Native Plant and Wildflower Sale

Those interested in planting and/or learning about native plants won’t want to miss the Native Plant and Wildflower Sale at the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust offered by Pennypack’s Growing Native Gardeners. Native plants offer a lower maintenance and dependable alternative to labor-intensive gardening because they’re well adapted to our region. The two-day plant sale is on Friday, May 2, from 2 – 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 3, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Admission is free.

Bryn Athyn Orchestra's spring program

The final work in Bryn Athyn Orchestra's spring program is the idyllic 6th symphony. Here is what Beethoven himself said about the work:  Pastoral Symphony, more an expression of feeling than painting.

1st piece: pleasant feelings which awaken in men on arriving in the countryside.

 2d piece: scene by the brook.

3d piece: merry gathering of country people, interrupted by 4th piece: thunder and storm, into which breaks

5th piece: salutary feelings, with thanks to the Deity.  

Either you are familiar with this enchanting work and love it already, or you should come and hear it so it can become one of your top ten!

Hope to see you ALL on May 11 at 3 pm at the Mitchell Performing Arts Center.

Neutra's Pitcairn House

Since there is a house, designed by Richard J. Neutra, listed in Bryn Athyn, we thought that it would be a good time to remember who Neutra was.

Neutra was born in Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was famous for the attention he gave to defining the real needs of his clients, regardless of the size of the project, in contrast to other architects eager to impose their artistic vision on a client. Neutra sometimes used detailed questionnaires to discover his client's needs, much to their surprise. His domestic architecture was a blend of art, landscape and practical comfort.

Neutra had a sharp sense of irony. In his autobiography, Life and Shape, he included a playful anecdote about an anonymous movie producer-client who electrified the moat around the house that Neutra designed for him and had his Persian butler fish out the bodies in the morning and dispose of them in a specially designed incinerator. This was a much-embellished account of an actual client, Josef von Sternberg, who indeed had a moated house but not an electrified one.

Neutra (1892–1970) was a prophet of clean, crisp modernism said Time Magazine and put him on the cover.

To see some of his work and check out the listed house;

http://www.everyhome.com/Home-For-Sale/2860-Paper-Mill-Road-Bryn-Athyn-PA

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2011-04/richard_neutra_slideshow

The unique pleasure of living in Bryn Athyn by Katie Kennedy

I have had the unique pleasure of living in Bryn Athyn, in a home that I have dreamed about since I was a little girl, and  where the grounds remind me of the rolling hills of Great Bardfield, in England where we lived when Daddy was stationed at Wethersfield Air Base.

It is lovely here in all seasons, but the gardens I love best are those that appear in the spring. If you have never been to Bryn Athyn, there are two castles, a cathedral, a private school from pre-k thru college, all on and surrounded by the most wonderful spots to tuck n and read a book or watch the sun go down from the huge stone benches cut into the hill behind the sanctuary.

There is fairy magic in the spring however, when every garden begins to fill in with brilliant color and last years mountain pinks awaken and spill over the stone walls, where the white garden glows in the twilight as if it has been switched on by the ground itself. The story of the plants is my favorite, however. Every Easter, in the Asplundh field house a huge service is held to speak about not just the Christian doctrine, but the awakening of earth. Every family brings to the service a potted flower, barely in bloom but colorful enough to rival the children in their pastel frilly frocks, and bonnets and new patent leather shoes. At the end of the service, the wee ones bring the flower to the front and leave them on the make-shilft alter so that the garden keepers can plant them around the cathedral grounds, in front of the castles and around the campus. I love this small offering, it is sweet and sincere and is then placed quietly in a public place for all to enjoy.

Bryn Athyn is in Montgomery County.  The grounds are open to the public most days so I hope that after this Easter season you get a chance to visit our magical garden.

 

by Katie Kennedy

3rd Annual FeelGood 5k

3rd Annual FeelGood 5k Saturday, April 26, 8 am, Jungé Pavilion

Come to this themed event dressed as your favorite super hero!

$5 kids, $10 students, $20 adults and $18 for relay teams (3).  Race starts at 9am.

Tibetan Buddhist Sand Mandala 2014

Wednesday, April 23 through Sunday, April 27, 2014

1:00 - 4:30 PM DAILY

Free Admission April 23-26. Included in Sacred Arts Festival admission on April 27.

Witness the step-by-step creation of a traditional Sand Mandala, an ancient art form of Tibetan Buddhism. Mandalas are drawings in sand of the world in its divine form; they represent a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed into an enlightened mind. Watch as the Venerable Losang Samten (the first Buddhist given permission by the Dalai Lama to make Mandalas in the West) completes and then ritualistically dismantles an Amitabha Mandala during our Sacred Arts Festival.

Glencairn Museum’s Medieval Summer Camp

Session I (June 16 – 20) Session II (June 23 – 27) Campers  aged 9, 10, and 11 will learn archery and swordplay. They will bake bread and create a cookie “spectacle.” The week will end on Friday morning with a battle staged for the pleasure of the King of Glencairn. Campers will enjoy these activities and many more while learning about the medieval values of virtue and honor.