Olmstead

An 80-degree day is predicted for tomorrow. Time must be made, then, to lounge around outside, maybe even under a patio umbrella, which is still in the garage but can be installed on the deck. Mowing the lawn is not an option, fortunately, since the ground is still good and soaked, including standing puddles in the lowlands out toward the back fence.

Filed a story about landscape design today and by some kind of coincidence, received a book called A Clearing in the Distance (Witold Rybczynski, 1999), a biography of Frederick Law Olmstead, in the mail today. Just glancing through it, I see I've missed a few places he designed that I could have easily visited, such as Belle Isle, Detroit, and Smith College, had I known they were his designs. [Smack on head. "I could have seen an Olmstead!"]

Olmstead is usually worth going a little out of one's way. I'd go to see Buffalo's parks, for instance, if I were a little closer to Buffalo (that and President Fillmore sites), and I may yet make it. This isn't so odd to my way of thinking. People go see buildings by certain architects and paintings by certain painters, so why not landscape architecture by the master?