Now is a perfect time to visit rose gardens throughout the United States. One of my favorite gardens is the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. When I bought my first house in California, it had a beautiful rose garden with roses that had huge rootstocks and many were as almost 40 years old. I had no idea how to take care of them and went to a pruning clinic at the San Jose garden. I learned a lot, met some great friends and ended up with beautiful roses in my home garden. I still go back to my old house in San Jose and check on my roses.

I also think rose gardens are great places to take those family holiday photos.

Here are a few you may want to visit -

McGill Rose Garden - Charlotte, NC

All-American Rose Garden - Hattiesburg, MS

Ben Lomond Historic Site & Rose Garden - Manassas, VA

Walnut Springs Memorial Rose Garden - Seguin, TX

Rose Garden at the FDR National Historic Site - Hyde Park, NY

Lucille E. Anderson Memorial Rose Garden - Saginaw, MI

We were the ultimate tourists in New York City — we took a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park. Actually, only half the ride was really in Central Park, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

In Midtown Manhattan, the carriages line up along West 59th Street at the southern end of Central Park. It is quite a sight to see all the horses and the beautiful carriages in a row. Some of the drivers even dress up for the occasion with top hats and coats.

The carriage rides start at $40 for a twenty-minute ride. Even at that cost, we had a lovely time. The weather was amazing and it gave us a moment to relax during our adventures in the city that day. I did learn that if you take a carriage ride, you want to get into a carriage that is closer to 5th Avenue, near the Plaza Hotel. We made a mistake and choose a carriage closer to Central Park West, at Columbus Circle, which meant we rode half of our ride on the street with cars and only came through the park on our way back. If we had chosen a carriage closer to 5th Avenue, we would have ridden our whole ride in the park…. And really, that’s what a carriage ride through Central Park is all about.

I have found that sculpture gardens truly have something for everyone. I love how the artist’s work is presented in different settings. Sometimes the garden is quite formal with traditional water features or a knot garden made of herbs. Other times, the sculpture is displayed in large expanses of grass or in huge flowerbeds that enhance the art. I have noticed that my children really enjoy the fact that they are outside and that they can freely move about while seeing the artwork. There is something about the children’s energy and the art’s permanence that makes me enjoy the outing even more.

You can look for public sculpture gardens in city parks around the country, as well as sculpture collections in outdoor pavilions at art museums. There are also private sculpture collections that have been donated and preserved in their original garden settings. One of my favorites is Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina.

A sculpture garden is the perfect combination for the art lover and the gardener all rolled into one. Here are a few of the dozens of sculpture gardens around the country:

Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, SC

Bob Cage Sculpture Farm, South Boston, VA

City Sculpture Garden And Japanese Teahouse, Bethlehem, PA

Gilgal Sculpture Garden, Salt Lake City, UT

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, MN

Naser Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Hamilton, OH

This recipe is a favorite in my house and I am proud to say, it is totally my creation. If you ask me to bring a dessert, especially if there are kids there, you can almost always be assured this is what I will bring. I think the key in the recipe, like most others, is good ingredients. I use real butter, good quality vanilla (I like Nielsan-Massey and I just got organic Nielsan-Massey at Marshalls!), Reese’s peanut butter chips and, of course, good chocolate. Oh yes, No, the whole wheat flour is not an attempt to make these healthy, there’s way to much butter for that! The whole wheat flour seams to make them stand up better to cutting into squares. I also like to add chopped pecans, but that almost always insures kids won’t like them.

Jolly Brownies

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (4 squares)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla
¾ cup all-purpose white flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
10 ounces peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350, 325 for convection ovens. In a 4-quart saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate carefully over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat very lightly, just until combined, by hand. Stir in both flours. Spread batter into greased 9X13 pan.  Top with peanut butter chips.  Bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes in a standard oven or bake at 325 for 30 minutes in a convection oven.

I went with my extended family May 13th-15th to the annual reenactment of the Raid on Martin’s Station. There are similar events at the park all summer long and almost every month throughout the year, but the this is the biggest. Wilderness Road State Park is in far southwest Virginia. The park is 310 acres that lie beside the Wilderness Road, a route carved by Daniel Boone in 1775 that followed a buffalo migration trail and opened America’s first western frontier. Martin’s Station is a replica of a colonial frontier fort that was on this site in 1775. Park officials brag that it is the most authentically reconstructed fort in the United States. The three-day event has more than 500 re-enactors, including Shawnee and Cherokee warriors (who were my kid’s favorite) and men, women and children (who were adorable) settlers.

I had never been to a reenactment and I wasn’t sure what I would think, but I knew my kids would love it. I think there is something for everyone. My father has a sincere appreciation for the authenticity the reactors strive for in everything they do and really enjoyed sharing that with us. Other than the other visitors to the site and the cars in the parking lot, there is nothing modern to be seen. It was a wonderful step back in time that brings history alive. Even the coffee shops and vendors in the 18th century Market Fair, serve on tin and there is no plastic anywhere.

My children and my nephew absolutely loved the Indians, their camp and watching them creep through the woods and across the field during the raid. They even told my dad, whom I think would enjoy being a re-enactor, they would dress up and come along to more of these if he would join the Indians. But, I don’t think he’s ready to join sides with the Indians just yet.

My mom, sister and I loved seeing how the re-enactors authentically prepare their meals in their camps. I think it’s a secret contest amongst them to see who can have the best food. A group of about 9 men had ribs, pies, greens, stuffing and salad. They were the winners in the secret contest that day! Although, I think there wives must have helped with a lot of prep before they got there.

I could also appreciate how authentic the camps were. There were no air mattresses, mosquito netting, or coolers anywhere. I have since found out that the coolers are hidden in crates. The men in the first picture below have an actual birch bark canoe they made.  One of the re-enactors told us how the night before that had to get cosy under a lean-to belonging to two people they had never met before during a sudden rain storm. I think I would only be happy camping in the actual fort, maybe!

The two reenactments of raids of the fort were enjoyed by everyone. You see the Indians sneak through the fields, capture the women caught outside the fort (of course!), fire original muskets and a cannon, burn down sections of the fort, and negotiate the return of the women.

I know there are reenactments in many places but the beauty of Wilderness Road State Park and Cumberland Gap is amazing. The town of Cumberland Gap is also very charming. There is only one restaurant, Webb’s Country Kitchen,  that serves great country cooked meals (we ate there 4 times that weekend) and it is quite funny to see the groups of re-enactors there having dinner. Early one morning, my four year-old nephew peeked out the window of our hotel only to see an Indian in the parking lot!

Last weekend I trekked with my entire family down to Cumberland Gap, TN to see a reenactment of the Raid at Martin’s Station. I will write about the raid in a few days, I need to sort through the 500 pictures I took! While we were at the ranger station, one of the park rangers told me about a great hike with kids a few miles up the road to a large cave with a 1 meter round skylight in the top of the cave. My son overheard him and was dying to check it out, unfortunately I only had my Dansko clogs with me. The trail was beautiful leading up to the cave and except for having to be very careful not to roll my ankle, not a bad hike in clogs.  I loved seeing the running cedar growing all along the trail.

I was shocked when we got to the cave how big it was. It was great to listen to a school group of kids who were thrilled to crawl around in the dark. I would have been fine to have hiked up there in clogs, had I had not decided to crawl around in the dark cave. I managed to step into two feet of very cold water in a lake in the cave. I had a very squishy shoe for the rest of the weekend.

It was a great hike in beautiful weather that I am so glad we decided to take, even if one of us didn’t have the right shoes.

Tip- if you want to hike on top of the cave and crawl in through the skylight, as you are looking at the cave from the outside, hike up from the left side and it is a very easy hike.  My kids loved it!

What ride threatens to make you sick at the fair?  Is it the Tilt-a-Whirl?  Maybe it is the Flying Pirate Ship that may at any moment dump you out of your seat.  For me it is the cute green dragons.

Those dragons seem innocent enough with their pretty colors and smiling faces, but beware!  Unknown to me was the fact that they each spin individually, while simultaneously being hurled around in a circle.  Really, I can’t think of any carnival ride more torturous for an adult.  Of course, my two small children thought it was the best ride they have ever been on.  They grabbed the wheel in the middle of the dragon and spun it around and around making us go faster and faster.  To survive, I had to look out the door and try and focus on a light or building, anything to keep my dizzy head from getting the best of me.

When the ride was finally over, I stumbled outside and safely away from the grinning dragon.  The kids handed the man two more tickets and jumped back on.  My lesson…. let the kids ride the spinning dragons.  I’m happy to wait by the fence with some kettle corn.

Dogwood Festival,   Coshocton, OH

April 30th – May 8th

Vashon Island Strawberry Festival,  Vashon, WA

July 17th - July 18th

Virginia Beach Neptune Festival, Virginia Beach, VA

September 24th - 26th

Norfolk Harborfest, Norfolk, VA

July 3rd - 5th

Located right off interstate 81 in Natural Bridge the Virginia Safari Park is great fun for all ages. It gives you an unbelievable opportunity to get very close to many types of animals in a more natural setting than your typical zoo. You take your own car and drive through acres of free roaming animals and you are able to feed them from your car.

Last week during Spring Break, Elizabeth and I drove down to the Safari Park with our four kids. Elizabeth packed a great lunch which we sat under their pavilion and ate while being entertained watching other people attempt to drive through first. During weekends there is a huge wagon that you can take the hour ride through on, other times you are on your own.

We laughed ourselves silly and the kids are still talking about how much fun they had. The variety of free roaming animals is incredible. There are ostriches (which I must say terrify me), Watusi cattle, Scottish Highland cattle, water buffalo, bison, zebras, rheas, elk, camels, llama, and so many more. You get buckets of feed as you start your drive. I would ask the attendant to give you a few empty buckets to divide your feed into smaller portions so you don’t loose your whole bucket at once. Notice the bucket stealing camel below.

They have now opened an additional zoo that has a giraffe feeding station, cheetahs, tigers, reptiles, lorikeet feeding, an amazing aviary, and giant tortoises to name a few. This is a definite must do if you are headed down 81.  Where else will a camel put his head through the window of your car and let you pet him?

We spent a long weekend up in DC a few weeks ago and had an amazing time. I admit I was happy to be able to see so many of the museums with the kids and that I would be coming home with lots of material to write about here on the blog. Well, unfortunately my very nice camera will still allow you to take pictures with no memory card and so my hundreds of pictures are gone. I know, I know what many of you are thinking…user error.

Fortunately, my eight year-old had her camera along and took many photos in the Natural History Museum. It was really interesting for me to see what she photographed and what was important to her. When she found something she liked, she also photographed the placard with the item’s description.

The majority of her pictures were in the Gems and Minerals. She definitely gets her interest in this from her dad, who has a pretty nice collection.

She also took many pictures of the giant sloth fossil. She remembered years ago her brother bolted from that room in the museum because he thought it was the Wampa who captured Luke in the Empire Strikes Back. I wouldn’t be surprised if George Lucas based the Wampa on this Ice Age fossil.  She had a lot of fun teasing the now middle schooler about it.

I don’t know that I would normally take the time to look through each of her pictures and be able to see through her eyes what is important to her in a huge museum where there are so many subjects. I love that we were able to pass down our old digital camera to her and that she is capturing her favorites.

*Shortly after writing this, my son read it and informed me that I had incorrectly called the sloth a dinosaur, that he was just a fossil.  After looking up dinosaur on Wiki, I am still not sure.  Does anyone know?

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The weather is nice enough that most people can still plant bulbs.  Up until the ground freezes, you can get bulbs in your flowerbeds and vegetable garden, including garlic and daffodils.

I was recently at a harvest festival and I purchased two types of garlic. If you haven’t planted garlic before it’s fast and easy. You simply break the bulb apart into separate cloves and plant each clove 3 inches down and 5 inches apart.  Each clove grows into a bulb and it’s well worth the little amount of space that they take up.  I love buying specific types of garlic at festivals and farmers’ markets, but I have also simply planted garlic I bought at the grocery store.  I know I am taking my chances with this method, since grocery store garlic wasn’t grown in Virginia and may not make it through our winters, but I haven’t had any problems in the past.

As for daffodils, I have hundreds growing around the yard.  With so many amazing varieties available, I can’t help but plant a dozen or so new ones each year.  I tuck daffodils behind and between my perennials.  This way when the foliage of the daffodils is dying they are hidden by the new growth of the other plants. Look for new and different types of daffodils at fall farmers’ markets and through specialty growers, like our local grower Brent and Becky’s Bulbs.

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