Dearest Mother arrived home today after a week spent in the great city of Boston in the USA. She said before she went that all she knew about Boston was the Boston Tea Party and even that she wasn’t quite sure about! Ma stayed with old friends, the Hochbergs; Fred is an eminent doctor, a neurosurgeon. Ma said she felt rather guilty about picking his brains and that if she is reborn again she would also like to be a brain surgeon! Part of her visit was to give a talk about the house and gardens of Cothay to the Boston Garden Society, with slides put into a Powerpoint presentation from photographs by Jan. Despite her initial nerves, all went well, although there were rather too many Harvard people in the audience!
A highlight of Ma’s tour was a visit to see the glass flowers made for the great university of Harvard, for students studying botany. The glass plants were indistinguishable from living plants, showing not only the flowers and leaves, but all parts of the plants. The glass plants are an artistic marvel in the field of science and a scientific marvel in the field of art. The glass flowers were created during the years between 1887 and 1936 by Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka in Dresden. The Blaschkas made approximately 850 life-size models representing 780 species and varieties of plants in 164 families, along with over 4,300 detailed models of anatomical sections of various flora. Wow, what an achievement!
Whilst Mother was away, the water leak was at last identified. We were losing many gallons of water every minute and it has taken over a week for the water engineers to repair. Let’s hope the huge bill will be covered by our insurance.
The garden is still a quagmire after weeks of rain and only six weeks until we open in April.
Spring is only a whisper away and Ma says with so much to do, she feels like a stressed-out sparrow!
Greenham, Nr. Wellington,
Somerset, TA21 OJR
01823 672283
