Sunday, January 25, 2009

Orchid Extravaganza

It was going to be a beautiful day on Friday (Sunny and in the high 40’s F) so Barbara, Louise and I went to Longwood Gardens. We arrived at Longwood just after 10AM and it was starting to get warm already. As you can see from the pictures in the latest album as you come into the visitor center there are orchids. When you walk to the conservatory there is not a lot to see, but as soon as you go inside, WOW! We walked around and went into the children’s garden, as we always do. The staff where still getting ready for the opening of the Orchid Extravaganza that was the next day but it still was very impressive. I will not tell you all about it because words can not convey all the beautiful flowers, please open the Orchid Extravaganza album on the left and enjoy.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

New Years 2009

Barbara and I went to Chadd's Ford, PA for new years eve/morning. Our first stop was to our favorite museum, Bradywine River Museum. As you can see we saw the doll house display that they put up every year at Christmas time. The decorations on all the trees are all made from natural materials. The train display they have every year is great, I being male just love it. After I went on a tour of two of the galleries with the grandaughter of Andrew Wyeth, she had some very interesting stories about her Grandfather and Uncle, we went to the motel. Our room was very nice, it even had a fireplace. After a short rest it was time to go to Longwood Gardens for our New Years Eve. I think Longwood Gardens put up more lights this year then last. The Buffet Dinner was very good and warm, we stretched the dinner out to 1 hour so we could stay warm for that long. It was cold waiting for the ice skaters, notice Barbara's glasses all fogged up. The ice skating was a bit of a disappointment there where only 3 skaters, last year they had more of a program. We waited in the lower level of the conservatory for the firework time to come. The fire works at 9:15PM where just as good as last year, it is only about 15 minutes long but they are the best 15 minutes of fireworks. The following morning we went back to Longwood Gardens to see the conservatory decorations. The best was the display in the main reflection pool called Cranberry Delight. It is filled with 1,100 pounds of cranberries, approxametly 500,000 cranberries. The cranberries are floating in 4 inches of water, 1 cranberry deep. After walking around the conservatory for awhile and seeing the music room made up as a gentleman's library, the trains in the palm room, the orchid room and other areas we went home. All in all it was a cold but delightful New Years Eve.