Each Little World

The Glidden House

We discovered The Glidden House a few years ago when we checked the Cleveland Museum of Art's website to see if we could find lodging nearby. This boutique hotel, located in a historic building, is right in the midst of University Circle, the city's art and cultural area. We could see the botanic garden from our window as we ate breakfast and the art and natural history museums were within easy walking distance. 

The building was once the home of the Glidden family whose name was synonymous with paint. There are well-throught-out new additions to the original structure giving them room for conferences and weddings without detracting from the beautiful old house. 

Though the building feels spacious inside, it also manages to maintain a comfortable, almost homey feel. Well, a rather fancy home! There were a lot of cars around the entrance when I took this photo as there was some kind of business meeting in progress. But we have been able to park adjacent to the hotel on our visits and we've just left our car and walked everywhere. They even let us keep our car there after we'd checked out but wanted to go back to the museum for a while. 

We  snapped this photo for the beautiful construction materials and for the rocky solution to a problem area. We have a similar narrow, sloped space and are thinking about using the same solution. 

Opposite this painting is the check-in desk. On the coffee and side tables are the latest books about the exhibits at the art museum. This is the only hotel I've ever been in where I was so taken with the art and art books that I could hardly pay attention to registering!

We ate breakfast in the garden room adjacent to the original dining room on the other side of the brick wall. The Glidden House offers an absolutely fabulous breakfast buffet. 

You can also sit in the dining room with a fireplace and lighted built-in china cabinets around the room. The cabinets are full of china!

Isn't this a great spot to begin your morning!

I had to take a closer look at the beautiful woodcarving around the screen doors out to the patio. 

The dark wood just at the edge of the photo on the left below is the screen door whose carving I photographed above. 

This outdoor seating area is between the old garden room and one of the new event spaces.  

The glassed-in area (above) with the long white curtains is a small cocktail lounge (below). There is a small curved bar area with seating by the big windows. 

While Mark played on his laptop, I had to check out the artwork. There's nothing I like better than abstract mark-making. 

The view out the windows in the lounge. 

And the view towards the street. 

When I think of Wisconsin I picture huge old Oak trees and acres of evergreens. But there is something mesmerizing about the trees that I see every time we drive out East. 

On our walk over to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, we unexpectedly came across this Frank Gehry building.  

It's the Peter B. Lewis Building of Case Western Reserve University whose buildings are spread throughout the area. As Mark was standing on the sidewalk across the street taking these pictures, someone called his name. We looked up and it was one of his Madison photo friends who was in Cleveland for a music conference on the lute! Small world. 

You are allowed to go inside and tour part of the main floor. It was well worth taking a look to see how all those swoops and curves played out in the interior. And we also got to see a ceramic sculpture by one of our favorite artists, Jun Kaneko. You can tell I'm going to the natural history museum and not the art museum by my casual clothes. 

I haven't a clue what this building was originally or how it is used today. But it was too lovely not to capture it with the camera. 

I've written many posts about restaurants and museums and art galleries, but I am not sure if I've ever shared my opinion on a hotel. But should you be in Cleveland, The Glidden House Hotel is a lovely place to stay. And to our surprise, we discovered it cost about the same as one of the big chain hotels we'd stopped at in Toledo on previous trips.

The drive from Madison to Cleveland is a bit longer than we'd prefer to do in one day, but knowing The Glidden House Hotel was at the end of our drive kept us focused. That, and the fact that I'd made reservations a while before we left Madison for dinner at L'Albatros Brasserie (photo from their website above), a wonderful restaurant just down the alley from the hotel. We ate outdoors on the patio our first night and went back the next night and enjoyed a cosy dinner inside by those big windows where we watched a rainstorm. 

Author's note: I am not receiving any remuneration for this post. We've had great service and experiences at all the places mentioned and wanted to share them. 

CBG: The view from the street

When we were in Cleveland three years ago we spent a day at the Cleveland Museum of art and squeezed in a visit to their botanical garden. When we were in Cleveland last summer, we again spent a day at the art gallery but this time added a short visit to the natural history museum.

Since I could see the garden from our breakfast table at the Glidden House hotel across the street, I dashed over to take a peek even thought the gardens had not yet opened for the day. These are all shots taken quickly with my iPad during a break in the rain. These areas are outside the main gardens and are adjacent to the entrance driveway and parking ramps. 

Cleveland's Botanical Garden is in the area known as University Circle which is a museum-rich arts area.

i thought this was a great way to hide this utility vehicle ramp from the main entrance drive on the other side of the greenery. 

You can enter from the sidewalk and I am sure many people walk through this area as a shortcut to work or the other museums. 

I took this photo last June for my Madison garden friends to show them that the botanic garden had lost a big Hibiscus just like many of them. Another result of the harsh winter along the Great Lakes. 

I am a big fan of "true" Geraniums and was impressed that the plant was being used as a little hedge here. 

I believe that is a Lemony Lace elderflower in the background. Or was it a Japanese maple with bright foliage? Too fascinated with the Geraniums to take note of the other plants!

Since this bench is right out in the open, it's bolted to the cement. But at least it is subtle and doesn't take away from this peaceful little scene. 

Note how you can see the street and some of the buildings of Case Western Reserve University right behind this tree. The view from that building must be lovely all year. When I visit botanic gardens I try to take a photo of a plant's label so I can identify it later. But it seems like I missed doing it with this gorgeous tree. If you recognize it, please let me know in the comments. 

A busy street on the other side of this planting. It's such a gift to residents that a large area of this garden is not behind fences and gates. I loved walking through and chatting with the folks already hard at work in these outer gardens. 

Since there is nothing green and growing around me at the moment, I will be showing some of my photos from last summer as a break from winter images. 

Left on the cutting room floor

When Mark and I were in Cleveland earlier this summer, we spent the better part of a day at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This is such a fabulous museum that we've made it our stop when drive out East to see my family. We even stay at a lovely boutique hotel that's only a block away so can walk over. CMA has stunning old and new buildings, an extraordinary art collection, two restaurants, an excellent shop and admission is free. What more could you want?

On our visit we were thrilled when we walked into the gallery of African art to discover two new large sculptures given pride of place in the center of the gallery. While we were discussing them and Mark was snapping photos, a photo crew and CMA staff members came into the museum. They were shooting a PR video and asked us to be in it. They told Mark to keep taking photos and for both of us to continue our lively discussion about the art.

When they finished shooting us, we signed releases from CMA and laughed because we were actually referred to as "the talent." Yesterday the museum sent us an email with a link to the finished video. Alas we were left on the cutting rom floor in this great one-minute movie. They said they have a longer three-minute version running at the museum. Maybe we made that one; we'll probably never know.

 

If you go to YouTube and search for the Cleveland Museum of Art you will find a number of terrific little videos about the museum that show off the buildings and their stunning collection.

 

Shadowlands

After a number of hot and sunny days, the temps are supposed to drop back into the 70s with some clouds. Nothing nicer than working in the garden when you can labor in cool shadowy spots. I think this shot is of the big dramatic handle of a medieval era sword. Mark thinks it is actually a cross. Too bad we didn't snap a photo of the label.

A fanciful railing on the Notre Dame campus.

If you plant it . . .

they will come and they did. Visit our garden, I mean. On Saturday we had back-to-back busloads of American Conifer Society members in town for the weekend at a gathering that included meetings/tours/speakers/and a conifer auction sponsored by the Central Region. Mark managed to snap a few photos while they were at our garden, but most of the time we were answering questions and socializing. We did have a few minutes to sit by the front door, have a cup of coffee and admire the pristine driveway while waiting for the first bus to arrive.

And suddenly, there it was — looking quite out of place on our street.

We had a chance to exchange names with the first folks off the bus . . .

But soon the trickle of visitors turned into a stream. Serious gardeners know how to properly treat a garden and where to walk and where not to go, which makes a group visit like this easy to handle. 

Luckily they dispersed all over the garden which helped with crowd control. In fact, I noted lots of folks went around the garden more than once looking at things. We had iced tea, a bowl of almonds and lots of before pictures and construction photos on the deck — all of which were a big hit. 

i managed to remember the names of most plants I was asked about, even running indoors a few times to check my records for specifics. With serious and knowledgeable gardeners like this group, I am always interested to see what plant or feature catches people's interest. Patterned foliage elicited lots of questions from Hepatica 'Silver Leaf' to Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty.' 

Mark mentioned to one of our visitors that we are not members of the Conifer Society nor even what we would call conifer collectors. The gentleman touring our garden said the group was more interested in how people incorporate conifers into their overall garden. That is how we think about conifers and evergreens, so it was nice to think that our garden offered them what they were hoping to see.  

Dizzying dots

I have been aware of artist Yayoi Kusama for a number of years, though I've  never seen any of her work in person. And this month I missed another chance to see what promises to be an amazing exhibit of her work at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Artists recognized the playful potential of dots as early as the 1960s, when painters like  Kusama, "begin embracing the abstract pattern as a visual object in its own right," according to an Artsy essay about the history of polka dots by Katy Kelleher. 

"For Kusama, the polka dot became a potent symbol and a reoccuring decorative motif, and while she does use figurative elements in her work, some of her most striking installations rely solely on outsized spots to create a sense of joyful displacement."

These first two images show how the Cleveland Museum of Art announced Kusama's exhibit in the area surrounding their building.

Inside the museum, the staff was just beginning to install Kusama's work so we got a sense of what visitors would see. 

Part of the museum was blocked off while the crew was working. 

But no matter where we went, we found ourselves engaging with Kusama's big polka-dotted spheres. 

The color and scale were dramatic . . . 

making those huge globes absolutely mesmerizing. 

Again and again we met up with them. 

In the Atrium or in the galleries, we could not stop staring at them. 

We weren't the only ones.  

A pattern language: Man-made

Earlier this week I posted a group of images Mark took on our recent vacation that suggested patterns in nature. Here are the man-made patterns; or at least man-made patterns to me.

This is the seating area for the Provenance Cafe in the atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art. A great space, a great museum. 

An exterior detail of the Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University around the corner from the hotel where we stayed in Cleveland.

The bottom of a painted Egyptian mummy case at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

"Building Elements" was an installation of sculpture by Marlon de Azambuja using building materials from around Cleveland. It is part of a larger exhibit, "An American City," on display in a CMA gallery known as the glass box and elsewhere.

On the wall in the above gallery were a related series of photographs by Luisa Lambri of CMA's Marcel Breuer-designed addition. The horizontal bands of that structure have become an iconic symbol of the museum, as well as a marketing motif as seen on my bag — purchased on our last CMA visit in 2015.

Brilliant yellow bollards keep drivers from crashing into the building.

The tracks for a train spanning a valley in New York State.

This is part of the structure that supports the RR trestle pictured above. 

A pattern language: Natural motifs

As expected Mark took lots of photos on our trips. We traveled a little over 1,400 miles and Mark took more than 1,000 pictures. As I looked through them I noticed a number of images that suggested patterns, both man-made creations and natural wonders. Here are the natural motifs that caught Mark's eye and then mine.

Home again, home again jigitty-jog

We got home Tuesday afternoon after eight days out East visiting with my sisters and extended family. Once upon a time I used to drive by myself from Madison to my parents' home in Buffalo — all in one day (approx. 700 miles). These days Mark and I usually stop overnight on the way out to our destination of my sister's place on Chautauqua Lake in NY state. This time we also decided to stop on the say home as well.

We drove almost seven hours before stopping at the Morris Inn in the middle of the Notre Dame University campus. Unlike UW-Madison which is in the midst of the city, Notre Dame is self-contained. You drive in to a spot that is filled with great grassy fields criss-crossed with sidewalks for walking since there are no vehicles allowed. The Inn and campus buildings are mostly pale brick and surround what is virtually an arboretum. I had Mark snap this photo of me next to a gorgeously mature weeping Beech. 

This is a London plane tree with pale gray exfoliating bark at the top that reveals an almost white trunk. To really get a good shot of this extremely old and tall tree, I think one really needed to lay flat on the ground.

We both love evergreens so we were very taken with the pines with multiple trunks, twisting branches that swooped up and, in this case, down almost to the ground.

I would not want to stay on campus on a football weekend as I know what those are like after 40+ years living in Madison. But in summer — with as many tourists as students wandering around the campus — it was a lovely place to spend some time. 

A perfect weekend: Part 1

Yesterday Mark and I were on the road by 9 a.m. in order to be among the early birds on the 12th Annual Mt. Horeb Arts Association annual spring art tour. It was a perfect day and our first stop was as enjoyable as we anticipated. The tour continues today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Details and directions are here. The group has a good website and we found directional signs all along the route.

We began at  Chuck Bauer and Chuck Beckwith's Blanchardville farm, a spot that would be reason enough for a drive in the country. An old farmhouse with barns and outbuilding used as studios are surrounded by flowers, lots of spots to sit and enjoy their art and garden objects. 

This piece is called "The Bat" and is made of copper. 

This garden was the first place we ever saw art made out of bowling balls; in particular a pair of huge pyramids composed entirely of bowling balls. If you leave them out in the elements to weather they lose their shine and many of them develop lichens like this ball perched on a fence post.

Chuck and Chuck always had inspiring bouquets of flowers from their gardens at their shop on State St. in Madison. I was introduced to many a flower via those arrangements. Yesterday at the farm, I spent quite a lot of time walking around and sticking my nose in massive rose bushes covered with blooms and clumps of big old Peonies drooping under the weight of the fat flowers. This is one of Roy Klehm's famed coral peonies, a color break through he developed. Even more stunning in person that this picture conveys, but alas it does not have any fragrance to match its dramatic coloring.

Since we own an oil painting by Chuck Bauer and a watercolor done by his late mother, he sent us a message in advance of the weekend's tour with pictures of what he'd be selling. That was enough for us to make the trip and to bring a checkbook. We came home with another painting — a different seasonal view of the same part of their garden as the painting we already own. Mark succumbed to a little house made out of lead that he's long admired. He put it out in our garden this morning. We hung the painting yesterday as soon as we got home. 

. . .

We spent the afternoon with a fellow garden blogger, her husband and daughter. Cindy Goodson blogs at enclos*ure take refuge and Mark and I had met her and her husband, Don, on prior visits to Madison to see their daughter. This time they were on their way back to the U.S. after three years in Stuttgart, Germany. Don is a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service so they've lived in many countries.

It's always lovely to spend time with them and talk gardens, politics, food and travel. If you haven't been to Cindy's blog, do take a look. She writes about gardens wherever she is, but she also focuses on historic and ethnic gardens here, there and everywhere. I never know what I am going to find when I visit her blog, but I always know it will capture my interest and attention.