Christmas Traditions - Jim Smith on Piano in Drawing Room

Time is counting down and there is only one more day of the Christmas Traditions theme at Kingwood Center.    Last night was a lot of fun volunteering in the house.  Kathy M and Mary Lou M (my neighbor cross the street) were both there with me.  Same crew as day after Christmas.  Unfortunately is was slow from 5:30 to 6:00, but that gave the three of us time for a fun visit.  Once visitors come, we place ourselves one upstairs (me), one in the assembly room (Mary Lou) and Kathy was the greeter - money/ticket taker.   Sometimes the hostesses switch shifts on the hour, but this system worked for us last time, so we stuck with it.  

Well, while I had abandoned my post upstairs, it turns out the Grinch came and took just one light from the Christmas tree in the Drawing Room.  Of course that made the whole strand go out.  John Makley put Doug McCraken to work on it as the guest entertainer  Jim Smith was fixin to play the piano for our musical enjoyment right there in the drawing room.  This room gave me my second scare of the season, just like at the Christmas party.  As I was talking to Jim, I saw movement at behind the tree and almost screamed as at first I overlooked Doug  as a manikin.  First Jim and I played the game what is wrong with this tree.  Jim got it first, I had to be told.  Then I blinded Doug M with my picture flash.  After that, Doug M went back to work.  Tree issue was resolved,  visitors started to arrive, and Jim started to play. 


The music was lovely and Jim took requests from the visitors.  Everyone commented on how much they enjoyed his playing.  I was lucky to have been scheduled to volunteer during his performance as it was rescheduled from December 12, cancelled due to ice.  Here is a link to his web site.  I looked it up this morning and copied this part as I found it interesting.


  Jim Smith

Jim recently released an album, under the pen name of Brandon St. James (www.brandonstjames.com) which features 12 of his original compositions. The recording, “Only Dreamers Understand” covers such a wide variety of musical styles (pop, folk, ballads, jazz) that it’s hard to narrow down into a description of just one musical style. A multi-instrumentalist and experienced session musician, Jim plays all of the instruments on the recording (except for drums on 4 of the selections), and covers all of the vocal parts – including the backing harmonies.

Winter Wonderland Tour - Interest in the Winter Garden

A tour of the grounds, showcasing areas and plants with a winter interest.  Resceduled from earlier in the month due to too much snow along with ice.  Just Kathy M and I showed up for the walk.  Considering both of us are already familiar with roaming the gardens, John Makley was a good sport to take us out tromping through the snow anyway.  Bonnie H would have probably been on the tour as well, but she was hostessing in the house at that time, scheduled to do that before the tour was rescheduled.  The walk took us through the woodland garden, perennial garden and up through the terrace garden.  The terrace garden, close to the fountain, is where I took this paperbark picture.

Kathy M was interested in the winter color of dogwood. 

I found an appreciation for winter willow.  I may not have an opinion on willow in summer, but the reddishness of the branches make it stunning in winter.  Kingwood has nice clusters of willow.  Is it called a cluster?  Maybe grouping?  Anyway this is an eye catching patch of willow.  It is cut down to the ground every year and regrows to this height

Among other things, we noticed oak trees keep some of their leaves, although brown and dead on their branches.  Blue Spruce can easily be overlooked in summer, but stands out in a winter scape. Grasses can be left standing to give visual interest.  Also learned why the rhododendron curls its leaves in winter.  It is to conserve water by reducing the leave surface exposed for evaporation.  Huh.

At the end of the tour, John let me view a book by Rosemary Verey titled The Garden in Winter for some additional reading.  It also has gorgeous pictures. 

Duck Angel

Christmas Eve Day is a magical time.  Here I caught a picture of a duck angel hovering over the duck pond.

Christmas Traditions - Home for the Holidays in Drawing Room

Decorated by Late Bloomers Garden Club.  During the open house, we had the pleasure of hearing Charles Applegate play.  Though I couldn't get a picture then, he played twice more and so, I was able to get a snapshot.  The piano isn't an original, but what a nice addition for times like this.  The decoration of this room must have been a collaborative effort because of the businesses thanked for lending many of the posed family members from places about town.

So this is how I think this must play out, here is a little girl looking out at the deer looking in.  It must have been a reindeer checking things out because when I went back Rudolph was looking in the window.

As I hostessed in the house, I saw how much the little ones really loved this room.  It depicted a traditional family Christmas, which showcased some of their favorite things about the season.  They squealed when they would see the deer looking in and one little boy came up to me so very excited that he saw Santa's legs in the fireplace.  He wanted to make sure that I knew Santa was there.  And I guess Santa was checking to see and deemed me nice this year since my membership card came to me laminated.

Christmas Workshops

As I mentioned a few times already, I had attended the Kingwood workshop to make a Christmas wreath.  Kay Hostettler led the class and I had  good fortune to be able to sit next to and collaborate with Nancy P.  A picture of my partially assembled wreath.  We got to choose either a sugar or plain apple and gold or silver theme.

Another time, I was hostessing in the house and also was able to take some pictures of the Snowman Mug Workshop. This was a child/parent workshop.  Carol A started the workshop off with a great Russian Christmas story and some active songs.  She sure knows how to get the attention of a crowd of kids and parents alike.  Since my son has been grown a while, it reminded me of what seems now like long ago story times.  

Bill Collins directed the kids on how to get started.  I was in awe with some of their arrangements as a child's creativity puts mine to shame.  For some reason, nearly every kid there was able to create a better bow than I had in my workshop.  Oh well. 

Christmas Traditions - An Old Fashioned Christmas Diner in Dining Room

Designed by the Art of Gardening of Ashland.

The garden club used images of Father Christmas to transport visitors back in time.  Of course, they also had the perfect room to accomplish the feat.   The Dining Room, now used as a board room remains similar to how it was in the 30's and 40's.  The wall paper is hand printed and was imported from France especially for this room.  Chandeliers and sconces are Waterford crystal and the chairs are 19th century.  Of course Mr. King's china, crystal and flatware are settings for the table.

Snow

I love that sticky wet snow that clings to the trees (and in the right temperatures makes a good snowman).  It has its drawbacks though.  As in if you have to shovel it or drive in it.  Unfortunately a sticky snow fall occurred on the day scheduled for the Interest in the Winter Garden Tour and it had to be rescheduled to the 26th. I did get out to the gardens soon afterward to get a winter photo in the perennial garden.

I am aware of the damages freezing ice can have on tree branches, but I guess I didn't realized that the snow can be damaging as well, until I noticed the guys were diligently removing the heavy snow from the hedges.  My arms were aching just watching them push the snow with brooms.  As I fed the ducks, it seemed they made quick work of it and moved on to another project.