gardens

Just after the last post I stopped at Whole Foods in Philadelphia and they are selling Fig Trees! Gotta get one!

Went to Bartram’s Garden. Very hot but a nice breeze, took two tours, one of the grounds and one of the house.

I didn’t know Fig trees would grow in Philadelphia!.

Born in 1699, John Bartram became America’s first great botanist and with his son William identified and cultivated over 200 new plant species. In 1765 King George III appointed John as Royal Botanist, a position he held until his death in 1777.

July 2010 storm damage of Historic 1790′s Yellowwood Tree.

Research has shown that this tree planted by John Bartram, has been damaged in previous storms and hopefully will recover.

Many plants are direct descendents of ones he cultivated, including one of his most well known, the Franklinia, (Franklinia alatamaha), he named it after his friend, Benjamin Franklin.

On our way back from Connecticut, we visited Storm King. Located in the Hudson Valley, 50 miles north of the George Washington Bridge, this art center consists of 500 acres of rolling New York hills and fields containing over a hundred post WWII works by renowned artists.
It was a very hot muggy day when we visited and I had not done my homework as it was a spur of the moment visit. But, via a wonderful orientation tour followed by  one of the tram tours which stop at various points allowing you to get on and off at will, we received one of the best sculptural experiences imaginable!

We have many works by these artists in Philadelphia, but to see so many all together, one after the other and more just around the bend . . . A garden of Art

Alexander Calder’s Five Swords and Mark Di Suvero’s Pyramidian

Andy Goldsworthy’s Storm King Wall and Alexander Lieberman’s Adonia

Isamu Noguchi’s Momo Taro and Kenneth Snelson’s Free Ride Home

New Beaver Pond in Connecticut.

Spent the weekend in CT visiting Senter and Bitty. They live in a log home over looking a wonderful pond and fields, where they have created a sort of sanctuary for lots of critters. Birds of all sorts, deer, wild turkeys, muskrats, frogs and, it seems, a beaver. Back in the back pasture, which Senter keeps mowed better than most front yards, off to the right is a small stream that beaver have dammed up, creating a whole new environment. Of course this required a trek through the woods to see it.

We also took a trip to the Fisher Museum at Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA to see their forest dioramas. That was more than a trek through the woods, but it was a beautiful day, through small New England towns. I had read about the dioramas when I was at the Arnold Arboretum a few weeks earlier with my garden gals. The dioramas were created in the 1930′s and are incredible. They have to be seen to be believed.

Later that day, my nephew, Senter, came for the weekend. He has a Mooney airplane which he gets serviced in NJ once a year. As he lives in Alabama, he used the trip as a chance to visit his folks. That was a bonus to the weekend we hadn’t expected.

On the way home on Sun we stopped at Storm King in NY for a few hours. I’ll save that for my next post. Right now I’d better get busy with work.

This year my garden friends from Moore College of Art went to Brookline MA outside of Boston. Visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Wed and the Arnold Arboretum on Thurs. Sally couldn’t make it as she had horsey things to do and Jane had to leave early Thurs but here are Mike, me, Marge, Jane and Pam at the Arnold on a rainy day by the Smoke Bush!

(Several people have asked me about the use of the word Hoax. It comes from a friend, Joe, who used it for a trip which was mainly for fun. Our garden trips are educational but the true purpose is to have fun together. I suppose, today, getting away to just have fun is a bit of a trick.)

Last entry said “School’s Over” Now, May’s over. Been a busy time—all the stuff I put off until school was over. Dr’s apt and the like. Visited my Mom for Mother’s Day and Fletchie for his birthday. To NJ to see Pam’s exhibit. Her work just gets better and better.

We’re part of a group that has theme dinners each year and we did “Spring in France”— made a Mediterranean fish dish and everyone brought wonderful things. Had drinks in the garden but the roses were best the weekend before – mind of their own! Last weekend did a lot of cooking, food for a memorial day picnic, then house guests with dinner and a brunch, then another picnic. Lots of cooking for me anyway, anymore.

Had a quick Public Service Announcement Video to make in one day – not too bad but wish I had more time. Working on a pro bono job for a neighborhood organization, and teaching my self PHP coding. Revisiting our web site to add the video we’ve been doing. All in addition to my normal client work.

Next week I go with friends on our garden hoax to Boston. Will visit Holly and see Jane and Jane and Marge and Mike and Pam. Will miss Sally!

My goals for the summer are three fold: 1. Up my technical skills—working on php, 2. Work on creative skills—my drawing gets short changed during the school year, and 3. Get in shape. Been drawing and working on the computer—but getting in shape . . .

Spring semester 2010 for the School of Design+Media at Philadelphia University is over! Classes are finished, reviews completed, and my grades turned in! Perhaps now I can get back to this blog. At least I updated the header image with the above spider web. View previous header images.

I’ve been working on a retrospective project for Jeanne Ruddy Dance’s 10th Anniversary Season. This video was presented full screen in the theater on Opening night and then in the lobby for the run of their 2010 concert Season. Lot of work—lot of fun! It was done in Final Cut Pro software to edit and design using lots of existing clips and images from the last ten years. Ellen Fishman-Johnson supplied additional music used at the end.

Philau is closed for Thurs. I had already assigned work to my students in case of closure and am glad they don’t have to be on the roads today. What with computers and plenty of heads up most people in my field can work from home—when they aren’t shoveling out! Don’t know if that’s a plus or not but it suits me.
I’m busy updating my Final Cut and DVD Studio Pro skills for an upcoming job and can use all the concentrated time I can get. Friends say they are sorry that I have to do all this but this is what I do, what I like to do. And all I learn goes directly into my class room as it becomes who I am.

and it’s still snowing in Philadelphia! The mayor has closed down the city – all bus service is stopped, highways closed and Philadelphia University is planning on starting at 10:00 in the am.