Home & Garden Day

I don't think I can remember a Home & Garden Day with nicer weather than this year's event. It wasn't pouring; it wasn't sweltering. Instead it was sunny and warm, and we had a great time, hitting five of the eight spots along the Kennett Pike corridor.
What a variety of houses! We toured photographer Jim Graham's charming home/gallery (impeccably tidy), an imposing country manor house (loved the white roses climbing up the stonework), a splendid garden designed by Danilo Maffei, and an Arts and Crafts-style house with a salt-water swimming pool. I think my favorite stop was the final house we visited, where vivid modern artwork shared wall space with nineteenth-century family portraits and photographs of the homeowner's political colleagues.
The food is always a bonus on this tour, and this year, whether by coincidence or design, the theme was mushrooms. We had mushroom crepes (from Portabello's), mushroom dip (the Kennett Square Inn), and mushroom ravioli (La Verona); we also enjoyed chocolate chip biscotti from Sinclair's Sunrise Café and very welcome iced coffee from Starbucks. The coffee station was manned by my dear friend, Ed Fahey, and his wife, Sue, who landed a plum assignment next to a quiet little pond.
The directions and signs were excellent, the parkers were friendly and efficient and the tour guides did a great job making sure we saw all the highlights.
At the final house the parker told us that our Jeep was just the right size to fit into the stone center island of the cul-de-sac. So at his request we parked there, and as we left he told us that people were much amused at the sight.
I doff my straw hat to the library's super-organized Special Events Committee, who set the standard for these house tours. As always, the event is a fundraiser for children's programs at the Bayard Taylor Library in Kennett.