Alumni Day

We were at Swarthmore College today taking a couple of tours provided to alumni.  First we toured one of the green roofs.

From up there you can see where they are drilling wells for their new geothermal project.

Here is another view from the ground.

Snapping Turtle

We knew there was at least one snapping turtle that lives in the pond, but we were surprised to see this one headed across the grass behind our place, quite a way from the pond.  A neighbor eventually scooped it up on a piece of cardboard and carried it down the hill because it was headed for his flower bed.

Mushroom Farm Tour

 We toured one of the local mushroom farms today.  Great fun.

The ones in this tray that are not picked young will become portobellos.

I saw this sign on one of their trucks and asked what it meant.  Since we are in a quarantined area, their truckers have to be certified that they check their truck for insects and eggs before going in and out of the area.

Longwood Gardens Fountain Display

We went to Longwood to see the fountains last evening.  What a great show.  And only a 5 minute drive away.  What a great place to live.

 

Baltimore Oriole

 I didn't really believe that if I put out a half orange, it would tempt a Baltimore Oriole to my feeder, but it worked!

Philly Orchestra Concert

Today's concert was the Philadelphia Orchestra at Kimmel Center.  It was great, though our seats - Tier 2, Box 77, seats 1 & 2 - were a bit too far forward so we couldn't see the entire orchestra.  The acoustics were wonderful.

We had planned to take the train, but it was pouring rain and we didn't want to walk that far in the rain.  So we drove in instead and that worked well.  For future reference:  Rt 322 to 95 north; exit 20 then north to Spruce St; Spruce just past 15th to the Parkway parking garage on the right; then a short walk to Kimmel Center.  We went home via Lombard St west to 76, then 291 to 95.

Welcome to Pennsylvania

We moved to PA on April 3rd and have so much going on there has been no time to post.  We are finally mostly settled into our cottage, having arranged the last couple of closets today.  Last evening we went to an organ concert at Longwood Gardens.  The fabulous organist was Raul Prieto Ramirez and he played works by Bach, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Mercury, and Turina on their equally fabulous organ.  Tomorrow we will go into Philly to hear the orchestra.  We are truly enjoying life.

Quilt 76

I finally finished the quilt and pillows to go on the dark brown leather sofa which will be in our new living room.

 

A Walk Down Memory Lane

We wanted to walk in Holmdel Park one more time before we move - yes, the project in progress is a move away from New Jersey where we have lived for the past 50 years.  So we are revisiting favorite places.  We had a nice walk, then went to Bell Works, the amazing space which used to be Bell Laboratories, where we both worked, and which has since been repurposed into a home for many companies and retail stores.  But it still looks the same.

Longwood Gardens

It has been nearly two months since I posted anything here.  We have been very, very busy on a project that I hope to reveal soon.  But in the meantime, here is a Holiday greeting from a trip to the Longwood Gardens Christmas show.  Unfortunately it was raining, so we didn't explore the outdoor lighting.  And parts of the conservatory are still under construction, so it is not as extensive as it has been and will be again in a couple more years.  But what we saw was impressive.

Not all the galleries were fully decorated.  Here are some wonderful cacti.

Then there was the organ!! OMG!  I'm sure we never saw this before.  It has over 10,000 pipes and you can walk around behind the room containing the console to see the rooms and rooms of them.  Here are just a few.  We think those small white objects are Simplisafe sensors, probably monitoring temperature.