Well, Keith and I had a great time on Saturday at The Big Surprise: aka, Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens.It was somewhat tricky—I had told Keith it was a place he'd never been before. Which was true in that he'd never actually toured the house or grounds. But we had been there last summer to see a performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth on the grounds.
At that point and several times since, we'd discussed how Keith had never actually been in the house and that we should go sometime ... but had never actually done it. So last week, I decided that we'd waited long enough! I figured we'd talked about it enough that I knew he'd be interested in going, and I could get away with making it a surprise.
Once we got there, I was also pleasantly surprised. Even though I'd visited a couple times before, I didn't realize how much I hadn't seen yet. We spent a lot of time wandering through the grounds, seeing the Great Garden, birch alley, Lagoon, Japanese Garden, and the Dell. Unfortunately, there was a wedding party taking pictures in the Walled English Garden, so we couldn't go in there, but I decided it didn't bother me too much because it just left something for us to see next time.
Before we left, we bought a book that lists all of the flowers planted on the grounds at Stan Hywet. It gives a picture of each, plus information about amount of sun needed, when they flower, how tall they grow, etc. I'm looking forward to re-creating a bit of the Great Garden in our own front yard.
4 comments:
That's a place I'd like to go too. My friend did wedding pics there and they're beautiful.
You going to try to complete with your neighbor for best floral display? ;)
You should definitely go when you get a chance. Mon and I went last year for a wine-tasting there. It was fun, but you don't actually get to see any of the grounds or the house. You just go straight to the basement for the tasting.
I don't know if we can really compete... maybe in 5 years or so, we can give him a run for his money!
Was Keith surprised, or did he figure it out?
I think he was surprised. Even though we'd been to the grounds before, we took a roundabout way there this time, so he didn't realize where we were headed until we were only a few minutes away. Considering it took us about an hour to get there, I think that's pretty good!
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