I always enjoy sharing photos of Maine - I get so many nice comments whenever I feature Skylands, my home in Seal Harbor, or the surrounding areas in Acadia National Park.
Unfortunately, I am unable to visit Maine as much as I would like, but Cheryl Dulong, who works for me at Skylands, loves the outdoors, and often sends me beautiful images taken during her early morning hikes. Recently, she photographed several of "Mr. Rockefeller's Bridges". These bridges, which are located at stream and gorge crossings throughout Acadia's carriage road system, were financed, designed and built by millionaire philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr.
As you will see in the following gallery, each bridge, constructed from hand-hewn local granite, is truly a work of art. Enjoy these photos.
This is one of the 16 “Rockefeller Bridges” at Acadia. It is called Jordan Pond Bridge, also known as Jordan Pond Dam Bridge. Built in 1920, this bridge leads visitors from the Jordan Pond House out to the surrounding carriage roads.
This is Jordan Stream, but because of the very dry summer, there is no water flowing.
This is the other side of Jordan Pond Bridge. Although beautifully made, this bridge often goes unnoticed since the magnificent Jordan Pond and The Bubbles are seen in the distance.
Cheryl took this photo over the Bubble Pond Bridge and carriage road.
The Bubble Pond Bridge was constructed in 1928 and is the only solid masonry bridge in the park.
This medium-sized bridge is located just next to the Bubble Pond parking lot on the north side of Bubble Pond. The stone and mortar substructure are surfaced in rough-dressed random laid rubblestone.
Here is a closer view of the wonderful stonework.
Next stop is the West Branch carriage road over the West Branch Bridge.
This bridge was built in 1931 and has a very narrow six-foot wide arch, which stands above the usually dry stream bed.
The 170-foot structure curves sharply over the ravine.
Here is a photo Cheryl took after walking over the bridge.
This is the road over Cliffside Bridge built in 1932.
The Cliffside Bridge was one of the last bridges to be completed. Cliffside Bridge was constructed for the Around-Mountain carriage road under Penobscot Mountain.
The bridge was constructed in the style of an English castle. It is also the longest of the Acadia National Park bridges, and offers wonderful views of the surrounding area. This is one of several viewing platforms.
The bridge spans roughly 250-feet.
The railing of the bridge is crenulated – you can see the upright placement of the massive hand-hewn boulders.
Stones along the edges of the carriage roads are called “Rockefeller’s Teeth”.
The Amphitheatre Bridge built in 1931 is a long, 236-foot structure that traverses the deep Amphitheatre ravine.
Located in the valley between Cedar Swamp Mountain and Penobscot Mountain, this bridge is made of precisely-cut and placed pink granite slabs. The 50-foot rounded arch span is constructed of rough-dressed, uneven radiating voussoirs, or stones creating the decorative arch, and has a prominent keystone.
The patterns of raised pieces along with the open spaces under the top railing make this bridge even more unique.
This bridge is called Little Harbor Brook Bridge, and was built in 1919.
This modest yet elegant little carriage-road bridge is the second oldest in the park and is located almost a mile downstream from the Amphitheater Bridge.
Constructed of dark stained rock, this is one of the more remote bridges. It has a small single round arch and is 40-feet long with a span of 20-feet.
The Cobblestone Bridge spanning Jordan Stream was the first bridge built on the carriage road system in 1917.
It is the only bridge constructed completely of cobblestones.
Architect William Welles Bosworth, designed this bridge; however, it was carriage road engineer, Charles Simpson who suggested the use of rounded boulders for the facing. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. agreed the rounded boulders would look more natural than cut stone work.
Here is a close look at the cobblestone facing.
This bridge is now 100-years old, and still so spectacular.
I'll be back in West Chester, Pennsylvania, this weekend, at the QVC headquarters and studios, to share more of my new gourmet food collection. Be sure to tune-in tomorrow, October 22nd, between noon and 4:30pm ET, when I talk about my delicious pigs in a blanket hors d’oeuvres and my mouthwatering prime rib! I will post reminders on my Twitter page @MarthaStewart.
While I was at QVC earlier this week, I had the opportunity to visit the exquisite Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. Longwood Gardens has a rich and varied history. For thousands of years, the native Lenni Lenape tribe fished its streams, hunted its forests, and planted its fields. In 1700, Quaker farmer, George Peirce, purchased 400-acres of the English-claimed land and began developing the property. His decedents eventually created an arboretum of some of the finest trees in the nation. Unfortunately, as years passed, heirs lost interest and the land suffered decades of neglect until 1906, when it was obtained by Pierre du Pont - entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family. Pierre's passion and vision created the groundwork for what is now Longwood Gardens - home to many spectacular botanical collections spread across 1,083-acres - all wonderfully maintained by a staff of 1,300 employees, students and volunteers.
If you are in the area through November 19th, stop by and visit the Chrysanthemum Festival, where you’ll see thousands of colorful mums planted in orbs, spirals, and pagodas - you’ll love it. Here are photos from my recent visit to Longwood Gardens - enjoy.
Longwood Gardens is open to visitors year-round and consists of nearly 1,100-acres of gardens, woodlands and meadows. (Photo courtesy of Longwood Gardens)
We walked through the newly planted Greenspire™ littleleaf linden, Tilia cordata ‘PNI 6025’ tree allee in the Main Fountain Garden. I love the shadows of the trees in the center of the allee. The five-acre Main Fountain Garden was du Pont’s most ambitious project.
Here is a view of the Central Canal from the Main Fountain Garden Terrace – look at all the beautiful boxwood.
Geese are frequent visitors to the lakes at Longwood Gardens. Go to my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 to see a video of all these geese flying.
This is the grotto entrance in the Main Fountain Garden. Look closely and you can see the sparkle of mica in the rough stone walls.
Just inside, we saw this beautiful rain curtain.
Above the rain curtain is this oculus – so pretty.
This is the Lower Reception Plaza at Longwood. Here, they planted Japanese boxwood, Buxus microphylla var. japonica ‘Green Beauty’ in Versailles boxes.
These are the newly planted Japanese boxwood hedges, Buxus microphylla var. japonica ‘Green Beauty’. More than three-thousand new boxwood have been installed in the garden during the last several years.
This is the Center Walk, in the Main Conservatory. Longwood’s Conservatory contains at least 4,600 different types of plants and trees.
These are columns wrapped in cascade anemone mum, Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Megumi’, Orangery.
And here is a colorful anemone mum, Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Purple Light’ and coralbells, Heuchera ‘Spellbound’.
Hanging just below the glass ceiling are these mum spheres, cascade anemone mum Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Megumi’ and coleus, Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Valentine’. They are hanging above the flooded floor of the Exhibition Hall in the Main Conservatory.
On the flooded floor, I noticed this Bismarckia, Bismarckia nobilis and Australian tree-fern, Cyathea cooperi. If you recall, I have several Bismarckias and tree ferns at my Bedford, New York farm. During the summer, I love to display them outdoors in the courtyard behind my Winter House.
This is a spider mum, Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Mocha’.
And this is a reflex mum, Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Paint Box’ – I admired its bold orange-red color.
This is called a Small Thousand Bloom form, planted with an irregular incurve mum, Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Early Seiko’.
Here is another spider mum, Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Showers’.
I also keep many, many cycads at my farm. This is Wood’s cycad, Encephalartos woodii.
I though this was so interesting – a 100 cultivar grafted mum.
These waterlilies are gorgeous. This one is a hybrid water-platter, Victoria ‘Longwood Hybrid’.
Here is a closer look at one of the pads in the Waterlily Display.
Here are tropical day-flowering waterlilies, Nymphaea ‘Foxfire’.
And this is a royal water-platter, Victoria amazonica.
We also saw bonsai trees displayed on a table.
This bonsai specimen is Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia.
This is a chrysanthemum bonsai display.
This one is bonsai cascade anemone mum, Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Ugetsu’.
And here is bonsai single mum, Chrysanthemum × morifolium ‘Chidori’.
One of the highlights of our visit was the Chrysanthemum Festival, which runs through November 19 – here is the Thousand Bloom Chrysanthemum, a single chrysanthemum plant grown to produce as many perfect blooms as possible. Longwood traditionally grows the largest Thousand Bloom outside of Asia. This year’s plant has 1,443 uniform blooms on a single plant that measures approximately 12-feet wide. (Photo courtesy of Longwood Gardens)
And here I am with James Sutton, Senior Horticultural Display Designer, and James Harbage, PhD, Director, Floriculture and Conservatories. They both gave us a very pleasant and informative tour of Longwood Gardens. I encourage you to visit this magical space the next time you’re in the area.
This week, the world’s largest candy shop, founded by Dylan Lauren, celebrated its milestone birthday with the unveiling of more than 20 one-of-a-kind candy mosaics crafted by various celebrities and artists. The pieces were revealed during the “Sweet 16” party at Dylan’s flagship store in New York City. I was thrilled to participate! We were all asked to create mosaics using nothing but candy - just Jelly Beans, Gummy Bears, M&Ms and other tasty bonbons. These mosaics are being auctioned off with all proceeds from the sales going to various charities - mine is The Martha Stewart Center For Living at Mount Sinai. The auction runs now through November 10th, and you can bid on your favorite at dylanscandybar.com/sweet16 or Charitybuzz.com.
Here are some photos of my candy mosaic, how it was made, and some of the others on display at Dylan’s Candy Bar - enjoy.
Here is the actual photo of the poppies on a silver platter that inspired my mosaic. It is one of my favorite flower photographs – all of them grown in the gardens of my Bedford, New York farm.
Designers, Hosanna Houser and Tiffany Fung, from our offices, helped me create our candy mosaic. We used lots of different types of candy, including Gummy Bears, licorice, and Orange Slices.
We also used lots of M&Ms and lots of jelly beans.
And, for the silver tray, we used foil candy wrappers.
Every poppy bloom is so realistic – look at the wonderful details. Hosanna and Tiffany used Goop glue and hot glue guns to create the flowers and affix them to the tray.
Gummy Bears covered with chocolate Kiss candy foil wrappers were used to create the intricate trim and handles.
Gummy Worms were also used to create some of the flower petals. The entire tray of candy poppies took a few days to complete. Wait until you see my finished mosaic at the end of this gallery – you’ll love it.
Here is the candy bar at Dylan’s flagship store where guests could taste all sorts of sweet treats during the birthday event. All the candy mosaics were showcased around the space.
Decorated pails were distributed, so guests could also take home candies from the bar.
Costumed women on stilts greeted guests at the entrance.
There was even a donut wall – colorful hand made donuts, and lots of cookies.
This candy mosaic, made entirely from M&Ms, is from model, Lily Aldridge.
This is Julianne Moore’s candy mosaic.
Here are Dylan Lauren and Michael Strahan standing next to Jessica Biel’s “Sweet 16” candy creation.
Marisol and Rob Thomas made this candy mosaic. It is the logo for their charity, Sidewalk Angels – a not-for-profit foundation focused on animal advocacy.
This whimsical candy mosaic was submitted by Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka.
This candy mosaic from Andy Cohen was made using jelly beans, M&Ms, Gummy Teeth and Sixlets.
Katie Couric submitted this candy mosaic.
And actress Uzo Aduba submitted this bumble bee mosaic.
This is Michael Strahan’s jelly bean and M&Ms candy mosaic.
And you know who this is – Whoopi Goldberg, by Whoopie Goldberg.
This popcorn candy mosaic came from pop artist Burton Morris.
Fashion designer, Vera Wang, stopped by to admire all the candy art work.
Bobby Flay’s “Crunchburger” candy mosaic looks so real.
Artist and food photographer, Henry Hargreaves, submitted this mosaic of Pink Floyd’s album cover “The Dark Side of the Moon.”
This candy mosaic is by neo-pop artist, Romero Britto. It was made using M&Ms, jelly beans, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, Gummy Bears, Pearls, and Hot Tamales.
Actor and comedian, Eric Stonestreet, submitted this clown mosaic.
Stacey Bendet Wiener – CEO of Alice + Olivia, a New York City contemporary clothing company, made a self portrait candy mosaic out of jelly beans, licorice wheels and candy sunflower seeds.
Jessica Alba’s colorful candy mosaic was made using jelly beans and Gummy Bears.
This is Dylan’s candy mosaic – made using candy sunflower seeds, Sixlets, jelly beans, Gummy Bears, lemon drops, M&Ms, Tic Tacs, Jordan almonds, Cry Babies, Hot Tamales, gum balls, and Chicklets.
And here is Dylan joined by her parents, Ricky and Ralph Lauren, and Romero Britto, standing next to Ricky and Ralph’s candy mosaic of their dog.
And this is my candy creation! It is so lifelike. I was so excited with the outcome! My contribution benefits The Martha Stewart Center For Living at Mount Sinai. Remember, you can vote on your favorite by clicking on the link to Dylan’s Candy Bar above. Happy Birthday Dylan’s Candy Bar! Here’s to many more sweet years ahead.
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