Longwood Gardens: By Night

Ok, yesterday was all about walking the grounds of Longwood Gardens during the day. Today is all about what happens after dark! Until the end of September, the artist Bruce Munro has several light installations that creep throughout the gardens. The feeling of walking through these installations is magical and otherwordly, like descending upon a fairytale land.
And of course, the photos don't even begin to do it justice. Here are a few anyway!



Walking down the path from the conservatory, we have no idea what to expect. It's dark and I can't see five feet in front of me but I can tell that the path is full of people. Suddenly, to the right, just beyond a pond, thousands of lights, like blooming night flowers appear. Their colors shift and they give off the most beautiful reflection into the dark water.
photo by me


Photo by Mark Picthall from Longwood Gardens website


Photo by Michael Keefe from Longwood Gardens website

The path continues and we walk down a bridge strewn with white fairy lights. It's narrow enough that we need to walk single file and I quickly lose track of my friends. But that's ok; all the lights are putting me into a trance and I go into my own head. The path opens onto a dark field full of towers of water bottles lit with colored LED lights that change in sync with a musical score. I wish I could just lie down and spend the rest of the night here. Maybe the rest of my life.


photo by me


photo by Corriette Schoenaerts from Longwood Gardens website

We walk over another bridge, hovering a few feet above swamplands. It's pitch black and thousands, maybe millions of crickets, play their nightly symphony. Suddenly there's a person directing us into the woods, where 20,000 orbs form a carpet of light under the trees. Ok, this is ridiculous! I feel like magic is all around me. I lose everyone again. I don't want to talk, there's nothing to say.

photo by me

Photo by Fred Dunn

As we walk back to the car, everyone's a little tired, a little overwhelmed. We all make plans to come back as soon as possible.

If you want to visit, check out Longwood Garden's tips for seeing Light.

Longwood Gardens: By Day

A few of us drove out to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA last week to see the Bruce Munro light installation. Longwood Gardens was horticulturist, conservationist and philanthropist Pierre du Pont's life's work. He bought the estate (originally a working farm), to prevent the clear-cutting of the farm's arboretum. Over his life, he added many gardens, fountains, a conservatory and a massive pipe organ! It's a beautiful place to spend the day, walk through the gardens, take photos and sketch. And the light installation was insane. But more on that tomorrow! For now, because there is so so much to look at, I'm just going to focus on a few of the gardens and the conservatory.












































As the day turns to night, we take a break to have a cocktail then head out to see the lights. Stay tuned for tomorrow to see the sights!

Ania Wawrzkowicz/ Artist

Holy Moley, this is cool! Ania Wawrzkowicz is an artist and photographer living in London. She makes some amazing art and take some seriously stunning photography but theis growing tablecloth is my favorite.











PS- I found Ania Wawrzkowicz's work on this awesome blog.

Our Little Corner of the World

 

This weekend, my mom and Aunt Bean descended upon our new home like two very active fairy godmothers and helped us unpack the kitchen, buy lots of stuff at IKEA and most exciting, set up our new garden! They are both expert gardeners so it was a real treat!

First things first, we pruned the very pretty Rose of Sharon tree that hangs over my neighbors yard into ours. The branches were hanging so low that our tiny yard was basically cut in half. Good thing my mom is a junior tree warden (no, I'm not kidding)! She is an expert pruner and quickly achieved the perfect balance of just enough tree to frame our kitchen window but not so much that we can't use the yard!

Then we did lots and lots of container planting! We now have pots of herbs and lettuce plus lots of flowers, succulents and ferns. The herbs have changed my life- we've been making agua fresca with mint, lemon and cucumbers all week to battle the heat.

The next part is my favorite and something I can't wait to dig into: decorating! My goal is to make the little yard into a little french-y paradise with bistro chairs, striped linens (like this scene, below, at Terrain) and some sort of hanging luminaries or chandelier.

Too bad these chairs cost a fortune! Anyone know of a cheaper alternative?

I'll have more pictures soon as things start to shape up!

Guest Post: Pip from Meet Me at Mike's

Hello!  It's not Kayte! It's me! Pip!  Kayte is letting me post over here today, and I thought I'd show you a really simple 5 minute project for Valentine's day!

You can make these with things you have hanging about your craft room, and you can totally impress someone you LOVE with your crafty know-how!  It's true!  I give you... Doily Hearts! 

      

And thank you for having me!

 

xx Pip

Thanks Pip for this amazing tutorial! This is totally adorable! And a perfect project for all of those out there like me who are totally snowed in!