From The Gardens

We are about to be on the road again!  This year we are headed east to Vermont and Massachusetts.  We will depart at 7:00 AM from East Syracuse on Wednesday June 2, 2010.   Our first stop will be at Hildene, the home of Abraham Lincoln’s decendants until 1975.  The mansion and grounds nestled between mountains in Manchester Vermont are now on the Historic Registry   We will tour the restored house and formal gardens and enjoy a box lunch here.  www.hildene.org.

After our lunch and tours we will travel to Willimstown MA to the Clark Art Institute &  Museum.   This gorgeous museum contains the impressionist art collection of Sterling and Francine Clark of Cooperstown.  You may choose a docent led tour or view the paintings on your own.   www.clarkart.edu

Our hotel for the night is the Crowne Plaza Berkshires in Pittsfield MA.    www.berkshirecrowne.com There are restaurants in the hotel as well as a variety of choices within walking distance.

We will have a hot breakfast at the hotel in the morning before back tracking to Williamstown to visit the private garden of Phil and Susie Smith, friends of Nancy Needham who has made the arrangements for us.  Phil says he has over 50 tree peonies and surely many will be in bloom.

Our next stop is The Mount, Edith Wharton’s estate in Lenox MA.  www.edithwharton.org The mansion and grounds are now on the historic registry, and have been improved since our last visit there several years ago.  We will tour house and gardens and have lunch on the front porch before traveling to Stockbridge MA and Chesterwood, the home of sculptor and landscape designer Daniel Chester French.   www.chesterwood.org

Please contact me if you have not already received a letter about this trip.  As you know, space is limited and the bus usually fills up quickly.    ginny@ginnyspina.com