I was flipping through my 2009 image files and came across some topics that hadn’t made it here. And now, as they say in Monty Python, for something completely different. This is not the Bergiemobile; it was one of a few totally decorated vans with different themes that were shown at a September fair at Smithville Park (Burlington County). This is where old cameras go.

On a late October visit to Meadowbrook Farm I found a splash of color defying the frosts.
The twelve public gardens of Meadowbrook near Abington PA were part of the estate of J. Liddon Pennock whose 100+ year-old family florist business served Philadelphia society and, in the early 70’s, the White House. He provided the flowers for the Tricia Nixon Cox wedding and also White House Christmas decorations. The land and the home, a magnificent Pennsylvania field stone house, were a wedding present from his father-in-law. (Not bad; mine just moved in with us.) We once strolled the gardens, pools and fountains at a Philadelphia Horticultural Society wine and cheese benefit. On another occasion we bid for a private luncheon at the home, benefitting the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was a gracious host to us complete strangers and it was a memorable experience. I can also picture him welcoming in a receiving line at a Longwood Garden Party, and padding around his greenhouses in work khakis. On his death at age 90 the gardens and green houses were bequeathed to the Hort, to which he had been an important contributor of funds and of self. I regretted his death, and the horticultural community suffered a great loss.
In late November I spent an afternoon at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge south of Smyrna, Delaware. Not much to see this time of year….marshes, salt ponds, fragmites, dead spartina, bare trees and Canada geese. Still, beautiful for those who grew up around the marshes. A definite destination soon when the migrations begin.

In early December I returned to Mauricetown, first to the firehouse antique show and then to the East Point lighthouse area. This old shed is on a tidal creek at the entrance to Mauricetown.

At the beach near East Point Light the wind was blowing out of the west and it was collllld!

By late in the day a lot of cloud cover had moved in, obscuring the hoped-for sunset. This view below was nice but underwhelming. So, I tried it with a Gold ‘n Blue polarizer and got a much more interesting image.
