Savoring Spring with a Fun-Filled Field Trip

Things seem to have changed a bit, but we grew up in a time when kids went on field trips every other week. At least it felt that way. From The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to 18th-century Chester County farms and everywhere in between, as kids, we visited anything worth seeing in Southeastern Pennsylvania in the late 90s and early 2000s. In seventh grade, we took in a part of Florida on a week-long adventure known to us as "Marine Lab". We all bought calling cards and stood in line taking turns at the payphone to reach out to our parents and assure them we were alive and mostly well. Ah, yes, those were the days.

Rumor has it that kids don't experience field trips quite like we did anymore. You'll have to let us know in the comments what the situation is these days if you're a parent. In any case, we've continued to keep the zest for day trips alive by going on our own "field trips" away from the lab in search of inspiration and seasonal flavor. We took our first sojourn in the name of our officially minted business to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. We've both long been members and visit with much regularity, but we hadn't been there on a mission in quite some time. And I don't think checking out live music and what's on tap at the beer garden counts.

We charged up our cameras, packed up our most recent dye lab experiments, and headed out to find springtime inspiration. We knew we wanted to hit the orchid room, which always packs a lot of punch within limited square footage. We also hoped to check out the new atrium, which Longwood completed in the fall of 2024 and boasted new plant species. We showed our skeins some beautiful springtime blooms, which we figured would increase their happiness and get them some much-needed sunlight and fresh air. We compared and contrasted our dye experiments with various buds and blossoms. And we even complained about the heat to some visiting Arazonians, who put us in our place about what real extreme temperatures feel like (they were lovely, and we weren't actually complaining; it just became a natural topic of conversation since strangers are good at talking to each other about the weather).
Don't worry, we still took in some drinks at the beer garden and munched on some delicious chicken salad croissant sandwiches.

So our first-ever Stone Cellar Dye Works field trip yielded a quaint little experience, and we've logged it with photographic proof for the books. Check out our photos of the plants that grabbed our attention the most and let us know which ones delight you. How did we do with our spring collection? Can you find the floral resemblance?

Thanks for continuing to join us on this journey, and we look forward to taking you along on the next one.

See you around the swift!
Tori + Eve