ITALIAN LAKE

 
 Today was exhausting. After many errands at the farm to get the meat for Easter dinner, the farmers market for other provisions, and then off to the flower shop for flowers for the house, it seemed a day of errands and preparations. I dropped a few things off at my uncle's house he requested and stayed for a visit, even though he and family will be at the Casa for Easter dinner tomorrow.  When I left, I decided to take a nice walk around Italian Lake since my late aunt and Uncle live right across the street from the lake. Good to clear the mind, and it was a nice day to get out and go for a walk.

Italian Lake is around a 10-acre park in Harrisburg Uptown neighborhood and built around the 1930's. The lake is a manmade lake, formal gardens in the summer, a Japanese Harmony bridge and a beautiful fountain "Dance of the Eternal Spring, that emerges from the center of the lake. Antique style streetlights and a bandstand for summer performances are also featured. The fountain itself has a huge backstory. In 1909 Milton Hershey made a verbal agreement with Giuseppe Donato, an Italian sculptor from Philadelphia, to make a garden fountain for the lawn of his mansion in Hershey. But once completed, Hershey refused the fountain's price tag of $30,000, and refused the fountain. It remained uncrated and in storage at the Hershey Railroad for two years. Even after Hershey lost the court case Donato filed against him, Hershey still wouldn't feature the fountain and ultimately gave it to the city of Harrisburg where after two locations, the fountain and dancing nymphs ended up at Italian Lake where's it's resided since 1971. It sure is a pretty park and waterfowl to be seen. 

Lawn Johnny Jump Up's make me happy.

I can remember when my aunt and uncle moved back to PA and settled in the house across the street from Italian Lake. My mother and her regaled me with the stories when they were small kids, my grandmother would get the whole family dressed, all 6 kids and her and my grandfather in their Easter finery, and would leave Bellview Park where they lived, and head to Italian Lake, where it would be mobbed with city folk out and about strolling around the lake and its paths in their Easter ensembles and hats. The park itself would be overflowing with blooming bulbs.

My how times have changed.

KLEENEX* TIME

 

Well, I'm back from a lovely Easter trip away to the ancestral home, and what a nice trip home it was. Very nice to have time off!! A delicious dinner was had at the Aunt and Uncle's home, a visit to the Capital Street Duo's one night to pick up my latest purchase( more to come) and time spent with my mother. Alas, there was a bit of sad news though, her lovely little companion and Buster's little half sister was put to rest before my arrival. My mother didn't tell me on the phone the night before my arrival, because she feared she would get too upset. And it was a bit tearful when Lady wasn't there to run around and greet me when I got there, her usual antics when I would arrive at the manor. Lady was a Sheltie/dachshund mix of 16 years!!! Always a gentle, sweet pup and so glamorous with her Ursula Andress locks...... And these pictures were only from two years ago, the family ages well....

 

My mother had Lady cremated and was given the ashes while I was there, but didn't know what to do them. We decided we would just keep them. But she wanted to do something special with them, instead of keeping them locked in a box, then it hit me we should spread them in a park....Lady loved her running the perimeter of a beautiful park. But where. My mother loved the idea. Then it hit us together......

 

 

Italian Lake  is a public park and one of the most beautiful parks in the Uptown area of the city of Harrisburg,Pennsylvania.

 

 

 The 9.5 acre park was restored to its mid-century grandeur in the 1980s when I was still living there. The lake is surrounded by antique-style streetlights, textured walkways, and formal gardens maintained in the Italian Renaissance-style. Features of the park include a beautiful Japanese-style bridge representing harmony between nature and man, swans were always attracted to this location,  and a stunning classical-style fountain designed with three muses of art, music and dance, entitle "Dance of Eternal Spring." Italian Lake was always one of my favorite spots to go to relax when I lived there, and it attracts both city residents and visitors to the area with its serene atmosphere and lush foliage. And if you read the inscription on the historical marker erected there, you’ll learn that this jewel was part of an overall plan initiated by the Harrisburg League of Municipal Improvements in 1901 called the City Beautiful Movement.

 

 

 In summer months there are numerous outdoor concerts held at the park.So I thought this would be the best place to spread Lady's ashes and return her to such a beautiful place to run eternally. She will enjoy beauty, birds, and beautiful music. After all, Lady always did love her self a beautiful park to run and let her beautiful hair blow in the breeze. It was a nice day.

 

Rest well little one.