Philadelphia Flower Show 2026- Doorways

This is another set of entries in a category in the Standard Flower Show at the Philadelphia Flower Show. The category is "Doorway - Hidden Histories." It's supposed to be a "wreath and container collection designed to welcome and inform visitors, inspired by an obscure or little-known historical event."

There were 5 entries, and two of them got white ribbons for 4th place. This is "The First Lady Visits Winterthur," by two individuals. The intent says, "Jackie Kennedy is coming to visit our estate... we are just so happy and proud."

The judges said the entry missed the chance to showcase more of the estate's plant material and the plantings lacked height.

I might agree. Let's just say this didn't move me in any particular way.

The other fourth place is "The Lavender Scare" by Shipley School Sprouts. The intent says "the lavender scare was a mid-20th century attempt to purge homosexuals from the federal government."

The judges said they took on the theme with dignity, and liked the diversity of the plants, but not the sizes and numbers of them.

I agree with the judges. The arrangement of the pots did not make good use of the space.

Yellow was taken by "Forest Fore!" by Moorsetown Garden Club. The intent says, "a Charleston golfer reflects on his sport's roots... and he's proud to be part of its history."

The judges said the clubs and the "4" on the door clearly show that a golfer lives there, and the plant selection was representative of Charleston, but they wanted more.

I agree that the plants are great, but it's awfully symmetric, and it had stiff competition as you'll see next.

Second place is "To Heligan and Back," by the Spade and Trowel Garden Club. The intent says, "in 1990, two men are poised to revive Helegan Gardens... [in] Cornwall."

Judges liked everything except the rake. They said the plants were authentic and cohisive and invite exploration, but that the rake was out of place.

I liked this one best. And if the men are "poised" to revive the garden, a rake in the doorway makes sense to me. I love how they filled the space with a variety of heights and shapes.

First place went to "Mary Gibson Henry: Pioneering Botanist," by the Garden Club of Philadelphia. The intent states "Mary gazes at spring unfolding... field botanist, explorer, collector of nearly 8000 specimens."

The judges called it a "captivating expression." They called the overall effect "rustic chic" that makes the viewer want to enter.

I do like this one a lot. I just like the one that took second place better.

Today was busy- more busy for Marie. She did stuff all morning, and I woke up leisurely and then edited till she got home. We cooked, we did some errands, we played our game. Then we went and visited Selma for a while and put together a small puzzle. She cant see to do it, but it gave us something to talk about. We helped her put in the last piece.

It was cold and windy outside. No walking occurred.

See PFS 2026- The Wright Way

Esopus Bend Nature Preserve

Today, Marie and I took a hike that was more like a "real" hike. We'd been concerned about getting in a lot of mud with the rains, so we've mostly stayed on hardened trail. But today we were more adventurous. We've hiked here together before, but not since 2012! Marie hikes here a lot because it's a good conditioning hike near her house.

Just a reminder- New York is not Michigan. Of course I love that there are rocks.

We did the loop with the biggest hill twice. Just to make us feel "at home" on the trail, this part of the hill has lots of roots.

Part of the trail is along Esopus Creek. I choose to show you this part at the bend, where there is a nose of rock that comes down to the water.

This was the place where I first learned about oriental bittersweet, an invasive that chokes entire trees. I've shown it from other locations many times, but it's still here.

Just a hint of spring- the skunk cabbage was up in the low areas. We found a bit of mud, but didn't get into anything too awful.

We even saw a lovely fungus- cinnabar polypore- which I've encountered a few times, but not too often.

We got to watch this guy for quite a few minutes. I do think it's a male because it's mature but rather small.

And this is fun! I also saw this plant the last time I was here, and after some checking today came to the same conclusion I did 14 years ago. This is lesser pyrola or lesser wintergreen, Pyrola minor. It's related to shinleaf which is more common. Here are the leaves.

And the dried fruits from last year.

What a great hike! And I'm not super tired. I feel as if I'm starting to get in shape. It was in the mid thirties, but not windy or damp and clammy, so it didn't feel nasty. There was even a little sun.

We managed to make this take quite a bit of time what with fooling around to look at things. We did odds and ends in the afternoon and went to a Scout fundraising dinner in the evening.

Miles walked in 2026: 92.9

Esopus Bend Nature Preserve, Ulster County, NY. All miles except the Meadow Paths. Some twice. 5.1 miles.

See Amazing Oriental Bittersweet See Lesser Pyrola

Philadelphia Flower Show 2026- The "Wright" Way

Today I'll share another of the major exhibits. This was created by the Lakeside School. It places two Frank Lloyd Wright houses back to back: Falling Waters and Talieson West. The explanation says "by integrating both [native plants and water with xeriscaping and water-conscious plantings] Wright's work paved the way for landscaping in the 21st Century."

This side is Falling Waters with the water and plantings.

And more of the architecture.

The other side was Talieson West. This was rather stunning. I've been to Falling Waters, but not Talieson West. I would think I'd like Falling Waters better, but the starkness of the xeriscape and the bright color is nifty too.

Here are the plantings along the rest of the front of this side.

I don't think this one even tried to get anything in about roots.

Today was almost all about needed stuff. We grocery shopped for hours, put it all away (fresh produce takes a lot of time), cooked dinner, made banana bread. I edited, we played our game. The weather was dreary and drippy.

See PFS- Community: Where We Garden

Amazing Ashokan

The morning today was just about as close to perfect of a hike as you can get. You know, right, that if there are 10 things that make a perfect hike and you get all 10 of them, it's a dream. Wake up. Nine would be amazing, probably 6 is about normal for a good hike. This was close to a 9. I guess you could wish for blue water instead of ice (but then we would have missed one of the most interesting things). You might have wanted natural surface and that we would have actually seen the eagle. But this was seriously wonderful.

The weather was great. Mid fifties, warming a bit more before we finished. We had gorgeous views. We got to watch something really interesting. I managed to ID some of the surrounding mountains. We met an interesting couple and had a surprising interaction with another man.

Marie took me out to the Ashokan Reservoir where we hiked once seven years ago (link at end). The reservoir was built in the early 1900s to provide water to New York City. This trail used to be a road, but was closed and turned into a trail when a new road farther from the water was built. This is the view east, and I think the jagged peaks are Snake Rocks.

But not so fast. First we tried to do another piece of the Ashokan Rail Trail. I had not been on that before. However, the piece that has views of the reservoir was totally ice covered, and we opted not to do that. We walked a bit the other direction. This is one of the old mile markers indicating 16 miles to Kingston.

But we wanted to see the water, so we turned around and went to a different trailhead. You can see what a beautiful day it was!

The whole edge of the reservoir is lined with native rock. It makes dizzying patterns.

Our first interesting people encounter was with a man to whom we said, "Good morning." He countered with, "Why is it a good morning?" I don't think anyone has ever asked me that before at least after the casual greeting! I quickly said, "Because I am hiking with my best friend and it's a beautiful here."

This is South Mountain (which is west of the reservoir) on the right, and the larger one is Ashokan High Point which is the tallest peak surrounding the reservoir on the left. Ashokan is 3,081 feet tall.

This is perhaps my favorite view from the Reservoir. The little nipple to the right of center is, I'm pretty sure, Slide Mountain which is the high point in the Catskills at 4180 feet. The eastern terminus of the Finger Lakes Trail has been extended to there, but I've not yet done that new piece. It will be an all-day hilly hike to get from the last parking area to the new terminus. At least 8 miles total. In front of that is Cornell Mountain with, I think, Samuels Peak in the front left.

This is the roadway that crosses near the middle, and I'm pretty sure the peak in the background (these are all part of the Catskill Mountains) is Ticetonyk (TICE-tun-ike) which is from the name Mattias TenEyk who owned it.

We walked all of the roadway today. This was where we watched the most interesing thing. The ice is breaking up, and there is one of the arches of that bridge where water is flowing from one side of the reservoir to the other. There were slabs of ice being swirled around in a huge circle on the downstream side. You can see a few in the picture above. It was like watching plate tectonics speeded up. We watched the slabs (plates) hitting each other. Sometimes one would go beneath the other (subduction). Sometimes the lower one would be tilted upright and some even flipped completely over. It was fascinating. I began to realize how big slabs of rock could get tilted and even flipped.

We even saw some mergansers.

Walking back to the car we met a couple who were training to walk the Camino de Santiago (in Spain) in the fall. (They were wearing backpacks and I asked if they were getting ready for a hike). The man has walked all of the Appalachian Trail, and they plan to walk the Superior Hiking Trail next year. They also have some other trails in Europe in mind because their son lives in Zurich. We traded stories and names.

We saw an eagle nest, but not the birds. The ice patterns were artistic. We saw an air boat that almost certainly belongs to New York City Department of Environmental Protection (which operates the reservoir) going over the ice to reach a buoy of some kind (water sampling?).

What a wonderful day! It rained in the afternoon, but that's OK. We played our game, fixed dinner, read a little in the book we are currently sharing, and then I had a Zoom meeting.

Miles walked in 2026: 87.8

New York, Ashokan Reservoir Rail Trail 1.2 miles, and Ashokan Promenade 4.2 miles. Total 5.4 miles.

See Ashokan Reservoir Hike

More Empire State Trail Connections

Marie was tired today, but she spotted me to walk two more little sections of the Empire State Trail. The first was a roadwalk from where we turned around two days ago down to Rondout Creek (really a river). There was sidewalk for most of the way, so it wasn't a big deal but not very scenic until I reached the creek. This is Rondout Creek leading to the Hudson River.

The bridge carries Road 9W, and there was a barge coming down the river just for me!

Then we skipped a piece because I had walked it previously, although more interesting things made it on the blog when I did that (two years ago, I think). The link below is on Rondout Creek when we toured a tall ship, and saw the steamboat Mathilda. These are right along the trail.

So we drove to the top of the hill near Marie's church, and I also walked the next little piece. Marie walks this section a lot, so she didn't care if she missed it today. It's actual trail, off road although not too picturesque.

The best part of that section is a tunnel. It is much older than the trail, and delightfully cool inside. The temperature this afternoon got to 78° and I'm sure not used to that yet!

I wanted to walk a little bit today after our 6 miles yesterday. I hate to admit it, but at 77, I have a harder time building up my stamina in the spring. But I feel good about doing even a little walking today after the longish warm walk of yesterday.

Marie has flowers in her garden! Snowdrops...

...and crocus.

Don't worry, you'll eventually get to see lots of Flower Show. But when I'm hiking new-to-me trails, I want to share them. I've now hiked continuous pieces of the Empire State Trail from the Walgreens in Kingston to the east side of the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, about 8.5 contiguous miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 82.6

Empire State Trail, two disconnected pieces in Kingston, NY. 2.0 miles.

We are going to try to hike a piece in the morning, but it's supposed to rain in the afternoon.

See Bits and Pieces