============================================================ COOL TRAVEL MAIL'S G A R D E N J O U R N E Y S Let Us Show You What's Blooming! ============================================================ http://www.CoolTravelMail.com Saturday, May 12, 2001 Dear Garden Lovers and Travelers, I love William Wadsworth Longfellow's description of nightfall: "Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels." And, poet James Russell Lowell's description of a dandelion: "Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way, Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold." Beautiful. Although anyone who spends time working on their lawn might not agree the little yellow flower is so harmless. But, you may be asking, why have I quoted these two New England poets back-to-back? So what do these wonderful observers of nature's beauty have in common? Simple, you can find them both at today's garden destination. Join me; you'll see what I mean. Today's headlines include: * MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY, MA * BUDS, BIRDS AND BURIAL PLOTS * GOODBYE GARDEN FAMILY - MY LAST ISSUE ----------------------------------------------------------- MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY, MA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As long-time Garden Journeys readers know, the places we create to memorialize our dead are often enchanting tributes to the beauty of nature and living things. That's definitely the case with Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA, just a few minutes from Harvard Square. Mount Auburn is America's first garden cemetery, a public burial ground opened in 1831 as an antidote to cramped and less-than-charming urban graveyards. It sprawls like an endless park around 170 acres of gently sloping, tree-covered hills connected by immaculately maintained grass walkways with names like Amethyst, Chickadee and Snowflake Path. Colorful azaleas and magnolias accent the shores of Mount Auburn's three lakes. In 1851, a writer with The North American Review described the earliest incarnation of the grounds this way: "It affords every variety of soil and elevation which trees or flowers would require, with streams and meadows, from which ponds may be made for plants which love the water. The plants of every climate may find there a suitable home. It might be thought that would require many years to cover it with verdure; but nature has anticipated this objection; it being already clothed with trees and shrubs of almost all descriptions which grow in this part of the country." The full text of that description is available at Gardenvisit.com. (http://www.gardenvisit.com/got/18/20.htm) An unofficial arboretum, Mount Auburn has more than 2,500 trees, even after loosing several hundred during a blizzard in 1997, according to an article on the Boston CitySearch site: http://boston.citysearch.com/feature/11806/) There are more than 500 different species, including a giant weeping European beech that measures 22 feet in diameter, and a plume sawara false cypress that towers 80 feet above the ground, according to CitySearch. The cemetery provides maps to visitors that list the locations of dozens of its finest shady specimens. You can pick one up at the main gate at 580 Mount Auburn St. off Route 16 near the border of Cambridge and Watertown. For hours and other information, call Mount Auburn at 617-547-7105. ------------------------------------------------------------ BUDS, BIRDS AND BURIAL PLOTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Spring is a wonderful time to visit Mount Auburn. That's when its tens of thousands of perennials and flowering trees begin to bloom, and an incredible variety of bird life returns from its winter migration to fill the grounds with song. Garden lovers should note that the planting scheme involves as many as 10,000 bulbs and more than 40,000 annual plants. Bird lovers should note that Mount Auburn is a very popular place for viewing our feathered friends. In fact, Friends of Mount Auburn, a volunteer organization that works to improve the cemetery, is primarily a birding group. Author an avid bird watcher James H. Barton leads some of the tours hosted by the Friends group. You can take one of his tours - virtually - by clicking through his three-web-page account of a visit to Mount Auburn: http://www.virtualbirder.com/vbirder/onLoc/onLocDirs/BOSSPR/pa/mtauburn/Moun tAuburn1.html If that link is too long to work for you, try going to http://www.virtualbirder.com and follow the links. So, what kind of birds can you spot at Mount Auburn? Everything from red-tailed hawks, ospreys and great horned owls to white-throated sparrows and ruby-throated hummingbirds. You can find Kentucky warblers, American goldfinches, Baltimore Orioles, Louisiana water thrushes, Philadelphia vireos, American kestrels and Canada geese. Complete listings of birds spotted on the cemetery's grounds are posted by the Friends group at http://www.virtualbirder.com/vbirder/onLoc/onLocDirs/BOSSPR/bg/mtauburn/Bird s.html, and by a Massachusetts bird-watching group at http://massbird.org/LocalLists/MtAuburn.htm. ------------------------------------------------------------- GOODBYE GARDEN FAMILY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I write this edition of Garden Journeys with a heavy heart. The "new economy", is dictating that our time is through. You are reading the final issue of Garden Journeys. CooltravelMail has been purchased by a larger entity that unfortunately feels that this newsletter does not fit within it's current business model. Any parting of the ways can involve sadness. That's especially true when it comes to families. And you, my garden readers, have become part of my family. That's why it is so hard to say goodbye. I've had lots of fun over the last year, visiting and sharing some of the most beautiful places in the world. I would continue if I could. Right now, the opportunity doesn't exist. Someday, I hope to be on the Internet again, making friends and sharing my love of travel and gardens. When that day comes, I hope we can renew our acquaintance. Please feel free to email me to say goodbye. It would mean a lot. You can still find me at <a href=" mailto:Donna@CoolTravelMail.com ">Email Donna</a> for the next few weeks. After that, I'll be at <a href=" mailto:dlbpierce@twcny.rr.com ">Email Donna</a> Thank you - all of you - for your kind praise, your words of encouragement and, most of all, your interest in what I have to say. Seek serenity, pursue inner peace and....keep those thumbs green! Your editor, Donna Kath <mzmouser@earthlink.net> ~`* `*' `*' `* `*' `*' *' `*' *' `*' `* `*' *' `*' ~~~