Friday, June 8 was my BD..the big five-O for those of you who are very curious types. Baird planned a day long excursion to surprise me. After we went to the Registry of Motor Vehicles to renew my license (which I had managed to put off for the entire month and it was due to expire on that very day) we went to breakfast and then headed out to the eastern part of Massachusetts. For my birthday, he wanted me to pick out ornamentation for my new gardens, and so he had scouted out a garden center that specializes in water gardens and has a huge selection of garden ornamentation (in fact other than water plants, the entire place is statuary and garden ornaments). The place is Hardwicke's in Westboro, Mass. From the busy highway this place looks like a quaint old fashioned, small garden center with some interesting statuary, but once we parked and walked through the gates we saw that it stretches way back, even into adjacent woods. We strolled around the extensive grounds looking at several water gardens and stone, glass, cement & metal items of every sort. It was as we wandered down a woodland path, where ornamentation is displayed along the trail that I spotted 2 items I particularly liked, two peafowl. Both made of dark metal, one was a peacock and the other a peahen. Life sized and full bodied they were stunning, even among the bushes and fallen leaves. We carried the peacock out of the woods and set him up adjacent to a water garden feature, as that is where he would be strutting his stuff in my garden. Wow, he looked amazing. Then Baird went back into the woods and carried out the peahen and set her down. I was trying to decide between them when we decided not to split the pair and carried them both up to the main building to claim them as ours. So that is how Harriet and Calvin (named after the Beecher-Stowe's) came to live at Sweetside. It was raining yesterday so I have not yet taken their picture so you'll have to wait for the next post for that (ah the suspense). Oh, and they are handmade in Zimbabwe. More on that later too.
After Hardwicke's we went on to Marlboro for a Brazilian buffet. If you live near a Brazilian community and you have not tried this, ohhhhh my, you simply must!! Stuffed full and stocked up on Guarana soda and other Brazilian grocery items, we travelled on back roads (including some dirt ones) up to Lincoln to the deCordova Sculpture Park, where we trotted around soaking up inspiration. I am in the planning and gathering stages of building a large metal mobile to be hung from the big maple tree in my backyard.
Pictures here are from the back roads (Marlboro to Lincoln) and the deCordova. Enjoy!!
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