Autumn bliss
The lovely view from my apartment.
I went up to Georgetown this afternoon to take some pictures of the autumnal beauty in the gardens where I work. More autumn pretties!
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
~Emily Brönte
*
This is the street I walk down to go to work after I get off the bus. It's pretty much all Dumbarton Oaks along that whole side of the block.
Across the street is the director's house:
I got to see inside at the pre-term party in September. It's actually not that big a house, but it's got very posh decorations.
Then as I was walking around the big house to get to the garden entrance it occurred to me that I don't know how much I've actually said about D.Oaks. So here's their mission:
Sorry about the shadow. It says: "The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection has been assembled and conveyed to Harvard University by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss that the continuity of scholarship in the Byzantine and Mediaeval Humanities may remain unbroken to clarify an everchanging present and to inform the future with wisdom // MCMXL".
So the main collections in the library deal with Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art and architecture, and garden landscape and architecture. It's kind of an odd collection, but it was the Blisses' personal collection before they donated it to Harvard, so it reflects their interests. And, to my astonishment, they're actually quite thriving academic disciplines. They offer resident fellowships every year, and apparently they're competitive. I work in the Image Collections & Fieldwork Archives, where the bulk of our collection is photographs of Byzantine archaeological sites, so that's the stuff I deal with. The whole institute is housed on the former estate of the Blisses: the museum is in the big house, and the library is in a building that was added later, and the whole thing is surrounded by gardens.
Okay, back to the pictures!
The garden is full of all kinds of romantic hidden paths. It's divided up into sections, so there's several different types of gardens.
A few last autumn roses from the Rose Garden:
The Rose Garden is obviously at its best in summer. There are some breeds that smell absolutely divine. The Fountain Terrace is my favourite spot, though. The view coming down into the Fountain Terrace from the Rose Garden:
The steps that lead down from the Rose Garden:
The Terrace proper:
And the best view in the gardens:
The picture doesn't really do it justice. I was there later in the afternoon so the lighting's a bit too shadowy. And then there's the whole sensory input. It's just the loveliest feeling, standing there and looking out on the gardens and so many trees. I love trees.
A nice lunch nook in warmer weather:
More colours:
They even make the gardeners' sheds look romantic!
The greenhouse:
That building in the background? That's the reading room of the library. I couldn't get an actual picture of the library building because that part is closed on the weekends. But that's sort of the building I work in:
Back in the gardens:
This is the big house (where the museum collections are):
And then my camera's stupid batteries died. :(
But there you go, a small sample of the place where I work. Now you know what I mean when I say "I ate lunch in the gardens". :)