Garden Tour

There are several garden tours in my area every summer. I got hooked on them when I was designing a garden for our home. I wanted to have a pond so I paid particular attention to garden ponds and asked loads and loads of questions of the garden owners – do you leave the fish in there all year long? Yes, but you must keep the bubbler going so the fish can get oxygen. The fish go dormant as do the plants. As the water warms up in the spring, both fish and plants begin to awake and begin the cycle again.

The hospitable gardeners who open their garden for visitors to trample through each summer are some of the most generous people on earth. They’ll pull up a bit of a perennial plant and give it to you to thrive in your garden. There are many plants in my garden that were started this way.

I went to two this summer. In my area these garden tours are annual events and are usually fund raisers for the organizations who sponsor them. The ones I attended this season were sponsored by the Historical Society and the other was sponsored by the Science Museum – both vital local organizations.

I happened to miss the one that is my favorite, because of a conflicting commitment. That one is called the Notable Garden Tour – notable, because there are musicians in every garden. This show is sponsored by the Greece Performing Arts Society. This organization believes that gardening is a performing art – and rightly so. Therefore, live music in every garden as well as an artist who is doing some plein aire water color or sketching with charcoals or some other type of easel art. They also provide snacks in each garden at this show. Snacks provided by our local mega grocery. You can see why this one is my favorite.

More Traditions

Baby showers usually have a prescribed schedule of events. There are generally no surprises. People arrive bearing appropriately wrapped (in nursery themed paper with ribbons or rattles attached) gifts, they mingle a bit, possibly have a glass of punch and a canape', may have a light lunch, the new mom - to - be opens gifts, holding them up or passing them around for all to see. They may pull a number for a door prize or a game may be played for which there is a prize for the winner. Opening of gifts continues until there are no more to open. Then there may be coffee and cake and good-byes. End of shower.

At the baby shower I attended on Sunday, a request was made to bring an unwrapped gift!!! The gifts were carefully displayed on a table. They were arranged at differing heights, so that all were visible in their wonderful nakedness. There was noshing and mingling and examination of gifts. The new mom was not relegated to a chair away from her guests. She was part of the noshing and mingling.  There also was a not - so - light lunch.

       In the background, guests are examining the baby gifts displayed on the table.

And the "game" for which there were no winners prizes was all laid out on another large table. It was more fun than any game I ever played at any other shower. There were piles of white blank onesies, tee shirts, and bibs, accompanied by containers of various colors of fabric markers. The guests personalized, with their own artwork, one or more of these for the new baby. It's a baby boy this couple are expecting so there were kites, trains, dress shirts with ties, turtles, and toy boats, etc. all hand painted and signed by the guests.

The gifts artfully displayed on the table - is what reminded me of a tradition that I had not remembered in years.   Watching DOWNTON ABBEY, I saw wedding gifts arriving at the bride's home in the days preceding the wedding. These were then artfully displayed until the wedding was over.

Couples received gifts in advance of the wedding. It was considered gauche to bring a wrapped gift to the wedding. It was, however, socially acceptable to bring a card with a cash gift and usually there was a discretely placed container for this purpose. Today this tradition is almost entirely the card/cash with a not-so-discretely placed box in which to place them.

I had almost forgotten these wedding traditions until I noticed them on DOWNTON ABBEY. Gone are the days of receiving a place setting of silverware or a place setting of china or of crystal or a beautiful vase. People do not live with that formality any longer. Life is much more casual today. And of the "throw away" variety. It's stainless steel forks, everyday tableware from Target and plastic glasses. When the dishes get chipped or there is a nicer pattern of stainless steel flatware, it's back to Target to replace the old with a brand new (expendable) set.

It was not so with the china, crystal, silverware crowd of DOWNTON ABBEY. Oftentimes those possessions were passed down to the next generation (becoming heirlooms) - they lasted - they had substance - they had value.

Sometimes this makes me a little sad....................