Garden Tour at Hamilton House

Dear Diary,

A perfect summer day to tour the Colonial Revival gardens at Hamilton House in South Berwick, Maine.  The house was built in 1788 but the gardens were laid out 100 years later by Emily Tyson and her stepdaughter Elise.  They were great friends of Maine author Sarah Orne Jewett who encouraged them to buy and restore the house.  The house sits overlooking the lovely Salmon Falls River.  I learned a lot about the design elements of this style of garden which is very formal, symmetrical with radiating paths.  We ended in the much less formal wall garden which I really loved.  A bit more my style.  After the tour, masks on and socially distanced, I ate my picnic lunch over looking the river.  I've added two extras,  a full view of the magnificent "four square" house and the compass set into a mill stone at the door which reads "East West Hames Best".  Hames is a lowland Scottish word for home.  Seems everywhere I go, Scotland goes with me.