Poetry

Aidan has been writing poems in his language arts class - odes, sonnets, haiku - and the following free verse particularly captured my attention:

Poetry is a gift,
To weave words like a loom,
And use onomatopoeia
Like a crash, or a boom.

It is as smooth as the batter
That you use to bake,
The words are tantalizing,
Like a slippery snake.

It is like a bird,
That takes flight,
Without a sound
Like the calm night.

It is a wonderful thing,
The words fly across the page,
Like a beautiful bird
Not in a cage.

Bee fruit

Last summer while visiting the Schoharie Valley, I bought a five gallon jar of local honey from a vendor at the farmer's market in Sharon Springs. If you are curious as to what five gallons of honey looks like, here you go:

The following photo might give you a little more perspective on the size of the jar:

 

It is a lot of honey but we use a lot of honey. Our favorite toasting/sandwich bread, buttermilk bread, is made with honey, many of our dinner recipes use honey, and James and I like it on country ham biscuits. I paid $24 for that jar and if you buy honey on a regular basis, you know that is a good deal.

A good deal is only a good deal if you use the product. Here is how that same jar looked after prepping for last night's dinner (chicken drumsticks marinated in a honey, soy sauce, garlic and ginger):

Time to buy another jar.

Rocks and stone

In addition to the lovely architecture and plants at Sonnenberg, there were many fascinating rock and stone features throughout the grounds. A statue of the goddess Diana once had her own folly in an evergreen grove near the back of the property, but the temple succumbed to weather damage years ago and she was moved to an area near the mansion:

Not far from the ruins of the Temple of Diana is the Sub-Rosa Garden, also known as the Secret Garden. Enclosed by a circle of hedges, you don't notice it is there until you see the opening in the hedge and look in:

The detail on the statues is amazing:

I particularly liked this little guy:

The Rock Garden features an unusual structure, which looked to us like it might have been a springhouse at one time. Can you spot Aidan peeking over the edge at the top?

Here is the view of the same building from the other side:

Just down from the stone house was a little grotto, with a statue of Pan (we think) on top:

 

Later in the season there will be water flowing into the grotto.

But(t) wait, there's more! Near the Japanese Garden is a stone bridge:

At the apex of the bridge, there are two seats built into the walls, facing each other. Aidan gleefully announced that the seats were "butt shaped!"

And although I do not have photographic proof (he can move fast when motivated), Aidan tried out the seat and declared it a good fit.

Things that grow

As I mentioned in my initial post about our Mother's Day outing to Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Site, most of the gardens have not yet been planted for the season. There were still, however, plenty of growing things to see.

Beautiful purple tulips:

Greenhouse flowers:

Plants with colorful leaves:

Intersting trees, one with unusual bark:

 

And my favorite growing of all:

Shadows and light

During our visit to Sonnenberg, I was captivated by the play of angles, lines, light and shadow.

Mother's Day outing

Over the past years, I have enjoyed many wonderful Mother's Days. We picnicked and geocached one year, lounged around the in progress patio two years ago, and last year we went camping. Our intent was to go camping again this year, but those plans just would not come together. Our little camper is still in winter storage so we were going to rent a camping cabin. But since I wanted to attend the Saturday morning meeting of my knitting guild, we would only be camping for one night...and no place we could find rents their camping cabins for just one night. Even the state park on Lake Ontario that had almost all of its cabins empty for the entire weekend would not rent for just one night.

We knew we wanted to get out of B'ville for some kind of excursion; winter was so long and harsh that it feels as though we haven't been anywhere in a long time. Then I remembered that we have long wanted to visit Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua and just never seem to get around to it. Only about sixty miles to our west, it was a nice distance for a day trip. The weather was beautiful and perfect for our adventure, sunny and mild, and although temps were in the 50s when we left home, they reached just over 70 in the afternoon.

Sonnenberg was the summer home of banker Frederick Ferris Thompson and his wife, Mary Clark Thompson, who was the daughter of former New York State governor. The 40 room Queen Anne-style mansion was completed in 1887, although most of the gardens were after added after Frederick's death in 1899. It always amazes me to see huge mansions that are summer homes, since you know that the primary residence was probably far larger and more lavish; those Victorians knew how to spend their wealth!

We spent several happy hours walking around the estate. We are just past the risk of an overnight freeze (hopefully) so most of the gardens have not been planted for the season, but the tulips were in full bloom:

 

The grounds are beautiful, especially with everything budding and leafing. We spotted a blue heron and he kept a careful eye on us as we walked around the pond:

We were so interested in the blue heron that we were surprised to look up and get our first glimpse of the mansion:

Too big, dark and, well, Victorian for my tastes, but certainly a beautiful setting for a house. Some of the trees on the estate were magnificent:

Aidan was quite taken  with the tea house in the Japanese Garden:

Everywhere we looked, there was a view of something beautiful:

After we had seen it all and visited the gift shop, we left Sonnenberg and drove to Main Street in Canandaigua for lunch. Based on TripAdvisor reviews, we chose to eat lunch at Rheinblick German Restaurant:

It was an excellent choice. We were seated on the patio at a shaded table and enjoyed a delicious meal. Aidan chose the Grillteller, a mixed platter of grilled chicken breast, pork tenderloin filet and beef tenderloin filet, and James ordered Schweinemedaillons - pork tenderloin filets with creamy, mushroom white wine sauce, served with spätzle. I decided on the Sauerbraten, which is marinated beef roast in a sweet and sour sauce of red wine vinegar and served with spätzle and red cabbage:

 

Each one of us was happy with our choice. James had wisely brought a cooler and ice pack, so we were able to pack away our leftovers. There were, however, no leftovers from Aidan's plate! We would have liked to have tried one of their delicious looking desserts but we were far too full.

We strolled around Main Street, drove around the edge of Canandaigua Lake, then out of town to Naked Dove Brewing Co. Leave it to us to find a local brewery! It isn't much to look at but the people were friendly and I got to sample all of their beers for free, in honor of Mother's Day. Their beer did not overwhelm us but we did get our growler filled with their double pale ale, the beer we liked the most.

After about an hour of scenic driving, we were back at home after a most excellent Mother's Day outing.

 

Note: there is much more to show and say about Sonnenberg, far too much for one post, so stay tuned for additional posts.