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.

Celebrating Southern Magnolias

I am contemplating my history with southern magnolias this morning. My grandparents had one in their front yard in Wichita Falls, Texas that struggled with the high heat and low humidity of the area. The same was true with the tree in the front yard of my first house in Plano, Texas. I noticed them more when we moved to the mid-Atlantic piedmont area in the 1980s.

In Maryland, there are some large specimens but the weather sometimes is too cold for them. They survive well with care. Belmont has a large one in front of the manor house. I photographed a seed pod from the previous year back in March. The red seeds that remind me of M&Ms were already gone. The buds for 2015 were already showing on the branches.

Richmond is where I first noticed very large magnolias. The short trip to the area in June was well timed to see them in bloom. Maymont has a number of large specimens with ropey trunks. They were trimmed high enough to walk under and it was a popular place to position a bench!

The classical picture with the white flower and glossy green leaves is very appealing but in this series - my favorite has rust petals and developing seed pods!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - June 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 the earlier days of June 2015 (actually there are a few more than 10 listed below…it has been a month full of celebrations!).

I’ve been doing some traveling the past few weeks: two one-night-away trips and half-day jaunts.

Winterthur (Delaware) was overwhelming in many ways. I did the Introductory tour and Antiques and Architecture tour --- which is almost too much for one day! But the walk back to the visitor’s center through the woodland garden is soothing. It is a place to celebrate. I am prompted to read the biography Henry Francis DuPont that I’ve had in my ‘to read’ pile for the past few months - and celebrate Winterthur again as I savor the book.

Wheatland (Lancaster PA) was a place I had touring more than 20 years ago but I enjoyed much more than I expected to this time - both the house and grounds. By the time we headed home I was celebrating the place. Maybe it was because I was early enough to get a private tour. The guide was excellent. The highpoint may have been seeing how hooped skirts compressed to go upstairs!

Centennial Park was one of the ways I celebrated being home again. The walk around the lake on a summer morning is good exercise and another opportunity to photograph milkweed.

Maymont (Richmond VA) my favorite ‘golden age mansion’ …. better than anything in Newport RI because the house and furnishings were left intact when donated to the city of Richmond. The tour guide was knowledgeable and photography was allowed. It appealed to me that the house was lived in except for the hottest months of the year rather than being used for 6-8 weeks only like many of the mansions in Newport. I’ll do a complete post about Maymont in a week or so. Maymont is a celebration of tangible history!

Monticello (Charlottesville VA) is a place I’ve been every few years since we moved to the east coast in 1983. There are always a lot of people and the foundation has evolved to handle the crowds. We made reservations for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ and it was well worth it; the renovation and furnishing of the upstairs rooms were just finished in May! During the tour, I celebrated that some of the spaces had been furnished to allow for sitting (after more than an hour of walking around the house!) but now I celebrate that every time I got to Monticello I notice something I did not  before - sometimes on my own and sometimes prompted by a tour guide. I plan to post about the Monticello experience in a week or so.

Brookside is always worth a walk around. It is a good celebration close to home. Pictures are coming soon in another post.

Thrift stores celebrations are always about the serendipity of finding something great at a low price. In June I went twice. The first time I only found blouses….the second time skirts. And several ‘match’!

Gorman Farms CSA started their season this month. It is a weekly celebration of fresh produce….as long as I don’t feel overwhelmed by the bounty. So far - I am just barely keeping up (although there is some fruit beety in the freezer).

A mouth guard may not be something to celebrate but my new one is more flexible than my old one…it’s sparklingly free of deposits. Overall - I celebrate that a mouth guard enables me to sleep better!

A new hot water heater was installed in our house this month. The old one had started to leak after 24 years. I celebrated that we discovered it almost immediately, that it didn’t leak fast enough to get anything in the basement wet, and that we were never without hot water!

Master Naturalist activity was very high at the beginning of the month: the annual conference and the last few elementary school field trips. Both were celebratory crescendos to the spring season activities. I am taking a ‘vacation’ until mid-July when I’m signed up to help with summer camps.

Maymont (in Richmond VA)

Our road trip back from North Carolina in April took us through Richmond, Virginia and a stop a Maymont. It was a Monday so the mansion and indoor exhibits were not open…but the gardens were worth the stop by themselves.

Some of the grounds are very open  - with rolling hills

And interesting bridges over low places.

The mansion is on a ridge overlooking the James River. It is the same vintage as the Newport Mansions and looks similar from the outside to some of them….but it was a place that was lived in for more than a few months of the year and gardens were always part of the place. The Dooleys left the house and surrounding park to the city of Richmond; the furnishings were never dispersed. All very different from Newport.

The porch looks very inviting.

There were gazebos in many places as well.

There are gardens on terraces down to the river level: pools of water with koi,

Water falling over the edge of a terrace and bridges to stand on for a closer view,

Japanese lanterns and colorful foliage.

By the time I climbed the stairs back to the level of the mansion, it was obvious that the day was warming fast and I decided to stick to shade as much as possible for the rest of the afternoon; the back of my neck was unprotected by my hat or sunscreen (and indeed - I did get a little sunburn).

Maymont is a place I want to see again - and next time I will make sure it is a day the indoor exhibits and mansion are open. It would be a good day trip for us next fall!

Ten Little Celebrations - April 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each dayis 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 April 2015.

Countdown to a little vacation - Even though lots of my days feel like ‘vacation’ I have adjusted my definition for vacation to equal ‘away from home’….so I savored the anticipation of the North Caroline road trip in the days prior to leaving.

Otters - There were so many plants and animals I could have celebrated from the North Carolina trip but I am singling out the otters because it was the first time I has seen the animals in the wild.

A barbeque dinner - Sometimes a high calorie splurge is truly worth it. The restaurant advertised ‘Texas Barbeque’ and they delivered.

The Elizabethan Gardens - A lovely place in Manteo, North Carolina. A garden is a great place to celebrate spring.

Maymont - This was a spur of the moment stop in Richmond VA on the way home ---- a gold age mansion and grounds that was donated to the city after the owners died in the 1920s. It is now a park. We were there on a Monday when the mansion and visitor center is closed….but the park is well work the stop. I have post planned for it in a week or so (it’s taking me some time to get all the posts done from the North Carolina trip.

Home Again - I always celebrate coming home after being away….no matter how great the ‘vacation’ was.

Cherry Blossoms - We didn’t get down to Washington DC this year for the cherry blossoms but the tree in our yard had its best year ever….timed perfectly to welcome us home.

Last Master Naturalist Class - I celebrated getting through the 8 class days - not missing a single one! And now I am waiting for my final exam to be graded!

GreenFest - I celebrated finding the native plants I wanted for my yard at the county celebration - along with some additional reusable bags and information on dealing with deer in the neighborhood.

Figuring out a technical problem - I figured out how to use the GPS info from a series of picture to overlay a map. It was easy than I thought it would be….something to celebrate.