These civic groups organizing this event are all thriving, and the docents we met throughout the day seemed to be greatly enjoying themselves. It is a celebration of all the things Edenton - which calls itself "the South's prettiest small town" - is passionate about: art and gardening and history. The tour of 20 private gardens featured area artists painting en plein air in many of the gardens, as well as groups of musicians scattered throughout. The Renaissance Consort was set up under a trellis at the Cupola House, and I sat in apparently the only empty chair available and listened to them play for awhile.
What a treat to wander through the three gardens at the Cupola House - the orchard, the herb garden, and the pleasure garden - and take photos while Renaissance instruments played in the background.
We had lunch at 309 Bistro (309 South Broad Street), and since the tour did not begin until 1:00 p.m., Martha had time for some shopping while I found a book store and a cup of Earl Gray tea; we met at the Cupola House and then proceeded to the Penelope Barker House, which also had a wonderful display of orchids indoors. It amazes me how different orchids look from one another, some of them delicate creatures like this:
And some of them bright, vivid splashes of color that look a lot like some of the garden flowers we were seeing outside.
I took too many photos to post on this blog, many of them illustrating things we would like to do with our own gardens back home, especially create more secluded areas and "garden rooms." Martha noticed that many of the gardens were not perfect; they contained weeds, and the dirt was often not bordered with walls or fences but simply tapered into lawns, which also were not perfect. The gardens at places like the Biltmore House, and in many homes in Highlands which we have toured, are unrealistically manicured; these gardens were clearly worked in and loved by the gardeners who tended them.
The tour meandered down King Street and Queen Street, east and west, and we saw haphazard plots in the shade and more formal gardens with fountains and statues. The dogwoods were in full bloom.
And the azaleas were simply beautiful, also just at the peak of their beauty in a Spring that seems to be about three weeks ahead of Highlands. We used to have some azaleas, near our bay window, and can't remember exactly what happened to them, but now we want to plant some more.
At the Cofield House on East King Street, we saw a long serpentine brick wall bordering the rear garden from the adjoining one (my photos did not do it justice). And this white wisteria was out front dangling over the sidewalk. I learned that this wisteria is depicted in Monet's Japanese bridge at Giverny.
Painters were set up here and there, but they seemed to be so concentrated in their tasks that we hesitated to approach and talk to them. This horse-drawn carriage was circulating through the area and we went around the block behind the patient, stolid horse named Durk, and two nice local ladies.
This staghorn fern seemed to be growing from a cleft in a tall pine tree, somewhere along Queen Anne Creek - the Gettinger or the Elliott place, I think.
And it was right about here that I reluctantly stopped to take a picture of these two little fellows - pugs, if I am not mistaken, being transported from garden to garden in a double stroller. We have loved more than one dog in our lives, but I am not a fan of small dogs, especially those who require strollers for transportation. But I had to admit that "Winky" and "Twinky" - rescues both - were more endearing than most. ("Winky" has only one eye.)
These gardens gave us so many ideas that it made us want to return to our own gardens, which we left neatly prepared for plants upon our return. Here was a humble, unique use for a bathtub:
And then there were the old mansions, the antebellum homes which have somehow escaped fire and flood, the stately old dowagers standing under hundred-year-old trees.
The last stop on our tour was the home of local artist Robin Sams. We have a special connection to Robin because she and her husband owned a little place here in Duck 18 years ago called "Peace and Plenty," (a name which we have adopted for our own home in Clear Creek), the first house we ever stayed in out here. We introduced ourselves and she seemed pleased to hear that the little home she and her husband had labored on over the years inspired us in so many ways. "It was a name of a place we stayed at in the Bahamas," she told us. "And then a farm that we owned after that." Her husband, she said, talked her into selling the Duck house at the height of the market for a sum of money that could not be turned down, but, sadly, the new owners tore the little house down and built a 10-bedroom rental on the site. What a beautiful house Peace and Plenty was in our memories, though! Its walls were decorated with huge paintings by Robin.
Robin's house in Edenton is right on the water. We noticed that she has some lettuce planted between the flowers and wondered how they survived the rabbits; but then we met first one and then a second stately cat prowling the grounds fearlessly. One of the flowerbeds contained this whimsical pony.
At 5:00 p.m., the tour ended, and we returned to the Cupola House to listen to excellent jazz by a black man with a muted trumpet and a keyboard, and they began passing plates of hors d'oeuvres. We stayed as long as the drive back to Ocean Watch made prudent.
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