Studiology

Meet Glenn

In November I was given a very special gift, a diary written by Glenn Israel Dettweiler. A small 5 year diary, written from 1937 to 1941. Each page has 5 spaces, like a written paragraph in size, for the same date 5 years in a row. The cover is gone, and the pages are not secure, so I'm extra careful with this delightful little insight into Glenn's personal, professional, and social life. 

I suspect that the diary became available when his immediate family had passed. It was found in a lot of salvage items and the gift giver believed I might enjoy it. More so than he. 

My genealogy research has been pretty futile. I would love to see this stay in the Dettweiler family, which was very large and extended. From Fauquier County, specifically Midland, Virginia, they were land owners with a farm. 

Glenn married Lois, but at the time of this diary they weren't married but knew each other. There would be a daughter named Gail, but the birth year is a mystery, a dead-end on the internet. 

He was 1 of 9 or 10 children, born in 1915, so only 22 years old when the diary begins. Glenn was the second to the last in birth order, 4 girls and 6 boys, but I believe that one may have passed very young.

 Just about everyday I check in to see what Glenn was up to. From his entries I know that he lived in Washington D.C. and worked for the Gold Craft Company, canning Coca Cola. As of April 1940 he was single and received $1,218.44 in gross wages. He had chickens, 1 pig (or more), read a lot and went to the movies every week. 

He bought a Brownie camera on April 12th, 1939 for $1.98. New eyeglasses were $10. and six books cost $1.00. Glenn registered for the draft on October 16th, 1940, with snippets of war news beginning in September of 1939. Most days he read or wrote and received letters. The outside temperature, his weight, and hours worked, are listed just about every day. 

On December 31st for 5 years, this sums up his day:

temperature 38 to 41 degrees

worked 3 to 7.5 hours

had teeth cleaned and 1 pulled

cleaned out brooder house (house for young chickens)

drove his brothers car 3 miles (he always writes down home many miles any vehicle as driven, I'm pretty sure he didn't own one)

two of those years he took the train to Calverton

On January 1st he read the paper and a magazine (1939), drove another brother's car 12 miles (1939), went to the movies (1938) and sawed wood (1940).

I find the details of everyday life fascinating, it all seems so laid back or shall I say less hectic, but in truth, I wonder if he even owned a TV (they arrived in 1927), or had a phone. Hand written letters were the order of the time, so much was done by mail. 

I will continue to share Glenn's entries and maybe a family member will be found who would dearly love to have this valuable family heirloom.  

 

Backcountry

Just home from a road trip that was filled with road trips. My youngest sister moved to southern Virginia, between the hills of the Jefferson National Park, where it is divided into a north and south. Her tiny town sits between the two, something she researched by reading maps, knowing that this could be a good place. The land of steep hills, cows and sheep, mules, and farm dogs. There are also gorgeous wild areas with rhododendrons, mountain laurels and frozen waterways. 

Our tour guide loves to drive, finding backroads and local points of interest. It's music country here, the town of Galax is home to a large and famous fiddler's convention. The town is also named after Galax urceolata, the native perennial with evergreen foliage that is harvested for the florist trade (to the point of restrictions because of overharvesting).

The town of Fries, pronounced freeze, is a sleepy, beach front town on the shores of the New River. The Big Walker Lookout sits on top of a mountain, a little country store sells art from local artisans. It was snowing and 17 degrees. We woke up to 8 degrees so things were warming up. 

A church in Rural Retreat has a small, historically significant cemetery filled with headstones of soapstone. The stonemason, a second generation German, carved the headstones with gothic outlines, often tripartite in shape, like a bed's headboard. Acid rain has worn the designs, lichen has grown and softened the details. A typical design is a pinwheel or a heart, of which there were several. This is the Kimberling Lutheran Cemetery, high on a hill, surrounded by cows, and beautiful vistas.

My sisters new home is still in the remodeling phase and a few boxes needed unpacked, namely the families 3rd generation hand collection. My grandmother started with hands and it still grows, filling two large display cases. It's a spectacular collection. One day I will photograph them all, if not the most significant. These are a few examples.

A good time was had by all with road trips, and a 3 day weekend! We watched horror movies at night and explored by day, a close family of like minds. Love these sistas!

And just a little "by the way", don't watch the movie "The Corpse Grinder", one review says "it wallows in its cheesiness", yep, that it does.

 

Big Trees

Virginia is a state with lots of champion trees and a big advantage, it's home to the two most famous big tree hunters in the country. They form a tag team, looking for large trees that may outrank other large trees. Gary Williamson is a retired park ranger from Chesapeake, Virginia. He is responsible for 175 list worthy trees, with more than 45 national champions or the biggest of their kind in the entire United States. Byron Carmean is from Suffolk, Virginia, a retired teacher of horticulture and forestry. He's been hunting trees since 1983 and has located 45 to 50 state champions. These numbers  fluctuate, limbs fall, trees die, numbers change. 

Their contributions to the big tree program may be a large part of Virginia's ranking, fourth place out of the top five. Florida has over 100 national champs, Arizona and Texas follow. California comes in fifth and Washington State sixth. The point system for calculating big trees began in 1940 with the American Forestry Association. Today you can do an internet search for Virginia big trees and then search their database, finding the largest in the state with location, phone number of owners, and even a photograph. So wonderful is the Virginia big tree network that you can nominate a tree, report the death of a champion or even re-certify an existing winner. 

The point system for measuring champs is the total of three things; the trunk in inches, measured at four and a half feet up, the height in feet, and the average canopy spread in feet, divided by four. Most older trees gain in girth and may outnumber another champion trees in a matter of two years. For that reason the list is updated every second year. If a registered tree is not measured and recorded in ten years, it is automatically dropped. Sadly urbanization claims big trees, potential champions, on a daily basis. Extreme weather and old age are always a threat to their status.

My interest in the process came after meeting a significant specimen in Warrenton, Virginia.  Dominion Power had contacted the forestry department, so impressive was a lone hackberry tree or Celtis occidentalis in a farm field, near a power line installation. From what I understand, it is being nominated, the measurement around the trunk is 216"! 

Folks that seek out big trees, and there are many, walk up to these specimens and touch their trunk, it's a requirement. So humbled and impressed was my experience with this hackberry that I may become a big tree junkie. 

Virginia is certainly a good place to start.

Follow-up: April 21 - This lovely hackberry did not make champion status, it was lacking in height to gain the numbers. Still a remarkable tree! 

Oak Hill from the Sky

I had the great fortune to take a helicopter ride over Oak Hill yesterday, the gardens where I work during the week. To see the gardens and house from the sky was fabulous, especially in May.

Although we are at least a week before peak bloom in the garden, the tree peonies are in full bloom and so are the various wisterias.

The knot garden was so striking from the sky!

What a vantage point to inspire the gardener.

Down on the ground I took photographs of some of the Chinese wisterias. 

One of the most invasive plants in the country, I am not personally advocating them, especially when they require monthly labor. But when kept in check, they can be lovely. 

As they have been this spring.

Winter and Spring Presentations for 2014

I have a few lectures lined up for 2014. Listed below are details, some of the websites have not been updated yet, so links will be added as they become available:

January 11, 2014

Center for the Arts, Manassas, Virginia

"Understanding and Using your DSLR camera"     Full/no more registrations

10-4 with a break for lunch

This class is for the budding photographer that has moved up to a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera. The link above will take you to the Center for the Arts website for registration. I will be covering the various issues associated with digital photography. Some examples of topics I cover are white balance, ISO, understanding the histogram and file formats. Feel free to email me if you have any questions ([email protected]).

January 26, 2014

Green Spring Gardens, Alexandria, Virginia

"Quest for the Best"

1:30-3:00

If you've ever been curious about plant names and their association with the collectors, you will love this lecture. I follow a timeline that begins in  1637 with John Tradescant and move up to modern times with more recent explorers and their stories and connections. It's a real interconnected world with daring twists.  

February 1, 2014

Merrifield Gardens, Gainesville location

"Garden Design"

10:00

This free lecture is about the power of mass or heavier plant material and its relationship to other plants in the scheme of your landscape design. I will talk about creating a natural flow in your garden space, helping you plan placement for shrubs as well as perennials and annuals.

March 1, 2014

Merrifield Gardens, Fair Oaks Location 

"Perennials with Personality"

10:00

This is currently my favorite lecture, and it's free! If you are gardening with perennials this is a must. I help you understand the various ways perennials interact by breaking them down into categories based on growth. Once you understand this simple concept, it will be easier to put them together and plan for their maintenance. 

March 22, 2014

Merrifield Gardens, Merrifield or Gallows location

10:00

"Photographing Flowers"

No boring lecture here, I include some really fun, artistic tips for photographing your gardens and flowers throughout the year. Just in time for the spring explosion. No fee.

March 29, 2014

Virginia Tech, The Hahn Horticulture Garden

"Garden Flow"

time and address will be added

When it comes to garden design, this is my favorite lecture. I have spent years trying to understand the concept of mobility in a garden space. Part welcome, part curiosity, I've collected the many variables that move the visitor or gardener along when they step into your garden.

 

A Walk to Mount Zion Church

Another walk today led me and Duke to Mt. Zion Church, on Route 50. Adjacent to our property, I visit a couple times a year. I have seen it change ownership 3 times. Currently it's owned by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority which also opperates Meadowlark Gardens. The church was a hospital during the Civil War, a very active one after a nearby skirmish with John Mosby and his rangers and Union forces in 1864. The Old Carolina Road runs along the west end of our property and was a well traveled road during the Civil War. Also the road that Union soldiers ran down to escape as the battle was ending in 1864.

 Behind the walls of the cemetery is another, smaller cemetery. There are 63 African Americans buried here, slaves or freed men, buried prior to 1865. 

Inside the stone walls are headstones dating back to the beginning of the church (built in 1831). I recognize many names of local families. Occasionally there is still a new grave added, sadly I knew all of those that have been buried here in the last few years. I  knew them from the nursery, they were gardeners.

 At the very back of the cemetery are headstones for Twelve Union Cavalrymen, buried after the battle with Mosby and 13 Confederates, buried when the war was over. 

The Mt. Zion church was a frequent meeting place for Mosby's rangers and it's said that a lit candle in a window was a signal for them to meet. In 1995 The Mosby Heritage Area became a designation, about 1,800 square miles, bound by Bull Run, the Blue Ridge to the west, the Potomac River on the north and the Rappahannock River to the south. It was formed by the Mosby Heritage Area Association in Middleburg, Virginia, their motto; to educate about, and advocate for, the preservation of the extraordinary historic, cultural and scenic resources in the Northern Virginia Piedmont. In John Mosby's time it was called Mosby's Confederacy, a place where Union soldiers had to tread carefully. It's also said that occasionally you can still see a lit candle in one of the windows of the church.