Friday, January 25, 2008

Garth

Quiet corner in a Garth, Washington National Cathedral

Wednesday's picture featured the colannade on the northeast corner of Washington National Cathedral. As an anonymous commenter pointed out, the garden beyond the colonnade is called a Garth. This, then, is the Garth on the northeast corner of the cathedral. The entire Garth is actually much larger than this. I just liked the tree and tower in this particular corner of this lovely garden. I can only imagine how lovely it will be in the spring.

And I thought Garths were just country singers and math teachers. (I had a math teacher in high school named Garth Dennis Gooch. In addition to teaching math, he was also a farmer. That's like gardening, right?)

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 1/08

4 comments:

Lucky Dip Lisa said...

Very good! The tree is beautiful and delicate againts the solid building.
The narrow windows intrigue me..is this building old enough to have been around in times of war? They look like the type of windows castles had to stop arrows from landing in the building.
I also like the new word "Garth" I didn't know that's what it meant? I wonder if "Gareth" has a similar meaning?

Bobbie said...

That was so interesting, D.C. Learned a new word too. This is a nice picture of the tree and tower. Something so delicate about the tree against the solidity of the cathedral.

Janet Kincaid said...

Lisa: I'm not sure of the exact age of this particular part of the cathedral, but I can tell you the cornerstone for the overall structure was laid in 1907. The cathedral was finished 83 years later in 1990. Overall, the cathedral is barely more than 100 years old, so this Garth is somewhere in that timeframe. As for the architectural, it's Gothic, which might explain the castle-like look.

As for Gareths, I have no idea, but I can promise I'll be looking it up...

Bobbie: I really liked this tree, too, for the reasons you mention!

Bev said...

Garth, a new one for me as well. This building does have a castle-like look to it, and may be owing to architects being influenced by other buildings from the past.