Monday, July 3, 2017

Monday, July 3, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2003. Mattie was a year and a half old and was visiting Boston. We took him to a play center with one of friend's from graduate school. She has a daughter around Mattie's age. Mattie truly wasn't sure what to make out of this whole experience. He found the ball pit a little overwhelming and he most definitely did not want other children around him while in this confined space. What I learned about Mattie was he had sensitivities to the world around him and thankfully with the help of an occupational therapist we nipped that issue in the bud. Which is why I am a strong believer in early interventions. After two years of therapy, you would never have known Mattie had any issues at all. 



Quote of the day: While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about. ~ Angela Schwindt

Today we drove to Ipswich and visited the Crane Estate.

Centuries before becoming a grand summer estate owned by one of America’s wealthiest families, Castle Hill was well known by Native Americans, who called the area Agawam, referring to its rich fishery. John Winthrop, Jr., son of the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, laid claim to Castle Hill in 1637. For more than two centuries, a succession of owners farmed the land. Beginning in the 1880s, J. B. Brown transformed Castle Hill Farm from an agricultural holding into a gentleman’s farm, improving roadways and plantings and renovating his modest farmhouse into a rambling, shingle-style cottage that is now The Inn at Castle Hill.

In the decades following Richard T. Crane, Jr.’s purchase of the property in 1910, Castle Hill came to exemplify the American Country Place Era with its farm and estate buildings, designed grounds and gardens, and diverse natural areas. 

 The Cranes hired some of the century’s most notable architects and landscape architects. The first house built atop Castle Hill, an Italian Renaissance Revival villa designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, was razed and replaced in 1928 with the 59-room Stuart-style mansion designed by architect David Adler you see today. The Great House is furnished with period antiques.

Peter and his parents. Believe it or not, this was the former summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Crane, Jr., the estate includes a historic mansion, 21 outbuildings, and designed landscapes overlooking Ipswich Bay. Put this into context, the Cranes are known for their bathroom fixtures!

This is an amazing backyard. One that I can't say I have ever seen before. This is one very long undulating hill down to the bay. It is considered a magnificent grass mall, 160 feet wide and lined with evergreens cascading from the top of the hill straight down to the water nearly half a mile away. Classical-style statuary flank this rolling hill at intervals. 

This is the sight from the end of that rolling hill. 

Crane hired the famous Olmsted Brothers, sons of Frederick Law Olmsted (creator of New York's Central Park, Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Boston's Emerald Necklace and others), to design the landscaping. By 1912, they had fashioned a series of ornate terraced gardens.

 Close up of some of the plantings.

I have never seen purple poppies, but they are beautiful aren't they?

 The gardens.

This afternoon we walked Sunny. Along our journey we received a visit from a monarch butterfly. He sat with us for quite a while, giving me the time to retrieve my camera from my purse.