"Authors at Aldrich" are terrific!

Last night we went to this week's Authors at Aldrich program, featuring Gordon Hayward, a landscape and garden designer who has written a number of beautiful, useful books. He talked about growing up on a farm and having to prune fruit trees from a young age. His father would work very hard all day and then read in bed from 9 pm to about 1 am. At breakfast, he would share what he'd learned with his sons. He had very focussed reading habits, confining himself to one topic or author a year or two - from the Civil War to Shakespeare (twice) to Compton's Picture Encyclopedia. The boys got quite an informal education.

Hayward became an English teacher and then met and married Mary, an Englishwoman. He worked in England's Cotswolds as a gardener and then began writing for Country Journal and then for Horticulture magazine before embarking on writing books. Many of his books discuss designing a garden in great detail with photographs and sketches, and then include how-tos, based on his experiences with his Westminster West garden and others he has designed around the country. Intimate Gardens is of particular interest to Vermonters because it includes lists of plants for specific settings and their blooming periods for our climate. Warm and welcoming, Hayward talked for about half an hour and then fielded some very interesting questions from the audience.

Hayward's presentation was the fifth of 12 this summer, held on Wednesdays at 6:15 pm in the library's Milne Room. All that I have attended so far have been very different from each other, but fascinating. I also particularly enjoyed Gareth Hinds' discussion of his graphic novels and his process of putting them together. All the programs are being videotaped so that DVDs may be borrowed from the library, they will air on Channel 7, and they are accessible on the library's website. People can come to the Farmer's Market, move on to the library program, and then head to Currier Park for the concert. Barre is very lucky to have such an excellent package of activities every Wednesday night!