Hello. Today is the first day of my 2015 Mount Vernon Life Guard Teacher Fellowship if you consider the "travel day" to be the first day. The first official day of my fellowship begins tomorrow. This afternoon I flew in from Kansas City on a pretty non-district flight - they way they all should be right?! I have been fortunate to visit Washington DC for many events over the past 10 years and when I am flying alone I always try to get the window seat. The views coming into DC never get old to me. Today my biggest thrill came from flying over a place I recently read about by chance. Last week I finished David McCullough's "The Wright Brothers" (great read by the way) and he describes the accident Orville Wright had in 1908 flying at Fort Myer just outside DC. Orville's passenger that day was Lt. Thomas Selfridge. He encountered a problem with the propeller and crashed to the ground - Orville was hurt pretty bad and Selfridge died - the first fatality in aviation history. It took place next to Arlington Cemetery (where Selfridge is buried today) and as we flew directly over I was struck by the act of flying over the site in a jet plane and considering myself extremely safe. Upon arriving at Mount Vernon I checked into the DeVos House, a residence built next to the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. It is an amazing residence to host scholars who are working on projects at the library. I feel honored to be able to call it home for the next several weeks. I will check to see if I can share pictures in a later blog post. It is very nice and as I type this I am sitting in a beautiful screened in porch off the residence with a gorgeous view of some woods.
Tonight's work area
After dinner I walked a little on the estate grounds and took some pictures of the gardens - both upper and lower. The gardens are one of my favorite parts of the estate and I highly recommend reading the newly published "The General in the Garden" edited by Susan P. Schoelwer if you have an interest in this subject. I took some pictures as the light started to fade away, a couple of videos and some photospheres.
Mount Vernon - the mansion
Mount Vernon - View of of the Potomac from the mansion
Mount Vernon - Lower Garden
In front of the mansion I did a quick Google Hangout with the family back home. The girls were excited to see the mansion and view of the Potomac. I plan on doing quite a few Google Hangouts with them to share as much as possible. In the future we'll be bringing the whole family out here for an extended vacation. Tomorrow is a big day. I have meetings with a variety of individuals from the library and I will learn more about utilizing the most extensive collection of research on the life of George Washington. I will try to post articles and share photos/videos of as much as possible. Thanks for visiting the blog.
Tonight after dinner I walked through the gardens on the estate and took a couple of videos.
During my week at Monticello one of the things I enjoyed most was seeing Jefferson's garden and learning a little more about his approach to gardening.
The mere sight of Jefferson's 1000 foot long garden at Monticello is impressive. The garden has been painstakingly reconstructed on the same site and is currently growing the same vegetables. I enjoyed walking through and seeing many of the same items we know grow in our own small family garden.
Jefferson is sometimes given erroneous credit for single handedly introducing certain vegetables to the United States, like the tomato. He did, however, help to advocate for increased popularity of some vegetables which were not common in the United States at the time. His garden at time would have definitely been a "revolutionary garden".
Sea Kale in Jefferson's garden at Monticello - July 2012
As you walk the garden it is impossible to not be touched by the beauty of the surroundings. The garden is built on the side of the mountain upon which Jefferson built Monticello with an amazing view looking out over the valley and the towering big mountain of Montalto keeping watch.
In addition to the garden, Jefferson also surrounded himself with beautiful flower beds and trees. The flower beds surrounding the house have a wide variety of species. He also had systems created to collect rainwater runoff to help water his plants.
Jefferson's flower beds at Monticello - July 2012
Jefferson's flower beds at Monticello - July 2012
If you visit Monticello I would recommend the garden tour. It was a very informative 45 minute tour and I learned a lot about Jefferson's involvement with plants on the grounds. I wanted to read up on the garden when I returned home so I purchased the book "A Rich Spot of Earth" by Peter Hatch. Hatch has been the gardener at Monticello since 1977. I highly recommend this book if you want to learn more about this topic. It is both a coffee table book with incredible photography and informative read with historical perspective and background on the types of vegetables grown. This book is a must if you have an interest in Jefferson's garden.
As I walked around Monticello last week I found myself thinking about how Jefferson would like use to remember him today if we could only focus on one of his talents. Would he like us to think of him as the one who crafted our most important document? Would he want us to think of him as an architect first as we wait for hours to take a tour of his 200+ year old house? Is he most proud of his contributions as a gardener? What of his ability to adapt and implement the inventions around him in an attempt to create a more comfortable and efficient life? I personally think his answer might vary from day to day but last week as I walked around his grounds I thought first of his ability to create a tranquil and beautiful place on this "rich spot of earth".
