Beth Emmott

A few months ago I was going through some old photographs at my mother’s and came across the pictures below of my grandfather, Curtin Hummel Reinhardt (Gramp to me), taken in about 1940.

I knew he was a man who always had hobbies and that when he did he got into them in depth. I knew that he collected fish and when my mother met him he had over 29 aquariums at home, the one in the second picture and the rest in an enclosed porch. I didn’t know he also had terrariums like the one beside him on the table. I believe my father was the photographer, taking pictures of his dad with his things.

Gramp also carved pipes. In this photo he is holding one of them. A picture of my mom, his future daughter in law, is on the table behind him as is a humidor with more of his pipes. (I never saw him smoke a pipe.) Beside him is the terrarium he is working on in the second picture and my Dad’s dog, Muggsy. continued . . .

I live in a community of gardens. Most of the houses are Victorian and many have iron fences around their yards with iron gates. This spring I took pictures of many of the styles of fences—there are many more—and thought I’d share some here.

Open gate and Classic Hair Pin Fence

Asymmetrical Gate and and Maxwell Mansion’s Fence*

Strong Graphic Fence and Gate

Circular Gate and its Fence

Fence Posts

* Maxwell Mansion is a Victorian House Museum in my neighborhood.

This one guards my front door under some hosta.
He looks sort of determined.

I said I’d post some of my cement turtles—Here’s one.

There is a wonderful garden in Philadelphia, Bartram’s Garden. It is listed as the Pre-revolutionary Home of John Bartram, Botanist, Naturalist, Explorer—The oldest living botanic garden in America. John Bartram (1699-1777) traveled the eastern North America from Florida to Lake Ontario, collecting plants for his garden. He identified over 200 native plants and was appointed King’s Botanist by King George III.

Saturday Jane and I attended a Botanical Illustration Meet Up at the garden. Artists, mostly botanical illustrators (which I am not—but I was welcomed) come together to draw/paint specimens from the garden. Many worked on cut samples inside where they could study their plants in a more controlled setting.

Jane and I spent most of our time outside—sketching and photographing. It was a most beautiful day, unbelievable for July in Phila. Jane worked on Franklin altamaha, a plant Bartram identified in Georgia in 1765. It now exists only under cultivation—no longer in the wild. I worked on a bed of onions with their wonderful greens twisting every which way and on Oak leaf Hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia, another of Bartram’s discoveries.

Towards the end of the session we joined the group where we worked on Bee Balm, Monarda didyma, which is reported to have been used to make tea by the colonists after the Boston Tea Party. Other supplied blossoms were Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium fistolosum), Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata, also collected by Bartram), Love-In-A-Mist (Nigella damascena) and Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro).

Globe Thistle in the garden—the bees were very happy