflies
• Dragonfly
• Poppies
• Red yucca pods
• Swan

Enjoy!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 18, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Toward Blood-based Cancer Detection - Lots of promise….but it is still a work in progress.

Buzz Kill for Bumblebees: Climate Change Is Shrinking Their Range - Bumblebees prefer cooler temperatures than many other insects and they like open areas rather than forest. As the ‘normal’ temperatures get hotter, the bee’s southern range is creeping northward but the forests of the north are a physical boundary to their expansion…thus a shrinking area for bumblebees.

Why can’t we move? - A lot of people in the US spend too long commuting…stuck in traffic or on inadequate public transportation. The US has fallen behind the rest of the developed world in our ability to move people to and from and within our cities.

Solving the Energy Efficiency Quandary - It often hard to measure the efficiency of an improvement that is ‘supposed’ to save energy. Not there are some standards emerging that may help do that. It is something needed for homeowners to finally gain enough data to understand the energy use of their home…and guide their decisions re improvements that will have the most impact.

For the Love of Plants - I enjoy botanical prints in old books…and here are some modern ones from botanical illustrator Mindy Lighthipe! (art work) My favorite one is the Monarch Butterfly with milkweed; it includes the Monarch lifecycle.

How free is Your Produce? - How well do you know your 19th century history? Evidently the free produce movement was a food justice movement propelled by Quakers and other abolitionists who hoped to abolish slavery through food ways. And now we have the Fair Trade movement and Fair Food program which are very similar.  

The Chemistry of Ice Cream – Components, Structure, & Flavor - A favorite warm weather treat!

Dragonflies and Damselflies - Check out Elizabeth’s Wildflower Blog --- this time about insects rather than flowers.

Smoke North and Saharan Dust South - Smoke and dust travel a very long ways across land and ocean.

Photography in the National Parks: Framing Wildflowers in the Parks - Good photography tips…and National Parks offer so many subjects to choose from!

Returning Home

After being away from about two weeks - it feels very good to be home again.

The trek home began at Love Field (the old Dallas airport that has been renovated and has always been one of Southwest Airline’s hubs). The mural beside the waiting area of the security checkpoint is made of ceramic tile; I barely had time to look at it since I didn’t have to stand in line. Next time I’ll linger and get a good picture.

The airport was more crowded than usual and my flight was delayed by about 30 minutes. Not bad considering the forecast for the afternoon in Baltimore (my destination) was scattered thunderstorms. I used the time to walk around the terminal since travel days always seem to be skewed toward too much sitting. I always pause to look up in the center of the terminal at the ‘cloud’ of flying things (birds, planes, balloons, bees!).

I was delayed a little when I arrived in Baltimore. It always seems to take a long time for the checked luggage to arrive at the carousels. Then there was a huge crowd at the pickup lanes just outside. While my husband fixed dinner - I did the first load of laundry.

I went to bed at ‘east coast bedtime’ rather than ‘central’ and was surprised how easily I slept. I got up a little later the next morning - determined to go through 2 CSA shares that my husband had picked up but not eaten while I was away. I made good use of my food processor to make fruit beety, shred carrots and kohlrabi, and make squash hummus before noon along with a trip to the grocery store and another load of laundry.

By the time I picked up the CSA share - less than 24 hours after returning home - I was beginning to feel like I was almost back to ‘normal’ for being at home!

Josey Ranch Lake - July 2015

Every time I visit in Carrollton TX, I walk around Josey Ranch Lake and post some photos (February 2015, and August 2014). There is quite a seasonal variation.

The swans are a year round residents. There were adult swans this July - no juveniles (there was a juvenile in August 2014).

They were preening quite a lot - with down feathers stuck on their bills afterward.

I picked up a large white feather; it graces the pencil pot on my mother's desk now.

There are birds to hear and search for in the trees

and the cattails.

The nutrias that were evident back in February and last year were not around at all. Did the city manage to get rid of them somehow? They are invasive and probably made the maintenance of the wetland end of the lake more challenging.

The birds that come when someone throws bread/food to them are not as varied as in February. I only saw ducks, pigeons and the swans (the ducks always beat the swans to the food on land!).  In February there were acrobatic seagulls and coots too!

The ducklings from this year were getting their adult plumage. They tend to look a little scruffy and are doing a lot of preening.

The desert willows were blooming. The color of the flower highlights the light green of the foliage and the blue of the clear Texas sky on a very hot day.

There was a low growing plant with similar colors in the xeriscape garden beside the library and senior center on one side of lake.I was disappointed that I only saw one egret and no herons. In August 2014 there were several different species of herons at the lake. What a difference a month of so makes!

Sunflowers at Monticello

The sunflowers had a large bed to themselves in the vegetable garden at Monticello when I was there in June. I took a huge number of pictures and am just now getting around to looking at them again. I’ve picked a series that show various stages of flower development.

The flower stalks were much taller than a person and the flowers larger than a dinner a plate. As the seeds begin to develop the petals fade and the tops of the plants must get heavier because they bend over rather than continuing to turn toward the sun.

Sunflowers are always bright spots of the day!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 11, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Exploring Vermont's Ancient Roads - (abstract of an article in The New Yorker: Where the Roads have No Name) Studying history through roads - some long abandoned but still ‘on the books.’

The oceans can’t take any more: Fundamental change in oceans predicted - A study that focused on the impact of climate change (specifically atmospheric CO2 increases) is likely to have on the oceans….it is not a ‘good news’ story.

Trails Win Big in Florida's 2015-16 State Budget - Hurray! This is important for Floridians and tourists that enjoy the outdoors in the state.

How did milk become a staple food? - Milk became the ‘super food’ of the early 1900s. This article provides the historical background for this ascendance.

Water usage for fracking has increased dramatically, study shows - And most of the water for fracking is disposed of deep underground, removing it from the water cycle. In areas of the world where water is already a problem - why would anyone want to take water out of the water cycle?

Rosetta's Comet Is Developing Giant Sinkholes before Our Eyes - Lots of changes to observe…and Rosetta is in position to do it.

The Best Places to See 10 Iconic American Animals - Bald Eagles, bison, gray wolf, moose, mountain goat, pronghorn, black bear, alligator, wild turkey, northern cardinal - oh my!

The traits that make human beings unique - Many traits once believed to be uniquely human have been found in the animal kingdom…what defines us?

These are the Minerals That Give Fireworks Their Colors - A follow-up to fourth of July!

A Satellite's First Look at Earth Has a Stunning Photo of the Sahara - An image from the second of six Sentinel missions to track land use, vegetation stress, soil and water cover…and for imagery needed for emergency response. There is a lot of information we need to guide our actions to sustain the planet.

Monticello - June 2015

I’ve made periodic trips to Monticello since 1983 when I moved to the east coast from Texas. There always seems to be something new to learn at Thomas Jefferson’s home. We arrived early for the first Behind the Scenes House Tour and Day Pass - with reservations made ahead of time. There was a lotus blooming in the courtyard of the visitor center; I had not even remembered a pool there from my previous visit so it was a pleasant surprise.

Later in the day it would have been impossible to get pictures of the house without people milling around. Did you know that Monticello has three floors above the basement? Jefferson intended for it to look like a single story. Here’s how he got light to the 3 floors. Look at the stacked windows on the front of the house. The windows with the shutters are the first floor. The windows with a white frame and no shutters are the second floor. They fill the lower half of the second floor walls. The third floor has sloped ceilings and skylights!

The viewshed for Monticello is somewhat changed from Jefferson’s day. There were farms where the trees had been cleared within the viewshed during his time but probably not as many clusters of other buildings. From the house it is easy to position yourself where trees block the view.

No pictures are allowed inside the house so I don’t have a picture of the staples that were used to support the alcove beds. I’d not noticed how the beds were supported on previous visits. Jefferson’s bed was open on both sides (and he had a clock positioned on the wall at his feet…he got up when it was light enough for him to see the clock). The other alcove beds had walls on three sides; Dolly Madison visited with her husband frequently and did not like them (probably because she was on the side to the wall!).

The kitchen has separate ‘burners’ for cooking at different temperatures. But they are not vented. The kitchen would have been hot, sooty, and smoky.

The back of Monticello includes the dome. More of the house is visible these days because a giant tulip poplar planted by Jefferson had to be cut down in the 1990s. The inside of the dome room is being monitored closely these days because there are cracks that appeared in the plaster after an earthquake…and they are getting larger.

After Jefferson’s presidency there were quite a few people living at Monticello: his daughter and her many children and his sister….as well as other relatives and friends. They had to have quite a garden to feed everyone.

The view from Mulberry Row - the series of cabins for the slaves that worked in or near the house - may have included more trees that it does now. The kitchen is to the right of this view…the south pavilion above on the far left.

My favorite photograph of the house during this visit was through the flowers.

I was surprised at the number of butterflies we saw in the short walk around the grounds.

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Instead of riding the bus down the hill to the visitor center we walked past the cemetary and through the forest.

And then it was time to splurge for lunch at Michie Tavern. The food is good….but I’m not as fond of ‘all you can eat’ places as I once was. In this case - it is tradition. I think we have gone to Michie Tavern for lunch every time I’ve visited Monticello!

Maymont - June 2015

The golden age Maymont mansion in Richmond is well worth touring. I knew I wanted to see it when we walked the grounds and gardens back in April - on a Monday when the house is not open for tours (see my post here). I was very pleased to be back in Richmond in June and on a Saturday.

The basement area is set up as the waiting area for the tour and has displays of how the ‘upstairs’ of the mansion was supported. The maids’ room (used for sleeping and sewing/mending) had more outside light than I expected. The walls of the room are well back from the edge of the foundation for the upper floors; the windows are normal sized and the window wells in the external wall are large enough to lessen the ‘below ground’ feeling a basement usually has.

The tour allows pictures inside the house. The furnishings were left to the city of Richmond along with the house so the furniture that was in the house when Mrs. Dooley died in 1925 is still there. Mr. Dooley’s library/office has dark woods and large windows….and a winged lion chair.

Across the entry hall - Mrs. Dooley’s front parlor also has lots of large windows and a very fancy ceiling: pink and blue - roses and clouds. There is a lot of gold leaf too.

In the entry hall there is a fireplace with a comfortable chair….a dog sculpture…and a teapot on a hook.

The staircase to the upper floor has a large Tiffany window and a stuffed peacock.

All the windows have stained glass transoms at the top. They are different for each room.

One of my favorite rooms was a small parlor upstairs used as a breakfast room. The China on the table was perfect for a summer morning. One of the chairs had a water lily inlay - that included a dragonfly. The poppy pattern of China in the cabinet along one of the walls….and the cabinet itself...added to the ambience of the room.

In the niece's bedroom a tea set was displayed on a small table. There was a lot of trade with Asia during the late 1800s when the house was built.

Probably the most famous room of the house is Mrs. Dooley’s bedroom. The swan theme is everywhere: the bed, a rocking chair, the painting over the fireplace. Another unusual item in the room: the dressing table and chair are supported by narwhal tusks.

Out on the front porch after the tour I noticed the mosaic on the floor.

There is a small garden with sculpture and columns with a very large magnolia in the background.

As we walked back toward our car we walked through the herb garden. The bees were enjoying the beebalm and cone flowers.