During this past summer on vacation, I went to a favorite place to take photos. In the beautiful town of Frederick, Md. there is a well preserved Colonial Manor home. Rose Hill Manor is preserved as a living museum. I used to live nearby, and took groups of Girl Scouts there for special Camps in which they learned about their local history. This place will host how to dip candles, make soap, card and spin wool, they made their own little bonnet hats, they made aprons. They helped to peel, wash, chop, and cook a stew. They made tea, and other foods to eat. They played traditional games and sang songs. They explored the stately and well mantained rose, herbal, floral, and vegetable gardens. They got to tour the manor home and all the buildings and all had a blast. I fell in love with this place and it's wonderful beauty and history. I will be posting a special group of photos and art to share with you and hope you find it as wonderful as I did. I plan to return again to take proper photos of the inside of the manor. I was short on time this past trip, due to lots of summer storms. I managed to have the gardens to myself as the humidity was so high, others left, knowing the storms would be coming. I got lucky, and the held off until I wore out from the heat and humidity. These purple cone beauties are in the cone flower family, and are not only beautiful, but herbal. THe gardens are organic, so, at the time under atack by june beetles. When I do my paintings, I will not be painting the damage done to some of the flowers they tend to love to devore.