WKXL - New Hampshire Talk Radio
Artful Living with Anne Deely
(upbeat music) - Hello everybody out there in WKXL Radio Land. This is Jane Kormi, or your host for Art for Living. You're at WKXL 1450 AM, 103.9 FM Cawkert, and 101.9 FM in Manchester. So before we begin our wonderful program today, we wanna give a shout out to Avalon Farm Music Institute. And Avalon is having a great concert on June 28th, and you don't wanna miss it. You can go right online and catch their information at avilockmusicfarm.org, and you can find them. They have such a great website, you can't miss it. They have so many things coming up in the summer. And actually, I will be sort of highlighting that concert at Avilock on Friday night. So we want everyone to go. We want them to have a great audience, because what an awesome, awesome event they plan on Friday, right in Bosque, right across from Concord. So if you're just joining us today, you know that we like to do all kinds of different things here on Art for Living. Sometimes it's the straight arts art music, drama theater, that kind of thing. Sometimes we do other things too, because we know that Art for Living can be in a whole lot more than just performing arts. And in conjunction with that, I was doing some research online recently for housing, for singers that are coming to the area, for what, the second week or the first week, I guess, of July for the Pittsfield Players Opera y Paliachi. And in searching for housing, I came across an opportunity here that I had to share with everyone, because I never knew about this woodland preserve. And its name is Graylag. And we have Anne here, Anne, what is your last name? - I'm Anne Dili. - Anne, Anne Dili. So Anne Dili, I want you to tell, in a very, very easy, simple way, our listening audience, what is Graylag? - Excellent, Graylag is a 300 acre nature preserve. It's located in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, on the shores of Wild Goose Pond. It's a really special place that was originally developed as a boy's summer camp in the 1940s and 50s. And the infrastructure of the cabins and the roads and were built at that time. And now it's a nature preserve, it's a non-profit. And several of the cabins still stand, and they're available to the public to rent for a weekend or a week and come and stay and really immerse yourself in nature. We have miles of trails for people to enjoy, as well as this truly special, quiet shore front on Wild Goose Pond. - Amazing, amazing. I don't know how I've lived here in Concord for so long. How did I miss this? It's called Graylag, G-R-A-Y-L-A-G. And it's just graylag.org. Okay, that's their site. And they have everything on there that you need. They were, I want to let our listening audience know that working with the community is so important in many ways that maybe we don't even know, right? When we hear about things. But Graylag really did help us out. We had no place to bring these five singers that were coming from New York, from Boston, from Connecticut. I mean, they're coming from all over. And she really, really was generous and offering a beautiful house that they have right here on Graylag for these singers. So I want to say, Anne, for Pittsburgh players, thank you very much for that. That was very kind. Well, we love Pittsfield players. We are in Pittsfield and so it makes us especially happy. I mean, how crazy is that, right? I mean, I happened upon your site and here you are in Pittsfield. I mean, it was crazy. Awesome. So Graylag Nature Preserve, you said that you have a lot of trails and such. So how you said '50s and '60s was when it was in. Yeah, it actually, it's kind of a great story because there was a family from New York City who decided that they wanted to build a summer camp in the 1940s, the war was over, and they said, well, okay boys, what should we do, you're young men? And they said, well, we want to make a summer camp. So they moved up to New Hampshire, they bought the land and started to build it and develop it. And they ran the camp for a couple of years but without extreme financial success, and they realized that they needed a partner. And so they went and found a, they wanted a professional sports player to make it a sports camp. Yeah. And they ended up finding Bob Coosie of the Celtics. What? Yes. Are you kidding me? No. I love Bob Coosie. Oh my goodness. In 1952, Bob became a partner in Graylag and it became his summer camp. Oh my goodness. So we have, we have a host here, Ken Cale, who I know loves Bob Coosie and that whole generate. He's a sports guy anyway. I can't wait to tell him this story. So Bob Coosie joined in the company. And what happened after that? Well, so they really hadn't decided. They were interviewing all sorts of different sports people, boxers and baseball players. But when Bob joined in, he said, well, you know, obviously we should focus on basketball when he designed his special basketball courts and they, he said, all right, I'll start next summer, but you got to build those courts. So they built the courts for him. They built the ball. And at that point, by the mid 50s, it was the largest floodlit outdoor courts in New England. Oh my goodness. So anyway, as you can expect the camp thrived with Bob's name attached to it, but it wasn't just his name. He spent his summers there. He and his family. So the two families now that owned it like I had the family and the Coosie family. Okay. And they lived in a duplex together, this beautiful house that still stands. Folks can rent and they spent their summers. They had between them five daughters and these girls grew up there and have fantastic stories of growing up among this boys camp, all these boys and these five daughters and their experiences. It's really fun to talk with them and hear all that. Oh my, what a story right here in Pittsfield. Yeah. So how long did that go? Well, it went until 1971. And at which point the families, I think they were, you know, it was time to retire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I believe that the camp was sold to the Boy Scouts for a period of time there. There were some, you know, some days in between. Some changes in between different private owners lived there and got divided up a little bit. Okay. In the mid 90s, a man named Carl Wollman found it. It was up for auction and Carl was a farmer from Northwood and he had just had a fabulous herd of Angus cattle that he auctioned off and he thought, you know what? I think he saw the auction listing and said, all right, I think I want to go, you know, check out this and he bought it and I don't, I think his purpose was just to live there. Okay. And as he lived there and felt really the healing nature, the beauty of it, the beauty of it, it is a truly special place. He started to have a different vision and he realized, well, a lot of these cabins are still standing. I could fix them up. I could refurbish them and I could rent them and people, more people could come here and more people could experience this place and feel this energy. Wow. So Carl did that. That was, you know, in the late '90s, late '90s. Yeah, and then, so when he bought it, he was there a few years. He lived there a few years. Yeah, he lived there, he lived there through the rest of his life. He passed away in 2020. Right, but I mean, you said that he bought it in the earlier '90s? I think he bought it in '96. Okay, all right, so he was there a little bit but then he thought this idea to share, share the welfare. That's right, absolutely. What a great story. Holy moly, you know, sometimes you just never know what you're gonna hear. So it became, though, a 501(c)(3) which is a non-profit organization in 2019. Yes. Was that something that Carl put together? Yes, so Carl, again, Carl lived there through those first two decades of the 2000s. Yeah. And he became quite ill and realized that he wanted to find a way for Graylag to continue beyond him. So he spent that last year of his life, 2019, he was quite ill, but he worked really hard because he was very motivated to find a way for Graylag to continue. And so he decided to make it a non-profit and he recruited a, you know, board of directors, volunteers to serve, to run it. And he formed the non-profit and donated everything, the land and the buildings and everything in the buildings to this non-profit. And he passed away in early 2020. Oh, my goodness, huh? Yeah, he, what a legacy. It is, yeah, his spirit and his vision really do live on. It's a, it's a really beautiful place. You know, just before we started, this is the second time in a fairly short period of time, maybe a couple of months, that I have come in contact, you know, through artful living for these large outdoor preserves. Um, to be given to the public. I mean, Avilock, that I was talking about this Music Farm Institute, which is in Boscoen, was, is this beautiful, beautiful, you know, spread of land where they bring artists, music, musicians together to work together. And now we see Graylag is really an endeavor to connect people as well. We are speaking with Anne, and Anne, Dilly, Dilly from Graylag. And this is a preserve in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. We have a lot more to let you know about concerning Graylag and its mission. So you stay right where you are, WKXL, New Hampshire, talkradio.com. And we will be right back here at artful living. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Welcome back. Jane Coneer here, artful living your host, WKXL, 1450 AM, 103.9 FM Concord, and 101.9 FM in Manchester. If you are just joining us, you are, wow, we have a great, a great guest today, Anne, Dilly. And she is with Graylag, which is a nature preserve, right here in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. And in the first segment, she was telling us about the history of Graylag and how it became a preserve and offered a basketball, you know, what do you want to call that? - Focus. It was a basketball focus. - Basketball focus for boys throughout New England. Fabulous, and Bob Coosy was part of this from the '50s to the '70s. And it went through some other time, but it ultimately was made into a non-profit in 219 by the owner of the property, Carl Wollman. The mission of Graylag nature preserve is to connect people and communities to nature by protecting forested lands and watersheds, preserving open space, and offering educational programs and residencies in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. - That's right. - My goodness, so tell me, you're board of directors. Can you tell us a little bit about them? - Sure. Well, first off, it is a really committed group and we're really grateful to them. They include local people from the area, Pittsfield, Northwood, Portsmouth, as well as further away, people who had a connection with Carl or a connection with Graylag. Carl was a sort of person who drew artists and people to him, so yeah, and brought them together, but he also, he wasn't a traditional artist himself, but he really valued that. So previous board members now passed away include the novelist Russell Banks, was a good friend of Carl's and was on the board. But today, we have people who are focused on natural resources, people who are focused on some of the other aspects of Graylag, the community involvement. We have a woman, Mary Ellen, on the board who used to live at Graylag herself, but she is a yoga and reiki master, and so she is always offering her classes at Graylag, also for the healing support that people come here for. - So it's a local board? - Yes. - How important is that, you know, for keeping the identity in the project, in the community? You know, 'cause sometimes, you know, boards don't always have a concentration of people local. - Yeah, no. We're also really grateful. Relatively newly on our board is Susan Gibe, who is one of the daughters of the earliest founding family of Graylag, the guys who came up from New York and built it. - Isn't it awesome? - And so, this year is a special year. So the first Graylag opened for its first summer camp in the summer of 1949, which means this is its 75th anniversary. - Wow, we so-- - So we're really focusing on the history of Graylag this year, and so it's especially helpful that Susan is on the board 'cause she grew up there and can tell us all the stories, but we are, we've engaged a preservation consultant to help us document Graylag's history. - Yes. - And we are restoring one of the remaining basketball courts. - Oh my God. - So Carl had, Carl, it was important to him to find this balance between preserving nature and celebrating the history. - Yeah. - So he, when he purchased the property, all the courts remained, and he went back and forth on what to do with those, and he decided to keep one and retain it. - Okay. - So we've restored that court, and this fall, in September, September 22nd, we're having our big 75th anniversary celebration. - Wow, we saw it, yeah. - So when is that gonna happen? - Sunday, September 22nd. - And at what time? - I believe it's about 10.30 to three. There will be somebody coming up from the Boston Sports Museum, and a representative from the Celtics will be there. Yeah, yeah, we're just, we're very excited. - Oh my goodness, that is so awesome. I had no idea about any of this. I mean, I tell you, I say this to my listeners all the time, and we get feedback from folks that listen. I always love to hear the new information quote live, right? Because some people really do well, and they enjoy interviewing the guests before they get going, they get the gist of what, I've always found that just letting it ride is awesome because it's real. I mean, this is great information. I didn't know anything about this. I find this very exciting. So the 75th anniversary is Sunday, September 22nd, around 10.30, and graylag.org is the website. Should anybody wanna check in and get info? - Yeah, we'll be having, within the next month, we'll be having a registration available for that event. - Yeah, well, I definitely want to register for that one. That's a no minute. You know what, we have to have Pittsfield players do something. - Oh, that's fabulous. - Do some entertainment for the event. I mean, how great would that be? Wow, so you came to graylag when? When did you first start? - Well, well, I have to say, I first started, I first came to graylag in 2013, but that was as a guest. - Okay. - So my-- - Cool. - I just, I don't live that far away from it. - I lived 20 or so minutes, but-- - Right. - So it was always funny to tell people, you know, where are you going on vacation? Oh, we're going to Pittsfield. (laughing) But it is, it's so beautiful. So we went, I took my family there, the summer of 2013, and like many other people, we never stopped going. So every summer after that, we were there, because again, it's just-- - Yes, very special. - Stand past the place. And so I started working there in the summer of 2019. - Wonderful. Well, they're lucky they have you. I mean, you're a great spokesperson. - Well, I'm really lucky to be there. - No, it works both ways, right? - Absolutely. I mean, you know, as a spokesperson for graylag, and in our situation with Pittsfield players where we really were, what would we have done, right? Where were we going to put these five singers? We would have had to really, you know, go to the bank to figure that one out. You not only listened, we spoke for quite a while. You immediately came up with resources for me, and I will never forget that, because that's not, sometimes when you get a no, you understand people can't, you know, organizations or businesses, they can't always help, right? But you're used to like the no, and okay, we wish you luck, but you did not. You came up with ideas before we even came up with, you know, being at graylag. So yeah, you're great, you're great. - It was serendipitous. - It was serendipitous, that's a good word, I love it. So you know what, you have cabins. We're gonna talk a little bit about the cabins. Online, they look so cool. - They look really cool in person too. - Oh, I bet, I bet. So you have, says our cabins offer the perfect place to unwind and recharge in a beautiful nature setting, natural setting. So tell us a little bit about the cabins. - Sure. There are six cabins that we rent these days. One of them is the owner's house that I described that had previously been a duplex that the Coosie and Gibe families stayed in. Later it became Carl's house. So that is right on the lake, really a special beautiful house. There are four other cabins that were previously part of the basketball camp. One of them, Lakeside had been the recreation hall. Bower cabin used to be the office. So that was Bob Coosie's office. - Oh, wow, okay. (laughing) - Birches was a bunk house and the Coosie cabin was also actually a family cabin. - How cool. - We have another house, the Oakleaf Lodge, which is actually a contemporary house built, I believe, in the '80s. But it actually is a wonderful family house to rent. - So why was that built? - It was a separate parcel. And Carl purchased it when it became available because it abuts the rest of the land. - Property, yeah. - Wow, okay. - There's one other cabin that we don't rent through the website, but I think it's worth telling you about. - Sure. - In the, well, in the late '50s, I think more, they need more bunk houses. And so they built eight little cabins up on the hill. And of those two remain. And one of them, we worked to restore just a year or two ago. And it's a really cute little studio cabin. But again, we don't rent it through the website because it has a special purpose. And that is to be a housing for somebody who is involved at Greleg in one way or another. So this summer and last summer, it's been housing for a loon biologist for the Loon Preservation Committee. And that's a biologist who stays there but goes out and monitors the loon population at 60 or so lakes in the area. But it's also we're developing a residency program. So that would be housing for an artist in residence or a naturalist in residence who needed a time out. So that's another thing to watch our website for because we'll be putting up a link for applications for that residency program. - Wow, and is it free? - That is something that you're talking about. So that's something that we're working towards. But yeah, I was just wondering. But whenever we're... - No, I can finish your thought. - When we're working on the pricing for things, we always want things to be accessible. - Yeah. - So I'm looking at your property. I think it's very accessible. WKXL, Artful Living here. Jane Cormier, your host, WKXL1450AM. 103.9 FM Conquered and 101.9 FM in Manchester. Our guest is Anne Dili from Greleg Preserves. And we are so thrilled to have her today, stay right where you are, because we're coming right back. (upbeat music) - Welcome back, Jane Cormier, your host here, Artful Living. New Hampshire, talkradio.com. WKXL1450AM, 103.9 FM Conquered and 101.9 FM in Manchester. Our guest on Artful Living today is Anne Dili from Greleg. Greleg is a beautiful nature preserve in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. And if you're just joining us, we've been talking all about different aspects, the history of Greleg, you know, we've been talking about the preserve. We've talked in the last segment about the wonderful cabins. And everybody should know greleg.org is the website. Greleg.org and you could find all this information here. You know, you do have a little, you know, what do they call it, menu here, it says programs. So what programs do you offer? - Well, we try to offer a variety of programs. Every Tuesday morning, we have a yoga class that is offered by Mary Ellen Shannon. This coming Sunday, June 30th, we're offering a relax and release and rejuvenate nature program. And that will be yoga and Reiki with Mary Ellen. - Beautiful. - And then a sound healing with Steve Bachman. And so that will, what is that? - Sound healing. - Well, he is a craftsman of didgeridous actually. And so he has, he will be bringing in his own didgeridous that he has harvested the wood for and created. And he creates a, I don't know a soundscape, but he creates sound that is meditative and basically provides this opportunity for people to relax and meditate. And that is so cool. So is that all June 30th? That's June 30th, yes. - Wowie Sowie, that's awesome. - Yeah. Also this summer, we're going to be having regular Loon programs be through, offered by the Loon biologist who is staying there and others engaged with the Loon Preservation Committee. And later into the late summer, early fall, we're planning journaling workshops and-- - Great idea. - Yeah, so those are exciting stuff. - And that must be really cool to see this all coming together and putting this together for gray lag. Wonderful, and don't forget September 22nd, which is a Sunday 1030, will be your 75th anniversary party. Yay, awesome. So you have, have you been finding that it's growing? Are you doing more with the property, with the preserve now to? - Yes, you know, certainly it's important to us that we keep, that we keep, that we're not static. - Yes. - Now that we keep moving and growing, we have lots of gardens and things that we're developing. So we have, well, Carl was a great gardener. And so just maintaining Carl's gardens is a job. - Okay. - But, we're always growing and trying to bring in new things. So the gardens are all in the native plant gardens. We have stone walls that we're building and creating. We have trails that are new. There's always something new to grow and create. - Oh, I'll bet, I mean, especially in something in that area, you know, where it's water and, you know, pristine, it sounds like it's pristine property. So it's home to many native plants in wildlife. The property is criss-crossed by a network of trails, providing an opportunity for gentle walks or longer hikes through gray lags, meadows and hills. So when, if you were going to gray lag, do you have that information on? - Yeah, well, so we ask that people, if people want to come and enjoy the property, we ask that they become friends of gray lag. - Okay. - And they either make a donation of any amount or volunteer sometime. We want people to be a part of, to feel ownership of gray lag and to feel a part of its community. So when people are friends of gray lag, they can come and enjoy the trails. And we have several friends days throughout the year when they can come also and enjoy the waterfront. - Yeah. - Some of the recreational parts of gray lag, the waterfront and our kayaks and canoes and the fire pets, those are really for the folks who are staying in the cabins. - Yeah, right. - But on friends of gray lag days, those are open to everybody. - Oh, cool. All right, so I want everybody to know graylag.org. They have joined our mailing list and I've just done it. - That's okay. - So now I've just joined the mailing list and I'm going to probably try to get to a cabin for this summer so I can spend some time. - Yeah, I should also say that of the six cabins, three are open year round. So people do come in the winter time, cross country ski, fingers crossed for a good ice year on the lake. In years past, my coworker, Nick has plowed a path on the lake a mile long so that you could skate, skate on, under the moon. (laughs) - That is crazy. All right, so graylag is year round. - Yes. - Okay, good to know, very good to know. So if we're going to talk a little bit about the preserve, what else would you like our listeners to know? - Well, as this is an arts program, I did want to tell you about some of the art on the property. - Wonderful. - So a surprise to everybody as they're driving in and even though I've been there for years and years now, it is still a surprise to me is the sculpture and the other sort of whimsical pieces of art that you find coming down truly every year I've seen something new that I haven't seen before. Well, how did that emerge out of the plants there? But so there's sculpture along the driveway, sculpture in the trails, there are paintings in the cabins, but there's also functional art throughout the property. Karl really, again, he loved art and he loved artists and he found artisans and he would hire them to create things. So he found a stone mason, Stu Stinchfield out of Tuftonboro and he would hire Stu and say, come on down, are you free next week? And Stu would say, well, what are we working on? He said, well, well, I don't know yet. - We'll figure it out. - We'll figure it out. And so there are stone work on the property that is so beautiful and so interesting, including this kind of wild place that Karl named Stonehenge, which you can climb through, children love it. You can climb around and have all sorts of adventures in Stonehenge, but also he found a woodworker and would say, Steve, come in and make screen doors for the cabins, we need more screen doors. And so these screen doors are so beautiful. - Oh my goodness. - They are just works of art, of art, handcrafted beauty. The cabins all have live edge siding from trees, the gray-lags trees that we bring in a neighbor with a sawmill, I say, Jesse, can you come in and saw some wood for us? And so the cabins have a lot, they're all handmade, you know, the features of the cabins are really memorable because of that. Also, they are, you know, Karl enjoyed decorating them, and he really had an aesthetic that he wanted to establish. - Wow, what a great man, huh? - That he'd left this. - Wow. - One of the little bit of land art there is our firewood. And you think, well, okay, that's functional, that's firewood, but the firewood stacks are always changing. We use the firewood, but it is these undulating piles along the driveway that incorporate the trees and the boulders that are around them. It's found objects, a wheel or the old dinner bell from the camp incorporated into the firewood pile that's one of those. - So simple, right, but beautiful. - Yeah. - Amazing, just amazing. So do you have fruit on the property to pick or anything like that? - Oh, why, yes, we do. - Oh, bet. (laughs) - I'm just wondering. - Yeah, blueberries in particular. So they're blueberries, they're high bush blueberries, they're low bush blueberries, the area where the ball fields and the courts had been is sort of a wet meadow, and that is filled with blueberry bushes as well as cranberries. - Really? - Yes, and then we also have a hillside that we call blueberry hill. - Okay, and you get this beautiful view. If you get yourself up there at the right time of the year, you can pick the blueberries and have a view out towards the Belknap range, it's really lovely. - I bet it is, holy moly. - All right, so the water, let's talk about the water, right? Because you must have some pretty cool different, you know, manifestations there. So tell us about the water. - Sure. Well, I guess I would start with the wetlands, the feed and the streams that feed down into wild goose pond itself. So there are two main streams through our property, shingle mill, brook, which is the main source of water for wild goose pond. There's also one called Hilah Brook. It didn't have a name, but we named it Hilah Brook or the Robert Frost poem. - Okay. - Because many years, Hilah Brook dwindles to very little water, and if you're familiar with the Robert Frost poem, that's part of the poem. - We probably should try to read that poem. Sounds like a good one. I hear my music. We're gonna have to take a little break here, Artful Living, WKXL, New HampshireTalkRadio.com, and Deeley is our host, is our guest, I'm the host, from Graylag Preserve and Pittsfield, New Hampshire. Yes, yes, so we're gonna come back and talk with Anne after the break. Stay right there, we're coming right back. (upbeat music) Welcome back, Jane Cormier here, your host, Artful Living. Today, New HampshireTalkRadio.com, WKXL, 1450 AM, 103.9 FM Conquered in 101.9 FM in Manchester. I have been enjoying myself enormously here. So we have Anne Deeley from Graylag Preserve, right here in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, and we're talking about this wonderful preserve, the cabins, the programs. You want to see this, folks. If you don't know anything about Graylag, g-r-a-y-l-a-g.org, get online and go check it out because I am just thrilled that we have this preserve right here. And it's in a conservation-- Yeah, it's in the basement, yes, through there, Paul. Thank goodness, you know, because we can keep our waters and our wetlands and no one can really use that land for construction, right? That's correct. That's great. So we were just talking about the series, all the water that you have at Graylag, and you were talking about little wetlands. Yeah, I was talking about the brooks that feed into Wild Goose Pond. So Wild Goose Pond itself is about a 100-acre lake, and it's a really clean and relatively quiet lake. Much of its shoreland is protected by Graylag, and also on the far side of the lake is the Boy Scout Preserve, the T.L. store Scout Reservation, and much of that land is in a conservation east. Go ahead. Also through Bearpaw Regional Grain Wise. So, both the inlet and the outlet of the lake are protected there. There's a Beaver Dam on Crooked Run, which flows out of Wild Goose Pond, and they were very grateful to those little busy guys because they keep our water level up, and there are a lot of fun besides. They certainly are. We all, anybody that's heard about how important they are to the ecological system, beavers get the job done, you know? That's right. Absolutely, okay. So, Wild Goose Pond, 100 acres, it's a big pond. Yeah, we have a pair of nesting loons most years, including this year, which is really nice. They had, loons don't have successful chicks every year, so we haven't had a baby chick in two years now. Oh, well it's time. Yes. It's time now. Awesome. And so, you can canoe, you can beach, right? Yeah, we have a variety of boats available for our guests, so canoes and kayaks, and stand up paddleboards, and row boats, people like to fish and swim, and just paddle around. Mm-hmm. Beautiful. Yeah. All right, what else, anything else here? Well, I would love to tell you about one other program that we have. Please, let's do it. Just in case there's anybody who knows a couple of teenagers, we have a couple of spots open in our summer program. We call it the Wilderness Discovery Program. Okay. And it's for teenagers 14 to 17. And there are, it's a five-day program, and four nights, it's over nights. Two of the nights are spent in the cabins, two of the nights are camping on the property. And it is intended to help teenagers develop their love of the environment and conservation, and but also leadership skills. They're involved in the meal planning and deciding the course of each day, but also there are activities such as journaling, things like that to help them become intentional. Right. Part of it, active part of the experience. So the program is special because we want to, again, everything we want it to be accessible. So we want it to be accessible to people who might otherwise not be able to afford summer camp or would have a hard time. So what is this called again? It's the Wilderness Discovery. Wilderness Discovery, okay. So if kids are able to come back and volunteer over the course of the summer and into the fall, then the program is free. Wow, yeah. And by volunteer, I mean, do trail work at Grandma or even some of the neighboring conservation properties? How about? Absolutely. And so you have two openings and you said... Actually, we have four openings. You have four, yeah. Boys and girls, 14 to 17. 14 to 17, yeah. Wow. We should let the folks know about that. And the timeframe of that, what is that? July, let's see, it's July 13th to 18th, I believe, July... 18th. It starts on a Saturday, I believe that's the 13th. All right, good to know, good to know. Wow, there's so much going on, right? Well, I'm a mailing, I'm on your mailing list now, so I'll be able to get information now, right? That's right. If anybody is interested, gradelag.org and it's G-R-A-Y-L-A-G. You know, it was a little funny when I was trying to find the site. I couldn't find anything when I went G-R-E-Y. And I thought, well, that's not very forward thinking of the technology here, you know, you would think that they know, pull up the other gray, right? So it's G-R-A-Y, and then they'll come right to it. Gardens, native gardens. You have a map here, it's a beautiful little map, isn't it? It's a little pastel colored, looks like parchment. Beautiful. So tell us a little bit about the gardens. Sure, so Carl developed the gardens and it was important to him as a conservationist to be working with native plants. He, as he lived, he became more and more aware of the importance of native plants for the greater ecological benefit for the area. So for the good of the pollinators and then all the animals and the plants that rely on those pollinators, for example. So a good rule of thumb to use when planting is to listen to the site and to pay attention to what the site wants. So for example, up at the top of our driveway it's very bright and sunny and dry. And so that is a, it's sort of prairie plants that are up there, native to the New Hampshire area. Sure. But plants that can tolerate those conditions, right? We don't have to go out and water these gardens because they're the plants that want to live there. 'Cause you were smart. (laughing) Yeah, that's a little smart. Use what you said, listen and watch, right? But then in front of, say, the guide and the kouti cabins, there are these beautiful woodland gardens with, you know, if you're there in the spring, there are these enormous patches of trillium that come up, they're really striking, beautiful. Just, yeah, really beautiful wildflowers. There's another special spot down by the waterfront. Back in the summer camp days, it was the 1950s and 1960s. They used a lot of asphalt in ways and in places that we wouldn't. But there was a little spot that they, I think they had a boat house or something down near the waterfront. That's no longer there. But there is a layer of asphalt underneath the ground. And it has prevented water that comes down off the hillside, runoff and water that seeps down from draining, from percolating through the soil. Well, the result is a bog. And so a bog is a special kind of wetland where there is not an outlet and it becomes an acidic community. It's a special community. And so this bog garden is fantastic. Wow. There are pitcher plants and swamp pinks and grass of pernastis and all these really amazing assemblage of plants that you don't expect to see. But because it's a special water. It's a special little spot and it's, you know, we tend to, we weed it. Yeah. Wow. But it's a very different bird walk through it. Cool. Wow, so you really are just, you have so much to experience when you stay there. Nice quiet stay, but so much to learn. Yeah. Yeah, so much. And you know what, something that you said in the beginning, the gentleman again, what was his name that started at, was it Will? Carl. Carl, sorry. He really did understand the connection between beauty and art and nature. Absolutely. Because this is how you, this is how it's flourished, right, together. These beautiful gardens that are natural and kind of take care of themselves mostly. Yes. And then just keeping the property just so conservation oriented, you know. We could see the beautiful things that come from it. That's really great. And the trails, you say are, there is a trail map. Yeah, here it is right here. It's right on site. So different kinds of trails, different levels for different people. That's right. It's awesome. That is awesome. All right, so what would you like our listeners to know or to keep in mind about gray lag going forward? Okay, well, first off, I would love it if you wanted to come to any of our programming this summer and you'll be able to go to our website and see about that. Right. Become a friend of gray lag. Come and visit us for the day. Enjoy the trails. Come and enjoy the site on our special friends' days where you can go out on the lake and use the boats and everything. Book a stay at a cabin. Yes. If you'd like to, if you have family visiting from out of town, actually I did that myself a decade ago or so we were hosting Thanksgiving and we had more people than we could house. So, you know, it's open year round. Yeah. So it's a great place for people to be. It's a fantastic place for a family reunion. When you see all the cousins coming together and maybe the kids will bring their bikes and be riding around and splashing in the water and it's a really, really great spot. Wow, Sally. All right, graylag.org. You must check it out right in Pittsville, New Hampshire. And Dilly, thank you so much for coming in today here on "Heartful Living." What great information. And I'm thrilled to know about graylag. So, thanks for coming in. We appreciate it. Well, thank you very much. My pleasure. My pleasure. So, our listeners, thank you for listening today and we will see you next time, WKXL. New HampshireTalkRadio.com. Gene, call me or your host. Have a great day. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)