"Solitude is often the best society." (--Unkown)

I'd like to share some of the photos I took at Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, NY, yesterday.

I've always wanted to visit this place, and since I was here in the area for Duke this weekend, I took advantage of my time here to go and investigate the famous artists' community.

Yaddo has served as a creative enclave for artists since the turn of the 20th century. So many people in the arts have benefited from the serenity offered by this lovely sanctuary in Saratoga Springs.

http://yaddo.org/yaddo/history.shtml


As a normal visitor, (and not an invited artist) one is not allowed to travel any closer to the Yaddo mansion than where I stood to take this photo, but I took this from a distance, and I found myself thinking, the whole time I was there, that the writers/musicians/artists/choreographers/filmmakers assembled here on the stone porch are very likely people we'll hear from and see in the future.

What a rich legacy Spencer and Katrina Trask left the world. Artists come for two weeks to two months of celebrated solitude and peace in this lovely place, where they can concentrate on their art and spend their time creating.

So, while I wasn't allowed to visit the mansion itself, or the cottages surrounding the mansion on the grounds, I was allowed to visit the Yaddo gardens, and they were tranquil and elegant. Roses were blooming, even now, in September. I was in awe with every step I took, thinking that I was probably walking on the same ground where Leonard Bernstein, or Truman Capote, or Ted Hughes, or John Cheever, or Sylvia Plath, etc had walked before. What a perfect day I had for visiting this place. Did my heart good...

"It is better to create than to be learned, creating is the true essense of life." (--Barthold Niebuhr)