Biltmore Estate, Asheville

After we left Julia and Chapel Hill, we headed to Asheville, NC, for a few days. We spent most of one day at the Biltmore Estate, an amazing property built by George Washington Vanderbilt in 1895. The weather was not great, pouring rain, so it was a good day to spend several hours inside this amazing French-style house and imagine what it was like to live such an opulent life in the early 20th century. You were not allowed to take pictures inside, which was disappointing, but I took plenty outside.  I think there are more than 250 rooms--the one I liked the most was Vanderbilt's library, which held about half of his 23,000 volume collection of books. Apparently he was quite the reader. The wood paneled walls are lined with two floors of books and while large, it seemed like a comfortable room. The ceiling was covered with a painted mural that came from a palace in Venice. Oh, and the chess set in the library was once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte!

I also loved the Winter Garden, a circular conservatory room at the center of the house,  with a glass roof and filled with all kinds of plants. Big, sumptuous floral arrangements were everywhere--I guess you kind of need overscaled arrangements in a big place like this.  On the big porch at the back of the house were gorgeous baskets of orchids and begonias.

Orchids on the porch

It was fun touring the four floors of the house, and seeing the kitchens and servants quarters, and even an indoor swimming pool. Almost all the furnishings are original to the house. We had lunch in a cafe that is in the old stable of the house--really cool.  Luckily, by the time we finished the house, and lunch,  there was a break in the rain so we were able to tour the most important part of Biltmore--the gardens!

I was kind of obsessed with these moss-covered Italian busts

View from the gardens

This blog should be called the "Bench Blog"

Most of the landscaped beds are enclosed in this Walled Garden. There is a White Garden, rose gardens, and much more. They were in the process of planting thousands of mums.

Walled Garden

At the far end of the Walled Garden is the Conservatory, a grand old wooden and glass structure.

Conservatory

I loved this big old broken terra cotta pot that is reinvented as a garden feature.

Inside the conservatory

And I loved this scene as we were driving out, the reflection in the pond was just so pretty and serene.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham

Walt and Julia

Whenever we travel, I like to scope out some of the gardens in the area, and we have been very lucky to be able to visit the Sarah P. Duke Gardens when we have been in Chapel Hill. We have been there in the spring and I wanted to see it in the fall too. I had also hoped to visit Montrose Gardens, Nancy Goodwin's garden in Hillsborough, NC, but it is only open by appointment and it just didn't work out this time. Anne Raver had a great article about Montrose in the New York Times last spring, which really made me want to visit.  Maybe next time! North Carolina has a lot of good gardens, I would also like to see Elizabeth Lawrence's garden in Charlotte.

The Sarah P. Duke Gardens are named after the wife of Benjamin Duke, one of Duke University's founders, and were designed by Ellen Shipman, a pioneer in American landscape design. There are more than 55 acres of landscaped and wooded areas and five miles of pathways, allees, and walkways. The gardens are divided into four areas, the Historic Core and Terraces, the H.L. Blomquist Garden of Native Plants, the William Louis Culberson Asiatic Arboretum,  and the Doris Duke Center Gardens (including the Page-Rollins White Garden). We were there in late afternoon/early evening and there were a lot of people walking around, picnicking, and playing on the grassy areas. It is so nice to see beautiful gardens being used.

Beautiful fall color

These are truly beautiful gardens and well worth a visit. It's interesting to see it in different seasons. In the spring the colors were all pinks and purples and whites--gorgeous foxgloves, hydrangeas, roses,  and iris. This time the color were all oranges and reds, the colors of fall.

I would like this bench please

Vine covered gazebo

On The Road Again--Chapel Hill

We are on vacation this week (thus the lag in my blogging), and started it by spending the weekend in Chapel Hill with Julia. We left home Saturday morning and met her for lunch around 1 pm at Foster's Market in Chapel Hill, which is owned by Sara Foster of cookbook fame. We have been there before and it is a fun place, always busy, great sandwiches and salads, and has a nice outdoor patio.

Foster's Market

UNC treats at Foster's Market

In the afternoon Julia took us to the American Tobacco Historic District in Durham , which is the former Lucky Strike cigarette factory and  former headquarters of the old AmericanTobacco Company. It has been completely refurbished and now is a large retail/restaurant/office complex, and music venue. We love seeing old buildings like this that have been renovated and are being reused.

Tobacco Road

Cool bench with recycled materials

Tobacco Road

We had Sunday brunch at this cute place in Durham, Watts Grocery. We got there when it opened and there were already lines down the street waiting to get in. It was good! Let me just say that biscuits are pretty darn delicious in North Carolina!

Watts Grocery

We did a lot of walking around, met a few of Julia's friends, did a little birthday shopping for Julia, had beers at Top of the Hill , and dinner on Sunday night at Talulla's, a Turkish restaurant in Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill is such a nice town and it's been a fun place to visit while Julia has been in grad school the past two years. We'll be back next spring for graduation!

UNC cow on campus

Love that stone bench, UNC campus

Calm in the Garden

The weather this week has been perfect. Sunny and cool, no humidity, no bugs, just pure pleasure. A good week for morning walks, tea on the deck,  dinner outside with a friend, comfortable runs in the evening for Walt.  Walking around my garden this morning I just felt such a sense of calm. It's like the frenzy of summer blooming is finished, and the garden is just relaxing. Even the light seems different these mornings, softer without the glare of summer's heat. I look outside and see the soft greens and muted colors, and I just have to grab my camera and head out.

This World

This World

I would like to write a poem about the world that has in it

nothing fancy.

But it seems impossible.

Whatever the subject, the morning sun

glimmers it.

The tulip feels the heat and flaps its petals open and becomes a star.

The ants bore into the peony bud and there is a dark

pinprick well of sweetness.

As for the stones on the beach, forget it.

Each one could be set in gold.

So I tried with my eyes shut, but of course the birds

were singing.

And the aspen trees were shaking the sweetest music

out of their leaves.

And that was followed by, guess what, a momentous and

beautiful silence

as comes to all of us, in little earfuls, if we’re not too

hurried to hear it.

As for spiders, how the dew hangs in their webs

even if they say nothing, or seem to say nothing.

So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe they sing.

So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe the stars sing too,

and the ants, and the peonies, and the warm stones,

so happy to be where they are, on the beach, instead of being

locked up in gold.

~ Mary Oliver ~

A Beautiful September Morning

Dogwood

We are having absolutely perfect weather this week. Too bad I am working most of the week. It's so refreshing to take a morning walk in weather like this.  I did work outside on Sunday and cleaned up the gardens, cutting things back, weeding, and edging a little. I even emptied a few pots that were just looking too scraggly and tired.  There is still a lot blooming, and here are a few pictures from a beautiful September morning in the garden.

Hosta and fern

Perfect rose

Creamy white rose

Euphorbia

Love This

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Happy Birthday Julia! (A Few Days Late)

Apparently someone was a little miffed that there wasn't a blog post about her birthday, so let me wish my sweet girl a belated happy birthday! Even though there was no blog post on the actual day (Friday), I was thinking about her and missing her as I walked around New York. It's because of her that we know our way around New York, and we had a lot of fun visits with her when she lived there. Now she is in Chapel Hill, finishing her MBA and MHA and has a great job offer for next year, and we couldn't be more proud!

Last Day in New York

Waterfall in reflecting pool

Friday was our last day in New York and we had tickets to go to the 9/11 Memorial in the morning. There is still a lot of construction going on, but it is truly amazing to see what has been rebuilt in 11 years. We walked through the tree-lined Plaza, and around  the two reflecting pools which sit on the footprints of the original towers.  Thirty-foot waterfalls cascade into the pools, each then descending into a center void. The names of every person killed on September 11 (and in 1993) are engraved in bronze ledges surrounding the pools.  More than 400 white oak trees are planted around the plaza and will eventually form a canopy over the reflecting pools. I thought the Memorial was very meaningful, especially when I learned that the design was called "Reflecting Absence."

We were there on a beautiful September morning, not a cloud in the sky, and I kept thinking how similar it was to that awful day 11 years ago.

Reflection

1 World Trade Center

We walked around Wall Street for awhile, seeing the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall (where George Washington was inaugurated!), and then walked over by the Brooklyn Bridge. I wanted to walk across the bridge, but we were running out of time, so we caught a cab back to our hotel, picked up our bags, and headed to Penn Station and home. A fun week!

NYSE

Federal Hall with statue of George Washington

Just a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge