Spring at Mount Vernon

We've gotten our money's worth out of the annual pass to Mount Vernon. Since friends are in town visiting, we headed there again on Sunday. Was a beautiful day and all the flower were in bloom. We wandered the gardens for awhile and then headed down to the Pioneer Farm which had reopened for summer.

Upper Garden.

More peonies!

Foxglove in fun colors.

I'll have to figure out what variety this peony is, the plant was so vibrant.

The breeze made centering this poppy in the photo a little tricky, so Ryan helped out.

Flowers everywhere!

I was surprised to see this late blooming daffodil in the midst of the other flowers.

There are so many different types of gardens, everywhere you look was something interesting.

The lower garden focuses more on fruits and veggies.

All the fruit trees are trimmed and trained to grow along the low fences.

This view shows the corner garden rooms along the wall that were used for a variety of gardening purposes.

Headed down to the Pioneer Farm, we saw an escapee lamb. It was happily grazing just outside the fence.

All the animals are varieties that George Washington had during his time. Liecester Longwools was the sheep that he usually raised.

I think all the animals have to be very patient at Mount Vernon. The tourists were trying to get really close here.

Down at the Pioneer Farm, there were several reenactors. They were cooking apples over the fire and preparing wool for spinning.

A replica of a slave cabin.

The 16-sided barn that George Washington designed for threshing grain.

Inside you can see where the grain was sifted through the floor boards by the animals tromping around in a circle.

The view of the Potomac River from the barn.

More animals to pose for pictures.

The view of the river. After we wandered around for awhile, we realized that there is a shuttle to take you back to the visitor's center. The walk down to the farm was pleasant, but hiking straight up the hill to get back was not looking so fun. In the shuttle van, we heard on the radio that security was calling livestock. The driver said it usually means an escapee. We started laughing, because we'd seen the lamb. Guessing it got bored and decided to wander away. I think this was my favorite time of year to visit.