Watery Wednesday DC Views

Washington DC has so many wonderful watery views outdoors in nature and man made. Here are a few interesting man made vistas indoor and outside that I decided to show for today’s theme.





Going through the tunnel connecting the two impressive buildings of the National Gallery of Art, you see a large picture window with this huge cascade of water appearing to burst through the window in this amazing water display. This is the dining/cafe and the views you get looking out at this fountain is trully amazing and thrilling to see. There's also an amazing gelato stand serving up the most delicious gelato.

When you enter the west side building you see this beautiful courtyard with this gorgeous fountain and cherubs dancing on top of this beautiful shell pedestal. I just love the aged patina of the base and the pebble surround base.




The hydrangeas surrounding the bottom edge, add a nice touch of color to this mostly green and exotic room.






Here are a few highlights of art inspired water themes that I enjoyed viewing at the museum, the caliber of art work displayed here was so vast and world reknown, I had no idea how impressive this museum’s collections where. And, I could have easily spent days just exploring the maze of galleries covering so many different periods of art.














It was exhausting almost running through extensive galleries just to glimpse so many treasures, but these were just a few that I spent time enjoying just for their subject matter.

To see other interesting watery views today go to http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

A Visit with our First President

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this Fourth of July Tribute,  I'm taking you on a visit with our first president, George Washington.  He loved his Mt. Vernon. It is a beautiful place and one that I've always wanted to go and visit. Now I can understand why he loved this place so much and always longed to return here and eventually be at rest.

 

 

An expansive view overlooking the Potomac from the rear of the home, the views have been preserved and the areas across the river saved from development to leave the viewers this pastoral scene of how things looked during the presidents timeframe....just amazing to still see it intact.

 

 

When you try and visualize how this place actually looked and worked like during Washington's timeframe, you really get a wonderful slice of life to Washington's experience away from the capitol and how he really enjoyed living and planning everything in his estate, during his entire stay here.

 

One must sit on the porch relaxing on these rockers and just enjoy the view, a real nice touch to the tour. I'm sure the President and his family enjoyed relaxing here, drinking tea or imbibing something exotic at the end of every day.

 

 

I was very surprised how meticulous and expansive the grounds were, and how all the adjunct buildings, gardens and home show an entire village and how plantation life was for one of our founding fathers.  It did take an entire village to make this place work efficiently. A view of the separate kitchen building, kept separate from the main home in the event of unlikely fires caused by accidents.

 

 

 

A canning storage and hanging place for food and fowl that would be used for the nights consumption.

 

 

 

The separate laundry room which would be unbearable to work in during the hot summer months, and the laundry work was done all day long.

 

 

 

One of my favorite rooms, the drying room for all the preserved meats, it actually still smelled strong with aged ham hocks haning on these hooks.

 

 

 

 

One of Washington’s immaculate carriages taking him to the Capitol which was a very long ride from his country estate.

 

 

 

 

The gardens are also expansive with areas for decorative cutting gardens, a formal parterre and actual potager gardens, vegetable farms, animal pens and fruit orchards. Washington did alot of experimentation and imported plants to test in his plantation along with growing for food production on a massive scale.

 

 

 

This is a picture of the very expansive Orangerie, can you believe Washington actually grew critrus plants during this timeframe?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The formal parterre is broken up into two sections that mimic each pattern, this is the view of the other section looking into the back walls and folly.

 

 

 

 

A wonderful surprise was the amazing museum which housed many dioramas and extensive genetic studies of how Washington really looked like in during many timeframes of his life, including this diorama of him at a battle scene....the craftsmanship quality and shows were really a fantastic experience and one I wish I had more time for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, this is my nephew Carlos being a ham, like he always is....oh Carlos!

 

 

 

 

Wasn't that a beautiful place and museum, well worth the effort getting out of town to explore Washington's life in a well preserved plantation, home and garden.

 

Happy Fourth of July America!

 

 

 

To see other worlds this Sunday go to http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/

Just to Die For

Yes, I’m sure you’ve felt exactly that way seeing something just so exquisite and made with so much care and workmanship.

That’s exactly how I feel visiting the Hillwood estate and museum, really a private home that is so lovingly preserved and well cared for and the scale of the place is just so right. I felt like I was invited to visit a magical and private world only a few can enjoy.
This special place that Marjorie Post endowed to the public is one of those places just to die for…I mean how many homes have a private dacha, a Japanese garden, a rose parterre, a formal water garden all wrapped up into a beautiful place for everyone to enjoy, now we can do just that – thank you Marjorie for your gift.


Lets start our tour at the front entry just like Marjorie, who would greet her guests, along with Hermes. He graces the boxed and parterre linked lawn shaped into hearts all pointing the god of love.

 



Just off to the right side is the formal parterre and water garden, I love all the attention to detail, the perfect symmetry, and the red edge begonias for a hint of color, something that works just so well in this type of home….sometimes when you expect to see something and you actually get it, its like getting your choice of favorite ice cream flavors and enjoying every moment, yum!

 


Don’t you just love her gaze?

 



The central water feature with these whimsical cherubs riding on spirited dolphins steal the show and add sweet sounds to this enclosed room.






 




Beauty and inspiring statuary graciously sit in the garden as if they command to be placed in just the right spot for all to admire.







Further down a shaded walkway with mature trees you finally see a clearing with a tall centerpiece surrounded by a heavenly scented rose garden and rounded pergola.













This is Marjory’s favorite spot and the centerpiece is actually her gravestone. I couldn’t think of a better place to enjoy eternity enjoying one’s roses.






The estate is filled with many large lawn areas with vistas to distant views and mature tree lines. Immediate details include many annuals, statuary and potted features with begonias and impatiens.





This pagoda marks the entrance to the Japanese garden which is a series of stepped gardens that have many vistas  and unique plantings like maples and ornamentals that typify this aesthetic. There are many pathways leading to beautifully landscaped areas, lily ponds and water features that are a delight to walk through.






























As we walk through the cutting beds, you notice how well cared the beds are by dozens of volunteers that meticulously care for the gardens and the flowers that grace the interiors of the home. You can see the large conservatory in the background which I made an earlier post on the exotics that were grown inside.





Here’s a back view of the the home with this gorgeous Medinilla Magnifica on the Veranda. The exquisite interior houses her treasures of fine French and Russian collections from her extensive travels and eye for beautiful objects.







Even though one is not allowed to take pictures of the museum pieces indoors.  The photo below shows one of her prized water fountains done in gold leaf and is on the side wall of the home, the only treasure I was able to photograph along with the gardens.






One last photo of Diana, which graces the water garden at the back end of the green wall and makes a focal point to the garden. The red begonias line the entire wall like red accents and add a little color to this mostly green room.



Isn’t this place just so well done, I’ve really enjoyed my visit here and I hope that you also enjoyed the tour. You’ll just have to visit Hillwood to see the interiors of the home and the treasures, but for me the gardens are the real treasures.

Please come and visit other gardens this Friday at http://www.tootsietime.com/

The Hot, The Loud and the Proud #4

Show us your tropicals and exotics, your hot mediterranean colors and wild combinations, amazing discoveries and unusual variations. Or how about something exciting you just saw, a crazy garden,  amazing garden art or design, an inspiring visit or hike?

This meme is open to all (you do not have to live in an exotic location to participate)  and will be on the last day of each month…so mark your calendars and lets do something fun on the hot, the loud and the proud meme. I’ll have the link available early, east coast time (USA) to catch you early birds and even earlier for those of you in other countries.

Can you believe that this is in a beautiful conservatory in Washington DC?   We are at the home, museum and gardens at Hillwood, one of Majorie Merriweather Post's homes, which is now a museum. This well cared for estate is maintained by a horde of dedicated volunteers who are passionate about preserving the past and glory of this home. Post, the sole heir to the cereal Post company became on of the wealthiest and most influencial women in America during the early to mid 1900's and shared her home and gardens to many philanthropic functions and eventually endowed this place as a museum to house all her treasures.

Below is shot of the entire greenhouse behind this beautiful rose garden, can you see how large the greenhouse is alone, it practically houses thousands of exotic plants especially thousands of orchids.

This is just one of the side galleries that lead to many more galleries of exotic plants from around the globe.

We will start this tour from the greenhouse to coincide with our Hot meme theme, I had a wonderful time having the entire place to myself this morning since most of the garden tours had not yet started and I had ample time to visit and talk to the greenhouse volunteers busily preparing for the visits that day.

Even though they had some plants blooming, it was one of those in between times when they were just getting the orchids trimmed out and fertilized for the next flush of blooms. All the exotics, orchids and other cutting flowers are grown specifically to decorate all the various interior rooms of the home which are intact with all the furnishings and personal collections of the owner including a fine collection of French and Russian period pieces that were her main passions and intent of preserving this home as a museum for her collections.

Mrs Post always insisted on fresh flowers grown in her gardens to decorate her home and when she endowed this originally to the Smithsonian Museum, she insisted that the gardens be well maintained and the flowers continued to be grown to fill all the interior rooms with color. That didn't work to well with the Smithsonian, which only allocated three full time employees to care for the properties. It literally takes an entire village and slew of volunteers to maintain the home and gardens, you really see the beauty and pride from all the volunteers efforts in showing the home, the museum treasures and finally the extensive gardens.

I talked to a few of the volunteers and it looks like their dedication really shows especially when you are in a green house when the temperature in the morning was already soaring to past 90 degrees and the same for the humidity.   Ah to suffer for beauty, I think I would do the same if I get to work or even volunteer in an amazing place like this.

Here's the piece de resistance, once you enter the greenhouse, you see this drammatic showcase centered in the central domed pavilion, quite spectacular!

Another angled view showing the beautiful bromeliads growing from the branches and orchids below.

I'll continue the tour of the gardens in the next upcoming post, but please do enjoy my fellow bloggers posts below to see more of the Hot, the Loud and the Proud.