Dawes Arboretum

Monday May 19th, 2003 I went to Dawes Arboretum [an arboretum is a tree garden] in Newark, Ohio. It was my first time there and my expectations were admittedly pretty low. However, the park turned out to be great and I had a good time communing with nature.


I even had a chance to lay down and have a picnic [pictured on left]. There were thousands of trees and plants to see at the Arboretum and after a couple hours of exploring I finally gave up trying to see it all.

All that nature and relaxing in nature got me in the mood to do some gardening, so when I returned from Dawes I went straight to my back patio and started cleaning things up. I weeded my small plots of land, got some new furniture, and planted a few things here and there. And when it was all remodeled I had to give myself two green thumbs up for a job well done.



Even with all the new things added to my modest little garden, the highlight would still have to be my rosebush. One look at my prize winning roses (actually, I've never won any prizes, but I should have dammit) and the viewers heart is sure to melt into a blissful serenity.


Also in the Newark, Ohio area, is something unrelated to trees or gardening, but equally exciting. And that's the Longaberger basket headquarters. Longaberger baskets are somewhat of a collectors item in Ohio and they aren't exactly on the cheap side either. People really take pride in the quality and craftsmanship in each basket that Longaberger makes. And what better way to showcase that pride then making your home office into a giant basket building? It looks like Godzilla was prancing through Newark one day and left his picnic basket behind on the open plains. I just wish there were some giants cupcakes inside the picnic basket still [I went inside to make sure, but cupcakes there were not].