Grumblethorpe Mysteries: Historic Home and Garden in Germantown

 

Historic Grumblethorpe on Germantown Ave. built in 1744 (photo source: www.nj.com)

Herb Garden (in April) off of the kitchen with sundial 

I began my internship with Grumblethorpe in April with the task of bringing some order to the herb garden, designing a pollinator garden for the students who come to learn about caterpillars and butterflies, 

and to add signs and design a brochure for visitors.  

It has evolved into a mystery solving expedition for me: 

What plants were grown here by the Wister family historically? 

and how to exemplify the fantastic exploration and scientific  

curiosity with weather, rare plants, minerals, bees, forests, and astronomy 

that was a part of the Wister homestead?

 A vegetable and formal bed beyond, with the ancient Ginko tree on the left

 Formal bed with boxwood-border bed and pergola gates

 The observatory Charles Wister built

After reading Suzanne Wister Eastwick's compilation of the family garden records, 

the mystery only deepened with descriptions of family ties to Academy of 

Natural Sciences collections, the first person recollections of the wild garden filled 

with collected orchid and fern species from the Wissahickon, 

the "Beemaster" with 25 hives who brought a swarm 9 miles to the house in a wheelbarrow, 

the amateur astronomer who built an observatory to watch eclipses and the transit of Mercury, 

as well as the interest in meteorology, designing of iron rain gauges and clock-making.

Chickens looking for a bite to eat

 Side path around original stone wall

Moving! (Not Far)

Yay sunlight!

Etsy For My Fantasy Home

Someday when I own a home I can decorate it anyway I like and if I had a limitless amount of money or alot of time to build it myself, it might look somethig like this:

20% off all items in both stores

This Weekend Only!

http://www.allisonostertag.etsy.com/

http://www.allisonspaintings.etsy.com/

Window Boxes and Sidewalk Planters

Window boxes around the neighborhood:

And planters on the sidewalk:

New Tote In Floral Fabric and Circles My mom said looked like the inside of the human body!

I decided to make a tote for myself for the summer and picked out the fabric, cut out the shapes, but had no working sewing machine, so I finally sewed it up last night when I visited my mom's house.

My mom said the inside looked like the inside of the human body, which it does kind of look like platelets and red blood cells, but it also reminds me of a watermelon with a green exterior and a pink interior.

Hopefully it will function well as a daily bag for work. I overdid it a bit buying fabric, so I could make about 20 in different colors, so I'll have plenty if I decid to make adjustments to the size or pockets...

Philly Photo Cards on Apartment Therapy.com

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/etsy-find-philly-photographs-084317

Wow, I'm so psyched to be featured on apartmenttherapy.com! I really like this site, they have the coolest spaces to look at and get ideas from and they feature stuff you will want to have, or at least post pictures up of.

TRIP TIPS: Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston was awesome, and I wanted to share some of the things to see and do on your visit:

Some basics: Charleston is on a peninsula surrounded by rivers, large islands and smaller barrier islands. It's an old southern city with historic homes, churches, great shopping (alt. shops: design, fabric, records, crafts, art, furniture, cupcakes), good, fresh local food (think of your favorite breakfast place, they have it too), coffee shops, beautiful flowers, parks, trees, a really green downtown and it's small enough to be walkable, but big enough you keep finding more things you haven't seen. I was there for 10 days, and I could go back for another week and find plenty to do.

Place to eat lunch: CRU CAFE

Right behind the red barn where the carriage rides begin, CRU had lunch for under $10 and the food looks and tastes amazing! Nice porch and house like interior to choose from.

Thing to Do: KAYAKING SHEM CREEK

Nature Adventure Outfitters had great, super friendly guides who really knew their stuff. Kathie, the owner, had lots of advice on which of the many locations to choose from (Shem Creek had the most birds to take pictures of and is the closest to Charleston, we walked across the bridge to get there) and Craig was probably one of the best guide I've ever had. We took a casual paddle down several creeks and back past shrimp boats (one was on Dirtiest Jobs) and pelicans, gulls and anhingas and learned about lightning whelks and horseshoe crabs. Oh, and they give a portion of their proceeds to environmental causes.

Things to See: JOSEPH MANIGAULT HOUSE

A nice quick tour of a beautiful house, with friendly and personable hosts. The plaster work on the ceilings is unbelievable, as is the furniture. The house has a rich history of different uses over the years and the family of ownership is interconnected with several of the other historic rich plantation owners in the area (it's like the Young and the Restless).

Place to stay: VACATION RENTALS.COM

There were only a few rentals to choose from, but staying in an apartment or cottage (as I did) is 100 x's better than staying in a tourist trap hotel. I was in a beautiful neighborhood close to the visitors center, trolleys, the Charleston Museum, shopping, the Aquarium, the library, restaurants and the college. The neighborhood is called Mazyck-Wraggborough. I had a great place with it's own courtyard with fountain, it's own kitchen, and a wonderful family who left snacks, fresh fruit, wine and banana bread.