I headed to the garden this morning, even though it was cold and raining, and it was so beautiful…as it always is, though every visit is a little bit different…for one thing, the fountain is all done!!

The Cherries are in bloom…

the volunteers are back to their Friday work sessions…

Today they planted pansies…

the allee is shaggy and wildly in bloom…

the crab apples across the street in Bush’s Pasture Park (many planted by Lord and Schryver as a sort informal test garden) are in bloom, over 25 varieties in that little corner of the park…

blossoms and fallen blossoms are everywhere…

but today I came bearing gifts.  Staunch garden supporter David Specht found these two books in a Newport thrift store…

the first was Elizabeth Lord’s Chaucer text book when she was a high school student at St. Helen’s Hall (now called the Oregon Episcopal School), class of 1904…

The second book a guide to Holland given to Lord by Amy Ballard in June of 1927,

just before she set off on the three month tour of European gardens.  It was on this trip that Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver met and began imagining a landscape architecture practice in Salem, Oregon.  David’s sharp eye has provided the Conservancy with a couple of treasures.  (Note: the Lords had a beach house in nearby Seal Rock, just a stone’s throw from Newport.)  Thank you David!