road trips | Beth Emmott

This is the archive for the ‘road trips’ Category

Been a while . . .

September 1st, 2011

It’s been a while all right. My class ended. I didn’t get to go to the last class as Frank called a meeting that evening of all the graphic design instructors and I figured I’d better go to that. Last year I didn’t go to one because I was in Ireland and I wish I’d been able to, so. . .
The Sunday after that we left for a quick end of summer (my summer) vacation to Maine. We stopped first at my brother Senter’s in Connecticut. First thing I see is a bunch of fungi growing from a stump in his yard—I’ve been on the fungus train too long!

More fungi!

We had a great two days sitting on their porch over looking the pond and eating lobster at Abbott’s!

View from the log house!

Eating lobster with Senter and Bitty!

Mother’s Day

May 10th, 2011

Went to VA to visit my Mom this weekend. Jonna and Diane were there and we had a wonderful time at Curt and Mary’s.

When we left we stopped at the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge which has wonderful wetlands which go right into the ocean. We hiked and photographed a bit, saw turtles, osprey and snakes.

As ever in that part of VA the quiet of the tall grasses and the beauty of the marshes is contrasted by the roar of the planes from the many military bases. My Dad was an air force test pilot and my Mom feels right at home. What others might find loud and jarring she finds quite wonderful and almost reverent.
The new header image is from Back Bay

Bartram’s Garden

July 19th, 2010

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

Fig tree

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.

1790 Yellowwood tree

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.

Storm King Art Center

July 9th, 2010

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

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

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

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

Beaver Pond

June 28th, 2010

Beaver pond

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.

Garden Hoax 2010

June 15th, 2010

friends

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.)