Open house - up in the Longwood trees
Nature's Castles, three big new tree houses, welcome garden visitors.
Nature's Castles, Longwood Gardens' three new large-scale tree houses, open to visitors for the first time this weekend, with tours, demonstrations and activities.
The houses include the Lookout Loft, an Adirondack-style tree house in the garden's Forest Walk; the Canopy Cathedral, a two-story Norwegian church-inspired house overlooking the Italian Water Garden; and the Birdhouse, with a bird's-eye view of the Terrace Woodland.
Visitors can meet tree-house designers from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. In "Gear Up" for Tree Fun from 11 to 3, kids can learn about being an arborist and venture up a tree. From noon to 3, children's crafts and tours are scheduled.
Rebecca Kelly will offer Arbor Day storytelling, based on folktales and original works and incorporating puppetry. An arborist demonstration and information station will be on-site from 11 to 3.
Scheduled Saturday are the Bird's Eye View Tour, Early Spring Warblers, and the Earth-Inspired Designs Course from 9 to noon. The garden's Terrace Restaurant will offer kids' meals and a lemonade stand, and the first 500 guests each day will receive a tree seedling as a souvenir.
Puppets on parade
In collaboration with Spiral Q Puppet Theater, a Philadelphia organization promoting positive social change through the creation and display of puppetry, students from local schools will showcase their yearlong artistic efforts in after-school programs in three parades this spring, the first this afternoon at 4.
More than 70 students in grades K to 7 from McKinley Elementary School will line up at the school at 3 to begin a route through Norris Square. The parade will feature signs, wearable cardboard armor, handheld puppets and paintings, all created as a result of the theater's mission to empower youth and promote art education in schools. The one-hour parade will end with a small celebration at Norris Square Park.