Museum Days at Dumbarton Oaks

We've been to Dumbarton Oaks on many occasions, at different times of the year. This was the first visit we've made in September.

Now, in the past couple of years, the grounds of this venerable Washington, D.C. estate founded by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss had started to fall into gentle decay. It has been a bit heartbreaking to see the creeping neglect - the weeds, the murky pond scum, the abandoned gardening equipment - overcome the grounds as the recession must have obviously pruned the budget. But for the national Museum Days opening on September 25, the admission was free and the grounds were immaculate. Every blade of grass was trimmed, every weed pulled, every boxwood perfectly clipped. You'd have thought the Queen herself was expected to arrive at any moment.

The highlight, however, surely had to be sculptor Patrick Doughtery's ethereal windswept willow structures ringing the Ellipse. What did they look like? Hobbit houses in a tornado? Wooly mammoths on parade? You could enjoy them on many levels. Best of all, it was possible to walk inside of them, just like the lean-tos and makeshift shelters that my friends and I would make in the woods. Read more about Mr. Dougherty's work in the New York Times.

Another delight are the various small structures on the property. I especially love the three garden sheds in the Kitchen Garden, with their terracotta tiled roofs with lead flashing.

This is a place to return to time and again.