Winterthur

A little tidbit of information brought to you by design intern Stephen Dorn while sitting on a bench outside the visitor center of Winterthur Gardens:

You know something? The number one pastime of humans is watching other humans. Don't deny it. Check out that family over there, for example. They're watching us watch them.

Song of the Moment: Super Bass by Nicki Minaj
YouTube Videos of the Time: Between Two Ferns with Zach Galianfinakis

Let's play pretend...

H. F. du Pont's mansion, and where our story begins. 

The year is 1928, and we have been invited to visit Henry Francis du Pont for dinner at his recently inherited 982 acre estate Winterthur. We arrive in the late afternoon just in time for a nice round of golf on the back side of the property before convening in the dining wing for a light dinner. Then, on to tea on the veranda and a tour around the gardens. There are a few azaleas to our left, a Japanese maple to our right, and a zillion trees somewhere in the middle. As we walk through the children's garden complete with fairy house and misting mushrooms, I can't help but notice the lack of color. We've walked almost the entire property, and I haven't seen much variation in the color palette. How unusual. Since we're playing pretend, I'm bold enough to ask one of the wealthiest men of his time, "Mr. du Pont, where is all the color in your garden?" "Ah, my dear girl, you noticed! You see, I prefer a more wooded feel so I use trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that allow me to attain that." "I see. It's green as far as the eye can see though." "Right you are. And anyways, isn't green a color?" "Touche, Mr. du Pont. Well played."

Playing with the fish.

When we arrived at Winterthur, we were just in time for the free tram tour around the gardens. The guide was pretty knowledgable, and the whole experience reminded me of Dollywood. Hop on at the round about tram stop, learn from the guide, and get off at the main attraction. In this case, the main attraction was H. F. du Pont's 9 story house. Woah back up! 9 stories?! Excuse me while I reel my jaw back in. There was a 1 hour tour through part of the house, but we opted to just walk around the gardens. I mean...we are horticulture interns after all. We spent 2 hours walking around so I will hit the highlights of the tour.
1. The 100 year old Japanese Maple.
2. The people-sized bird's nest you could walk in.
3. When we got inside the canopy of a huge tree and climbed it.
4. The 2 rooms full of Campbell Soup tureens. My personal favorites were the boar's head and the Buddha. Classy.

Monkeying around.