Culture in the Country, a beautiful day in the Berkshires

Yesterday was a great day to be an innkeeper and take a rare day off to enjoy the beautiful Berkshires.  It is a treat to see the Berkshires that I love.    I went on a hike with my hiking group to Lime Kiln Farm, wildlife sanctuary, part of  Mass Audubon.

 In the afternoon  I went with a friend to Ventfort Hall to hear Cornelia Brooke Gilder   The Untold Story of Teddy Wharton” will be revealed as one of the 2012 summer series of Tea and Talks at Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum on Tuesday, August 14 at 4:00pm. Presented by author and historian Cornelia Brooke Gilder,

Donated to Mass Audubon by Edna Sheinhart in 1990, the sanctuary features two miles of trails that traverse rolling fields, limestone ridge and outcrops, upland deciduous and conifer forest, and former pastures. Hayfields, a farm pond, stonewalls, and fences attest to the property’s long agricultural history. For a brief time limestone was quarried and turned into lime in the kiln still standing today. The sanctuary is part of the 14,000-acre Schenob Brook Area of Critical Environmental Concern.
The sanctuary includes a wide variety of natural  and human-altered habitats including rolling hayfields and spectacular views of Mount Everett (elev 2,602 ft). wooded and shrub swamps.  Nearly 500 species of plants have been identified here.

Ventfort Hall, built by George and Sarah Morgan as their summer home, is an imposing Jacobean Revival mansion that typifies the Gilded Age in Lenox. Sarah, the sister of J. Pierpont Morgan, purchased the property in 1891, and hired Rotch & Tilden, prominent Boston architects, to design the house.

The day ended with a vist from dear friends from New Jersey and dinner at a wonderful Peruvian restaurant in Lee. 

This was truly a wonderful day combining nature and culture which the Berkshires is all about.