This was taken today at a different garden also in suburban Philadelphia. Spring is springing. Nights will be chilly for a while.

Too funny. Yesterday at Longwood... what a gorgeous day and you can see many still to come.

Here's the weather forecast FWIW --- this far out is less reliable.

How do they know???

Copycats!

I am sorry to report I will have to miss Tulipmania. 😢 My house guest situation has grown from 2 to 7 people that weekend, with one guest only here on Saturday and I can’t miss time with him.

I’m disappointed to miss meeting so many of you and reacquainting myself with a few others.

Sorry to hear that, @hhireno! Enjoy the time with your guests, and hopefully it works out next time!

Oh too bad, hhireno. i remember meeting you at a previous Longwood tour.

Looks like we’re losing our personal tourguide after this year.

Bummer!

ohhh @hhireno I am disappointed that you won't be there. I was looking forward to seeing you again. ( I do remember meeting you). I will "only " be doing the Saturday Longwood jaunt.

I was going to ask about maire as well?

@Salonva - how nice of you to think of me. I remember you asked back in October when all this started to come together and we were traveling. I had to cancel my plans a month ago and I am still crushed. It promises to be such a lovely weekend and I was so looking forward to seeing you again (and catching up on grand children news). I had hoped to at least join everyone for the tulip tour but it isn't going to work.

@hhireno, so sorry to hear you won't be on the tour! Hope you have a nice visit with friends.

OOOH Noooo! I really really wanted to meet Hhireno and Maire Cate 😢

So sorry. I remember meeting Maire before and was looking forward to seeing her again. I was also looking forward to meeting hhireno. We'll miss you!

Satsuki azalea bonsai at Longwood Gardens. I’m counting down the days!!

I envy y’all. Have a good time.

That azalea is a marvel Bbstx! I cannot wait to see it!

Bbstx that azalea is beautiful!!!

If maire and hh aren’t going, I’m not going either.

Not really. But really. I just had my MOHS surgery and while there was no graft, I do have 12 stitches. Stitches come out next Thursday afternoon but she still wants me to limit activity for another week after that. If the trip was a couple hours away, I’d still probably try to go, but I dont see a 6 hour drive working with this recovery routine.

I am really sad but I had a feeling this would be the case when the dr had to delay my procedure for a week. Waaah.

The saddest part is that I didn’t pay close attention to the Whitewing Farm cancellation policy and it looks like I’m going to lose the entire cost of my stay because it’s less than 15 days away, which sucks!

Boo...I'm not okay with this! Will miss meeting/seeing you all who can't make it. Hey Sue - since you won't need your fancy dinner costume, can I borrow it? If nothing else emerges, I will be the one wearing a dress from the early 2000's. Assuming I can still squeeze myself into it.

And...that totally sucks about Whitewing. Have you contacted them yet to appeal?

Hope you heal quickly!

@Sueb - Call Whitewing and maybe Samantha will answer. Honestly she could not have been nicer. I explained that I had booked the room back in October but had to cancel due to DH's health issues. I mentioned that a group of women were convening for a weekend with a special insider Longwood tour on Saturday, dinner Saturday night and a world class brunch with private chefs on Sunday. And when I added that we were online friends from all over and that most of us had not met in person she was amazed and delighted. She said they knew something was happening when they received so many reservations in one weekend.

The conversation progressed and we discovered we both knew the owner of Forage, the new book shop in Kennett Square and she said if I were ever interested in returning for a future visit to give her a call.

Granted that was a month ago - but she told me that she had a wait list for that weekend. She could have with deducted 10% but she refunded the entire deposit. That may have been an error on her part - I don't know.

In any case if you can't attend then I hope somehow we can arrange for another meet up somewhere.

Yikes! @Sueb hopefully it will be a fast healing process.

@Hhireno and Marie

So to hear I will not meet you all

Actually, they ended up giving me a gift certificate, so that is not bad.

I really wanted to make it work because when will another GTG be so close to me (1.5 hours)? I even ditched my husband and said I wasn’t going to the HHI golf tourney with him that weekend so I could attend the whole GTG.

But a family member, who will soon be moving away from the East Coast, was coming for a week. Ok, I can leave them with my sisters while I do the Longwood part. Then more family decided to visit for the weekend and will arrive on Saturday. The final roadblock was yet another family member who can only visit on Saturday.

It will be wonderful to see all the family that I don’t get to see often, but I am disappointed to miss meeting so many of you.

Ugh - pneumonia! The bigger concern is that the x-ray identified a previously unknown "giant hiatal hernia" Maybe that's why I haven't been feeling ok lately - aside from the pneumonia, that is. I'll be seeing my doctor tomorrow. Anybody ever had any experience with this?

Oh, Indigo Rose, very sorry. No experience but best wishes.

@Indigo Rose yes my mom had this issue as well as a dear friend. The pneumonia comes from silent aspiration of reflux due to the hiatal hernia blockage. Surgery to fix the hiatal hernia is usually the solution.

Low acid diet and never lying down too soon after eating , raising the head of the bed.

I am sorry it has led to pneumonia. That is a scary situation. I am sure your Dr will have solutions .

Sending healing thoughts your way. c

Well darn, Sue. Plaiin old darn and phooey. We’ll have tto figure out a way to use that gift certificate.

Oh darnit! Hhireno, Sueb, AND Indigo Rose!! I’m really sorry you all can't make it but family and health come first always. This will be my first as I had conflicts during the previous 2 GTGs and I was hoping to meet as many of you as possible. I sincerely hope your pneumonia is short-lived. We will miss you! Sueb, So sorry you have the stitches.

edited because I didn’t see Sueb’s post earlier. BoooooHoo!

SueB and IndigoRose too! So sorry we'll miss you. Feel better soon both of you!

Oh, no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I'm not coming! I've been on antibiotics for a week and should be ok in another week. Not feeling like myself, though. I have had no acid reflux so it was a shock when the x-ray revealed the hernia, I'll find out what my doctor thinks tomorrow, but was wondering about other's experiences - might help me in asking him questions.

^^^Fingers crossed, Indigo Rose! Several of us missed that.

a girl comes home and all hell has broken loose! take care of yourselves everyone!

Marie_cate, Hhierno and Sueb I'm sorry we will have to miss you! We will issue a full report afterwards. Indigo Rose, I have a hiatal hernia but I've been able to manage it. I hope you'll be feeling OK next weekend.

Special thanks from me to Marie_Cate and Whitewing Inn to allow me to take her reservation when she learned she was not able to attend.

@ilikefriday, please check your email. 🙂

@isitdoneyet, please check your email 🙂

I found a box of photos from when we cleared out my Dad’s house in 2003. IDK if it’s been opened since then. It’s funny and touching and confusing. So many without a date or name on the back. My father may have had another, secret family 😆! I think my family will have such fun next weekend reviewing these, a consolation prize for missing the GTG.

Sounds like a delightful surprise! Maybe your guests can help you identify people in the pictures.

That is a great opportunity, @hhireno. My uncle’s granddaughter-in-law got interested in our family history. She and I spent some time working on making sure people in photographs were correctly identified. I was in some of them, so I was pretty certain who the other people were.

Bon Voyage to all! I am sooo jealous , though also very excited

for all who will attend. Pics will be your duty to we who’ll be thinking of you with wishes for a fablulous time! 🥰

p.s. sneaking in belated big Happy Birthday wishes Annie.

^^^^this^^^^

I am so sorry that some of you have to miss the get-together! You will be missed. I hope that everyone’s health improves quickly.

I feel like this meeting needs to be hybrid, with the option to attend via Zoom!

Yes! Sueb20 will get a telepresence robot, so you can join us! Wouldn’t that be a hoot!

@Kitchenwitch - you are most welcome. I do hope to spend a weekend there sometime so you'll have to let me know what you thought of the room - I think it was the Tack Room. And you know we will all be waiting for the reports to trickle in.

@airbnb guests, you have rec'd an email from me today. 💕

If the weather holds, we will have a summer weekend, pretty much!

Changes my whole wardrobe as I was expecting cooler spring temps...eg, like today, which is exactly on target for the norm this time of year in Kennett Square.

Oh, wow! looks like we’ve lucked into perfect weather. I wouldn’t call it ”summer” however. There’s not a single day over 95 with 110% humidity! 😂

As someone who grew up in that area of the country, it is pretty much summer. See the averages below.

Nice!