Winterthur Part 2

I took so many photos of Winterthur on Wednesday, I thought the outside photos needed their own blog post. Du Pont's woods were still beautiful despite the trees loosing most of their leaves and the slowly setting sun added a bit of magic to our late afternoon stroll. The photo above with the quote was the idea of my husband who wanted to make sure I gave him credit for the composition:)

A view of the mansion and pool. There are some 175 rooms in that big house!

 Beauty berry, I really need one of these bushes!

 Frog fountain in the Enchanted Woods.

 Beautiful koi still quite active despite the falling temps.

 My Zoe exiting the toadstool house.

What child wouldn't want one of these in their yard?



 I've loved this hippocampus sculpture since I was a child! I have a photo of me sitting on it when I was around 5 years old. My Aunt Frances has worked at Winterthur for over 25 years.

 Colorful leaves litter the forest floor.

Thought I would take a photo of this giant in black and white.

 

 This is the view du Pont wanted to 'keep open forever'.

One of my favorite sites in all the world!

My daughter finds herself a walking stick.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I have a few porcelain ornaments that I will be hand painting horses on and selling through Ebay. Keep checking my auctions to see what's listed. they make excellent gifts and no two are ever the same.

Printed porcelain ornaments are available through Cafepress for only $8.50!

Click here to see my designs.

Yuletide at Winterthur

Yesterday we went to see the Yuletide display at Winterthur in Wilmington, DE. Winterthur is a museum that was home to Henry Francis du Pont. He was born there and also died there. In his lifetime he amassed an enormous collection of early American decorative art, furniture and architectural elements (this bored my husband to no end). I've been to the museum part of Winterthur but I had never toured the actual home. For Christmas this year, several rooms were filled with gorgeous holiday trees and were also decorated as if to celebrate Henry's daughter's wedding in 1938.

The first interior room you walk into seems like you are outside. The four walls are actual facades taken from buildings.

Next we took an elevator up several floors to a room filled with three garden themed trees. The smell of the blooming paperwhites was wonderful!

A peony tree, a spring bulb tree and a fairy tree: all three things that Winterthur's gardens are known for.

Next was a formal sitting room complete with

desserts and punch set out for guests of the 1938 wedding celebration.

This stunning tree was decorated entirely with dried flowers.

We moved on to an Asian themed room with wall paper hand painted in 1775 (I kid you not, I asked the tour guide to repeat himself.).

And then a music/entertaining room with a spiral staircase to die for.

Onto a garden room set up with a bar and buffet.

This would be my favorite room if I lived here (and not just because there is a bar here:).

Another dining room for the wedding guests.

And a dining room for the du Pont family.

I had to ask what those two things were on the buffet table... knife urns filled with silver knives with ivory handles. The handles were painted to look like jade (why not get jade handled knives if you're that rich). The painting was by Benjamin West and depicts the American signers of Treaty of Paris, the British signers refused to sit for the painting.

An azalea themed tree. In the spring the gardens are filled with hundreds of blooming azaleas.

The last tree on the tour was a 1950's themed tree complete with bubble lights and vintage toys.

Happy Holidays!

Celebrate Earth Day at Winterthur

My Mom, daughter and I went to meet my aunt yesterday where she has worked for the last 30 years, Winterthur. I haven't been there since I was a small child so I forgot how nice it is. So I thought I would share some of my photos today to celebrate Earth Day.
As their website says, Winterthur is "A wonderland for garden lovers.". Winterthur is near Wilmington, DE and was the country estate of Henry Francis du Pont. It sits on close to 1,000 acres and has 60 acres of gardens including a children's fairy tale garden called the Enchanted Woods.
I suppose many people go to Winterthur to see the collections of early American furniture, soup tureens and needlework but I was there to see the woodlands and gorgeous wildflowers (my new favorite is Virginia Bluebells).

Here are just a few of my favorite photos. Click on each photo to see a larger image.


Waterfalls and woodland ponds galore!


Pretty little stream with primrose.


Fairy house in the enchanted garden.


Friendly little snake.


Sparrow takes a bath.


I could sit here all day...


I want this tree!


Too many frogs to count. My mom pet one.


Huge koi followed us around the pond.


My new favorite flower.


Fields of daffodils planted everywhere.


Cute little chipmunk says hello!