Kirtland Country Club – Willoughby, Ohio outside Cleveland

Thanks to Michael Dirda’s lovely review of my book in the Washington Post last Fall, I was invited to give a book talk at the Kirtland Country Club in Willoughby, Ohio in the suburbs of Cleveland.  The highlight of my time there was meeting Dixon and her charming parents, Nancy and Nick Hill.  Dixon was completely engaged in the talk and afterwards proudly showed me that she already followed one of Rosemary Verey’s lessons about always carrying a notebook and writing things down.  Her own notebook was impressively filled with drawings, writings and more.  Here she is with me just before my talk which was followed by lunch.  The Kirtland Country Club is a beautiful place, once a handsome home and now the gathering place for members to meet, play golf in the surrounding countryside, dine and enjoy their time together there.  My own time at Kirtland was a treat.   You can see me with Nancy Hill, Dixon’s Mother, Dixon and my husband Charlie standing before one of the elegant fireplaces in a handsome room as well as outside one of the attractive entrances.  Nick Hill, who invited me to speak was unable to come to the talk because of the press of other business but he graciously met us later that evening at the Union Club in the center of Cleveland and we had the great pleasure of having dinner with Dixon and her family that evening.  Charlie had been to Cleveland before but I had never been to that handsome City.  I felt right at home when I learned that Ohio had once been part of Connecticut, in fact, Connecticut’s “Western Reserve”.  And Charlie and I spent time in the superb Cleveland Art Museum, a handsome 1916 building enhanced by a two year old major, modern addition.    Charlie and I hope to see the Hill family again and maybe even entice them to visit us at Brush Hill.

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