Sidewalk Footprints

I love being barefoot, even in the summer. I walked around barefoot one day recently for National Barefoot Day, which helps raise awareness for children without shoes. Of course, it was warm and springy and lovely, but I will consider going barefoot in the city more often.

Investigating the Tulip Library

When I went to visit the cherry blossoms in DC a few weeks ago I stumbled on the Tulip Library, which is also near the Tidal Basin. I was excited by it, but there were no brochures or other information available. I only knew it was the Tulip Library because some excited kid came running up to his mother to report that he found the sign.

At home, I didn’t have much luck. Little research is on the web and the National Park Service write up mostly just mentions the history of tulips. The most helpful was this 2007 blog entry from Washington Gardener magazine. (Hmmmm…note to self…change blogger theme.) They have a link to a PDF of an old brochure, which was better than nothing. If Tulip Library had been here in Baltimore City I would have the good old Pratt library vertical file to play with. (Yes, I know that this garden is in another city. But I also like to write about places within easy driving distance of Baltimore because most gardeners love to visit other gardens.)

Well, with my arm still on the injured list and my ability to do a lot of typing and mousing curtailed, I pulled out the Tulip Library research and put up an article. It is not what I wanted, but if I don’t do this now the topic won’t be relevant again until next year. (Then, I can revisit it and do a slideshow or something.)

The photo at the top of this post was my first choice for the article, but it looked too similar to the photo on the National Park Service PDF and also to the one I selected for Sherwood Gardens. Tulip gardens are rather hard to photograph at times because of the way the flowers are spaced. If I don’t get a good angle and lots of flowers blooming at the same time I end up with a picture of little dots of color amidst the dirt.

Wordless Wednesday – National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

(Their web site.)

Rainy Day Dianthus

This morning on my walk I noticed these dianthus. They were so bright on this rainy morning that they almost won’t photograph well because the color is too intense. I’ve always liked dianthus. Then, a couple of days ago when I was shopping with a friend he said that they looked like “little stars”. Yes, I can see that, especially on a gray day like today.

By the way. I'm quite happy with my new Sherwood Gardens article, which includes a slide show. I've resolved to do more slide shows this year. It is a kind of visual reporting that I like because I carry my camera everywhere.

Elbows, Sherwood Gardens and Graveyard Lilies

Owww….after all of the “advice” I give people about garden safety I hurt myself while gardening yesterday. Actually, I had been feeling a twinge in my elbow all week but I thought it was gone by the time I went out in the yard last night. Instead, it was just lurking, ready to come back in force after I came inside for the night. Now it seems worse this morning. I’m actually thinking of making a sling from a scarf. I also might have to cancel my date with the Phantom tomorrow. I volunteer at the Hippodrome and hate to miss working a show of the “Phantom of the Opera”, especially since this is the supposed farewell tour.

Well, on with the writing news. This morning I posted on ways that gardeners could spread the word during National Gardening Month. Unlike the other articles I wrote this week, I kind of like this one. I used a photo of last year’s display at Sherwood Gardens, and the photo above is from the same flowerbed. I’ve been picnicking at Sherwood a lot over the last couple of weeks and I think last year’s display was defiantly better.

I also wrote a short piece on gravestone lilies for my Curious Urbanite blog. I’m not particularly obsessed with death at the moment, but when I visited Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond a couple of weeks ago I was intrigued by all of the graveyard symbols that involved nature. I would have liked more time there as the array of stone flowers, tree stumps and other garden related cemetery art was fascinating.

Graveyard Lilies

A few weeks ago I was in Richmond, Virginia and visited the Hollywood Cemetery. While Baltimore certainly has its share of unusual cemeteries, I found this one to be rather intriguing, particularly the different kind of symbolism on the graves. If you want to study Victorian gravestone art, Hollywood Cemetery is the place to go.

Gravestones, like the ones in Hollywood Cemetery, originated as a way to keep the dead from rising from the grave. They were slabs or boulders placed over the ground where the body was buried. Soon, markers included names. Early images on gravestones were less than peaceful, though. Drawings of skeletons or other images of death served to remind the living of where they could end up if they did not live virtuously.

It was during the 1800s that the tone of images on gravestones began to change. At this time “garden cemeteries” replaced overcrowded churchyards and mourning became a much more elaborate practice, from clothing to length of time to gravestones. As many families lost loved ones during the Civil War it seemed that no family was untouched by an untimely death. It is no secret that the Victorians were overtly interested in death and the elaborate graves of the time reflect that. Lilies, like those on the gravestone above, symbolize purity, chastity, and were usually used on the graves of young women or babies. It was also used more generally to symbolize innocence in the face of God.


Resources

The Mystery of Graveyard Art and Symbols by Troy Taylor
Gravestone Symbolism
Cemetery Iconography

Wordless Wednesday - April Flowers