Wood, Wind & Strings : Chamber Concert Series 2006-2007

Each year, The Morton Arboretum presents a delightful Chamber Concert Series at the Thornhill Education Center. In addition to my role as a librarian in the Sterling Morton Library, I also coordinate these concerts. Founded in 1980, the Series strives to present a diverse palette of performers, instruments and composers. There are three concerts remaining in the 2006-2007 season and good seats are still available! During the next three months, you’ll have the opportunity to experience:

• Sunday, January 7, 2007 - Carlyn Lloyd and Jon Warfel – flute and piano duo
• Sunday, February 4, 2007 -The Glorian Duo – harp and flute duo
• Sunday, March 4, 2007 - John Mark Rozendaal and David Schrader – fortepiano and ‘cello

Each concert begins at 2:15 p.m. and is presented in the Auditorium of the Arboretum's Thornhill Education Center. After each performance, a reception in the adjoining Founder's Room offers the opportunity to enjoy conversation with the artists and fellow audience members in the splendor of the original library of the Arboretum's founder, Joy Morton.
Tickets ($18.00 – Arboretum members and $23.00 non-members) are available at the Arboretum’s Visitor Center, by calling 630-725-2066 or via snail mail at:

Chamber Concert Tickets
The Morton Arboretum
4100 Illinois Route 53
Lisle, Illinois 60532

The beauty of the Arboretum landscape in winter as a setting for the wondrous sounds of these accomplished performers! Expand your musical world and attend an upcoming concert!

The Garden in Winter

As we draw tantalizingly close to the winter solstice, I’ve been studying and thinking about the garden in winter. Emphasis and information is readily available for the garden at more temperate times of the year, but there are a number of resources featuring plants and gardens during winter. Whether selecting plants with four season interest or ideas for winter garden care, the Sterling Morton Library has a number of resources on gardening at this sometimes challenging time of the year! Consider stopping by the Library to view and peruse some of these resources:

• Chasse, Patrick. Lessons in design. Horticulture, v. 101, issue 6, p. 52-54.
• Eddison, Sydney. The unsung season : gardens and gardeners in winter, 1995. SB454 .E33
• Fortnam, Joanna. White magic. Garden Design, issue 141, p. 36-39.
• Garrett, Fergus. Winter plants. Gardens Illustrated, issue 98, p. 64-67.
• Lawrence, Elizabeth. Gardens in winter, 1961. SB454 .L34
• Martin, Tovah. Cold comfort. Organic Gardening, v. 53, no. 1, p. 28-33.
• Reich, Lee. The soil in winter. Fine Gardening, issue 101, p. 72-73.
• Simeone, Vincent A. Wonders of the winter landscape : shrubs and trees to brighten the cold-weather garden, 2005. SB435 .S48
• Verey, Rosemary. The garden in winter, 1995. SB454 .V47
• When winter looms. Horticulture, v. 102, no. 6, p. 63-68.
• Wilson, Helen Van Pelt. Color for your winter yard & garden, with flowers, berries, birds, and trees, 1978. SB454 .W68
• The Winter garden, 1991. SB454 .W4
• Yockey, Terry L. The garden in winter. Northern Gardener, v. 134, no. 6, p. 37-41.
  

Celebrate the season by taking a walk at the Arboretum and visiting the Sterling Morton Library!

Happy Winter Solstice!

Hours of the Sterling Morton Library

We’re tweaking the Library’s hours over the next few weeks. The resources of the Sterling Morton Library will be available:

• Tuesday-Friday, December 19-22, 2006 – open – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Saturday-Monday, December 23-25, 2006 – closed
• Tuesday-Friday, December 26-29, 2006 – open – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Saturday-Monday, December 30, 2006 - January 1, 2007 – closed
  

Beginning Tuesday, January 2, 2007, our hours will return to:

• Tuesday-Friday - open - 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Saturday - open - 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
  
  For complete information on hours and activities at The Morton Arboretum, visit: http://www.mortonarb.org/

Wishing you all of the joys of the season and a New Year filled with wonder!

Leafing Through the Pages – 2007

What are your reading plans for 2007? Imagine a year filled with butterflies, the Limberlost, Teddy Roosevelt, Darwin, Katharine S. White, Leopold and Linnaeus! The Sterling Morton Library's book discussion group, Leafing Through the Pages, will be reading and discussing a host of authors, ideas and topics in the coming year.

• January 11, 2007 - Halpern, Sue. Four wings and a prayer : caught in the mystery of the monarch butterflies, 2001.
• February 8, 2007 - Blunt, Wilfrid. Linnaeus : the compleat naturalist, 1971.
• March 8, 2007 - Stratton-Porter, Gene. A girl of the Limberlost, first published in 1909 with a jillion reprints.
• April 12, 2007 - Kolbert, Elizabeth. Field notes from a catastrophe : man, nature, and climate change, 2006.
• May 10, 2007 - Darwin, Charles. The voyage of the Beagle, first published in 1839.
• June 14, 2007- Louv, Richard. Last child in the woods : saving our children from nature-deficit disorder, 2006.
• July 12, 2007 - White, Katharine S. and Elizabeth Lawrence. Two gardeners : Katharine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence : a friendship in letters, 2002.
• August 9, 2007 - Newton, Julianne Lutz. Aldo Leopold's odyssey : rediscovering the author of a Sand County Almanac, 2006.
• September 13, 2007 - Millard, Candice. The river of doubt : Theodore Roosevelt's darkest journey, 2005.
• October 11, 2007 - Tudge, Colin. The tree : a natural history of what trees are, how they live, and why they matter, 2006.
• November 8, 2007 - Maloof, Joan. Teaching the trees : lessons from the forest, 2005.
• December 13, 2007 - Pollan, Michael. Second nature : a gardener's education, 1991.

The group meets the second Thursday of each month from 10-12 in the Sterling Morton Library. Join us at an upcoming gathering for a morning of spirited discussion and surprising ideas. Not able to join us? Please read along and participate in the Leafing Through the Pages wiki found at: http://leafingthroughthepages.pbwiki.com.

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."

Jorge Luis Borges

Donald Culross Peattie - an Illinois treasure!

At the November gathering of Leafing Through the Pages, the Sterling Morton Library’s book discussion group, I highlighted some of the resources in our collection relating to Donald Culross Peattie. Born in 1898 in Chicago, Peattie is a significant mid-20th century natural history writer. During our break from discussing Green Laurels : the lives and achievements of the great naturalists, group members viewed some of the books that were written by Peattie and also those co-written with his wife Louise Redfield Peattie. In addition to these volumes, a donor recently presented to the Library a significant Peattie collection including unique manuscripts, letters and some of Peattie’s high school publications. In our collection are several original corrected typescript manuscripts of Peattie’s books Green Laurels, Singing in the Wilderness and The Flowering Earth. These unique manuscripts include corrections, additions and deletions made by Peattie as he reviewed the drafts. We also have The Midway, “a publication for the advancement of literary interest among the students of the University [of Chicago] High School.” Within these several issues (v.8, no. 1 & 2, v. 9, no. 3 – November 1914, December 1914 and February 1915) are stories written by the young authors Donald Culross Peattie and Louise Redfield (later Peattie). A significant author and naturalist, this collection represents a rich resource.
Libraries are such surprising places! Imagine being able to read Peattie’s Green Laurels, examine his manuscript and peruse some of his correspondence! Please visit the Sterling Morton Library to immerse yourself in this rich resource on Donald Culross Peattie and Louise Redfield Peattie.

For further information about this writer and naturalist read Donald Culross Peattie : remembering an early prophet in Chicago Wilderness from the Chicago Wilderness Magazine.