Saturday, July 22, 2006

Summer Garden Fantasy: I love nothing more than dining "al fresco" on the lawn on a warm summer evening. Last Thursday night was simply a garden of earthly delights. The New York Botanical Gardens is showcasing the glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly in the Victorian conservatory and throughout the gardens. Chihuly glass sculptures drift among the waterlilies of the tropical pools in the Edith A. Haupt Conservatory, looking a bit like rainbow-colored Hershey kisses that have been cast afloat.

After a hypnotic walk beside glass objects that glistened in the late afternoon sun, I picked up a piquant Southwestern Turkey wrap sandwich with roasted plum tomatoes and chipolte avocado dressing and a flowery half-bottle of 2001 George Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages, and relaxed on the conservatory lawn listening to the Waterlily Concert presented by WQXR, the classical station of the New York Times. A musical quartet of two violins, a cello and a bass served up, in the words of WQXR host Annie Bergen, "a Rossini sandwich filled with a generous serving of Hayden" - Rossini's Sonata #3 in C Major, Haydn's Divertimento for 2 Violins, Cello and Bass, and Rossini's Sonata #6 in D Major.

Music, food, wine and art. Truly an enchanting midsummer night!

© 2006 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

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