Georgetown’s Tudor Place gets the last hurrah before the summer kicks off here in the swamp known as Washington.
Their 32nd annual garden party on May 22 was a perfect swan song to the lingering days of spring which are soon to give way to a sweltering heat and what is sure to be a blistering election season come fall.
But, for now, let’s dwell on the sweeter side of our city.
The foxglove at Tudor Place rose above the roses and peonies while ladies in floral dresses and men in seersucker traded summer plans under a tent on the massive rolling green lawn.
This year’s party was a tribute to one of our favorite Georgetowners Tom Birch, whose wide circle of friends, especially those from Christ Church Georgetown, came out to celebrate him.
Meanwhile, over at Hillwood, the estate of the late and great heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, the azaleas, irises, and day lilies did their usual preening in the sun for visitors lucky enough to see them before, they too, make their way off the stage.
Speaking of grand performances, we in Washington, thanks to the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new artistic director Simon Godwin, were treated to a month-long run of The Scottish Play starring the delicious Ralph Fiennes as the Thane of Cawdor and Indira Varma as his Lady M.
Washingtonians were ravenous for the few tickets that remained, and a few of us were star-struck seeing Fiennes around town like at the April 15 Shakespeare Theatre Gala where he dined next to British Ambassador Dame Karen Pierce.
On May 10 and 11, opera lovers scattered across Embassy Row for black tie dinners hosted by various ambassadors for the annual Washington National Opera Gala which culminated in a performance of Turandot at the Kennedy Center with Caryn Zucker, David Rubenstein, and Japanese Ambassador H.E. Shigeo Yamada.
