Carolyn's Blog

Since the last Senate Bond Bill declared that the yard waste site used by many Brandywine Hundred residents at Cauffiel Park would close July 1, 2010, residents have been buzzing about what this means to them.  Since the State outlawed mixing trash and yard waste a couple of years ago, the choices have been to pay a private hauler a separate fee for yard waste pickup, bring it to Cauffiel between 8:30 and 4:30 on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, or compost it in their own yard.

After a hard winter when many residents lost trees, especially evergreens, people have been trekking to Cauffiel with their cars full of this trash.  I have had my car muddied by the results, and fought traffic jams and muddy ruts and people trying to get in the site while others are trying to get out the single lane. Not a happy site, especially when commercial landscapers brazenly and illegally bring truckloads of stuff rather than paying tipping fees at the dump.

Last night, a meeting was held at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School to discuss the issue with area residents.

State Senator McDowell (in picture) started out by saying that he knows the residents of Brandywine Hundred are unhappy. He was joined by Marjorie Crofts, Air & Waste Director, and  DNREC Secretary Collin O'Mara. They said that within the last 72 hours, after dismissing 18 other sites, they had come to an agreement with the DuPont Company to use their Hay Rd. industrial site, east of I-495 in Edgemoor. Since residents near Cauffiel had major problems with dust raised and asthmatic children after mulch grinding, they tried to find a site farther away from residential areas. Of course, an Edgemoor resident protested that this was across the street (most likely Gov. Printz. Blvd.) and they would hear from her contingent later.

So we wish the State good luck in solving this problem to the satisfaction of residents of Brandywine Hundred, although it still means jamming this stuff in the car. A private contractor who already has a mulching operation next to the proposed site would maintain it and grind the mulch, which he gets to keep and sell.

The University of Delaware Botanic Gardens and Greenhouses in Newark, Delaware played a big part in the annual Ag Day celebration on Saturday, April 24, 2010. I try to make it a point to be there every year for two reasons.

1.  The Annual Benefit Plant Sale for the U of D Botanic Gardens. Students and staff work all year to raise cuttings, seedlings, and large plants for this sale. I got a bit of an insiders story when I sold some properties for the former greenhouse manager a few years ago. And my garden always gains a few plants, although they don't always survive. Life in a garden is one big experiment for me!  This year it's an ice plant and a ginger that caught my eye. To be continued if I choose the right spot for them!

2. Ag Day events. Student groups, master gardeners, puppy raising groups, 4H groups, baby animals, demonstrations, music, a pig roast, hot dogs, ice cream from the UD cream and soon to be built creamery on the grounds of the Ag complex in Newark, Delaware, next to the Blue and Gold ice rinks and the football stadium.

An old timer helped kids practice milking a cow with the help of old cardboard Bessie and a few gallons of water, while the Paws for Life dog got a pat from Miss New Castle County.

While the kids hopped on to the hayride, some of us retreated to the gardens for a few quiet moments on another annual Ag Day at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware.

I recently attended a workshop at the John Dickinson Mansion near Dover Delaware which led us through steps to help determine the age of various methods of historic construction and how to detect features that may be hiding in plain sight. One example of this was in the attic of the 18th C. part of the house. We looked at the chimney to see if we could find evidence of an earlier configuration. This is what we found.

 If you look carefully one brick course down and diagonally to the left of the hand, you begin to see a diagonal line of nail holes extending down and to the left.  It turns out that this is where flashing was nailed for an earlier roof. Who knew?  Apparently it went unnoticed until recently, so don't feel badly if you can't see it!

Now we are looking at an example of brickwork on the 1740 section of the house.  It is called Flemish bond and is characterized by alternating the short end or header bricks with the long side, or stretchers. The headers are glazed which means they were fired closer to the heat source, which caused them to glaze over on that end. It produces a decorative effect and was popular in pre-revolutionary high style homes.

John Dickinson was a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, President of Delaware and President of Pennsylvania, and among the wealthiest men in the British American colonies. The mansion was his childhood home, and he returned there in later years. This is the front of the earliest section of the house with 2 wings to the left.  The next picture shows the front of the 1740 section, and then you can see from the back, the 1795 and 1800 smaller additions. The Dickinson Mansion is owned by the State of Delaware and is open to the public.

Founded in 1934, Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve is a great day trip from Delaware. Located near Washington Crossing Historic Park in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, it is a Spring wonderland of native flowers. My first picture is of a white Trillium and Virginia Bluebells from a trip a week ago to this quiet location on a naturalist led trip.

On 134 protected acres (you must go through electronic gates which open for cars, but not deer), Bowmans Hill showcases nearly 1000 species of rare, threatened and endangered native plants of the Delaware Valley Region.

Many are fascinated by the Trilliums, and the next picture is of a yellow variety, surrounded by the leafy umbrellas of May Apples. The naturalist had the interesting observation that the ones that bloom are the ones with two sets on one stem, while the single stemmed ones don't flower.

Originally part of Washington's Crossing Park, Pidcock Creek wanders through the Preserve into the Park.

Adjacent to Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve is Bowman's Hill Tower, which, legend says was the site of a lookout for Washington's scouts planning to cross the Delaware River. Of course, there was no tower there, but it was built around 1930 of native stone gathered in the area. WPA projects under Roosevelt's New Deal added massive amounts of tree and grounds work, creating 2 vistas from the Bowman's Hill Tower to the Delaware River.

Seen from the Preserve, the Tower is almost a tiny dot, and a winding, almost mountainous, one lane road led our van to the Tower.

In the early 1980's, an extensive restoration took place, and an elevator was installed. Now all you have to do is climb the last 23, narrow, stairs to the top. The view of Bucks County, New Jersey, and the Delaware River is well worth the effort. On our visit, some black tailed hawks launched themselves off the top of the tower and soared over the valley below.

Thanks go to the Delaware Center for Horticulture for giving us the opportunity to travel to this great natural area.

The village at Christiana Bridge on the Christina River was a major colonial shipping  port. It had been the landing site of the Marquis de Lafayette and 1500 troops in March of 1781. 

In 1775, the Continental Congress considered whether or not to declare independence so as to achieve the liberty and opportunity they were denied as British colonies. After a secret mission by Benjamin Franklin to France, that country almost immediately sent armaments and experienced senior officers to aid the colonies. Among them was Lafayette, who at the age of 29, volunteered his service to Rochambeau's French contingent.  

Judith Jennings has posted this historic marker in Christiana as one of her contributions to the historic character of Christiana. She and her husband have done cultural heritage research, and have also restored this Victorian home in the village.

Jennings is a member of the W3R(Washington, Rochambeau Revolutionary Route) committee, which commemorates the landing of Gen. Rochambeau in Newport RI in 1780 and his army's subsequent sailing to Yorktown VA, and thence marching through Virginia and Maryland, and through Christiana Delaware, as noted above in the Lafayette connection.

See http://www.w3r-us.org/history/hist-all.htm about W3R.                                                          Rochambeau's visit was commemorated in a visit in September 2006 to Delaware. I took this picture of  local committee members (Kim Burdick, the Delaware W3R chair is in the black suit) and a Rochambeau re-enactor and 2 representatives of the Robinson House museum in Claymont, Delaware at the dedication of a historic marker.

We here in the Brandywine Valley are lucky to have some great public gardens, which are the upside of it being the home since 1800 of the DuPont family and their black powder fortunes.

I recently visited Winterthur, the historic (1830 house with later additions adding rooms from all original 13 states) former home of Henry Francis duPont (1880-1969), Winterthur Museum and Country Estate. I can remember visiting the 60 acres of gardens when Mr. duPont was still alive, and seeing a slide show in the visitor's center which traced his daily walks through the grounds, pointing out to groundskeepers which walking paths should be open to lead to the horticultural stars in bloom that day.

Mr duPont is long gone, and most of the paths are open when the property is open to the public, unless they are in areas being renovated. Although most of the azaleas in local gardens are not yet in bloom, the estate has many Korean varieties which are at their peak now.

The Sundial Garden is a beautiful open space surrounded by winterhazels, quince, forsythia, and hellebores. Below is the area surrounding the Sundial Garden

 Flowering quince, below.