Spring Has Sprung at Longwood Gardens

Walking through the doors of the conservatory at Longwood Gardens is like stepping three months ahead in time. Outside it is winter, but inside, it is spring -- warm, humid, fragrant, green spring.

Longwood Gardens, the former duPont estate, is about 30 miles east of Lancaster in Kennett Square. The site comprises more than 1,000 acres, with 20 indoor and 20 outdoor gardens. It has been a park of some sort for more than 200 years, with heritage dating back to the Quakers and a family named Pierce who planted an arboretum on the land beginning about 1800. Pierce du Pont bought the land in 1906 and, inspired by the elegant grounds he saw while traveling in Europe, began planting gardens.

The results are simply magnificent. Longwood is a symphony of fountains and flowers and topiaries and trees. There's an Italian water garden, a mossy lake guarding a romantic-looking tower, treehouses, a dozen waterlily ponds, and rows and rows of roses. Longwood is known for its fountains, especially the main display with its hundreds of jets and colored lights -- you can see light and fountain shows in the summer.

Today, however, we were in the conservatory. It's a huge building -- almost 200,000 square feet and at least three stories tall with a glass roof and abundant windows. The main rooms are like a park, with areas of grass surrounded by flower beds and trees. It smells heavenly from the hyacinths, jasmine, and other fragrant flowers. The staff is working on an orchid display, so those colorful flowers are tucked in among the other, more common, blooms. One of the back walls has a facade of pillars covered in climbing flowers that always looks to me like the outside of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

In the many interconnected rooms within the conservatory, we found a garden of silver-colored desert plants; a roomful of banana trees; insect-eating plants; roses in bud but not bloom (hey, it's January) and surrounded by colorful hibiscus; orchids; the "cascade" room with plants growing up the walls and water tumbling down them; an indoor grape arbor; a number of orange kumquat trees; and, somewhat surprisingly, a beautiful ballroom with a wood floor, rose-colored glass ceiling, and pipe organ.

It was the first time I had been to Longwood in the winter, and it was well worth the 45-minute drive to bask in the scents and sights of spring for a couple of hours.

Learn more at http://www.longwoodgardens.org/. Admission is $16. You cannot take food in, but they have a restaurant with fairly good sandwiches, soups, salads, and entrees. For little flower fans, there's a children's garden in the conservatory.

Great Date: Ice Skating

I ice skated for the first time at the fantastic Wollman Rink in Central Park. It was the start of winter break during my freshman year of college, and two friends and I went to Manhattan for the weekend. Among our many adventures was an afternoon on the ice at the enormous rink, laughing and holding onto each other, looking at the surrounding buildings, and trying not to crash into our fellow skaters -- it's one of my favorite memories.

So it follows that my favorite winter date is an afternoon or evening of ice skating at Clipper Magazine Stadium. In addition to being fun and affordable, skating is exactly the right level of activity for a date -- I've got something to do, but I can still talk and interact with my companion.

And by "companion" I mean anyone I can drag out to the stadium. I've gone with girlfriends, guy friends, and my son and his friends. Pretty much everyone can skate a little and is willing to pretend they're Michelle Kwan -- or Brian Boitano -- for a couple of hours. Although, truthfully, no one does tricks; you just skate around and around the rink, enjoying the brisk air and music and watching everyone else glide, fall, and laugh. Every now and then some brave soul goes to the middle and spins, but since I can't even skate backward with any certainty, I've never tried that.

In past years, the stadium concession stands have been open, but this year, they've put a trailer on the field right by the rink. It's more convenient for skaters -- less taking the skates on and off or tramping up and down the steps -- and I imagine it's cheaper to run, too. They sell barbeque sandwiches, drinks, and snacks.

The rink is usually open on weekends from December to March. Admission is $6 and skate rentals are $3. You can skate as long as you'd like; I usually stay for about two hours. Take extra socks; the rental skates rub a little. For more information, visit http://www.lancasterbarnstormers.com/. Prefer to skate indoors? Try http://www.lancastericerink.org/.

Lancaster Symphony: Pluckin' Great!

I enjoy classical music but don't know much about it. To listen to unfamiliar music on the off chance I might like it, I turn on NPR or Pandora -- I don't plunk down $40 per ticket and head to the symphony. But last Sunday I was given free tickets to the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, so I grabbed a date and went downtown.


The concert was called "Agony & Ecstasy: Khachaturian & Tchaikovsky." In addition to a concerto by the former and a symphony by the latter, the orchestra played a celebratory piece called "New Beginnings" written by a modern composer, Peter Boyer.


I really enjoyed the music. I was afraid it would be dull and I'd nod off, but it was lively and interesting. The Boyer piece was written to celebrate the opening of a hospital, and I could hear notes reminiscent of building mixed in with the general happy tones.


The Khachaturian concerto featured a soloist, Robert Bokor. I was interested to read in the program that he was a child prodigy, plays across Europe, and wields a 250-year-old instrument. I don't know what I expected a violin soloist to look like, but with his shoulder-length hair and tall, solid frame, Bokor wasn't it. However, he played incredibly well -- and looked as though he enjoyed it, which I always appreciate. The music was lively and had a gypsy lilt that I picked up on even before I consulted the program.


The Tchaikovsky symphony was supposed to be the "agony" of the title -- something about Fate and the sword of Damocles. I have to admit, that was lost on me, although I enjoyed the recurring themes in the music and, especially, the movement that was played primarily as plucked strings. (All of the songs featured plucking, which was a revelation to me. I especially liked the plucked cellos.)


Our seats were bad, as befits freebies -- front row center. Why is that bad? Because at the symphony, all the performers are seated. We were staring at the performers' knees, and just the front row's knees at that! I could hear drums, horns, and woodwinds, but I couldn't see them. However, the seats were ideal for watching the violin soloist's fingers fly during the gypsy-inspired piece. We were also well-placed to watch the conductor, Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser. He's a small man who looked elfin next to the very tall Bokor. Gunzenhauser conducted with his whole body, leaning in to encourage the musicians and beckoning them into the song in a way that I found entertaining but my date, who has played in orchestras, thought was distracting.


On the whole, I enjoyed the evening. The music was good, the performance solid, the acoustics good, the theater, as always, a pleasure to visit. Will I go back? Yes. In checking the orchestra's Web site to see if I recognized anything in the upcoming schedule, I discovered that one of my all-time favorite pieces is scheduled for May:  Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini." I will be delighted to experience this fantastic piece live, along with something new, if only to me.

For information on the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, please visit http://www.lancastersymphony.org/.