Brunch at Allerton Park
We decide to try this one Sunday in late March, and what an amazing meal it was: everything from typical breakfast goodies, to soup, salads, meats and vegetables, and a fairly extensive dessert tray. Apparently, they offer the brunch most Sundays from after Thanksgiving until the end of March, serving up to 200 people per Sunday. The setting is lovely, in the big old Allerton Mansion, and a bonus is that you can wander round the house too, getting a peek at the elegant furnishings and wood paneled rooms----something usually not possible unless you are part of a conference there.
The drive over was past bleak and dismal countryside, grey still with winter, but no snow at this time of year to blanket the countryside and soften the barrenness. It’s so flat here in central Illinois that we can see miles and miles of grey-brown tilled fields, waiting for planting. The wind whips across, and the view is broken only by a few clumps of trees clustered around farmhouses and barns. But, it feels much better once we enter the park---the narrow road has tall trees arching on either side, like a tunnel. Even though the trees are totally bare still, they lighten the mood immediately. For me, there’s something very special about trees, just as I’m sure the fields are very special to the corn and beans farmers.
We walked in the woods after brunch, along dusty paths. The trees haven’t budded yet, but there are other signs that spring is coming: the leaves of wild daffodils are in bright green clumps, and single purple star-shaped flowers poke past dried brown leaves. By the pagoda, a sweep of grass next to an avenue of osage orange trees is alight with tiny golden yellow wild flowers and bunches of white snowdrops. It’s a beautiful proof of renewal and regrowth.
We decide to try this one Sunday in late March, and what an amazing meal it was: everything from typical breakfast goodies, to soup, salads, meats and vegetables, and a fairly extensive dessert tray. Apparently, they offer the brunch most Sundays from after Thanksgiving until the end of March, serving up to 200 people per Sunday. The setting is lovely, in the big old Allerton Mansion, and a bonus is that you can wander round the house too, getting a peek at the elegant furnishings and wood paneled rooms----something usually not possible unless you are part of a conference there.
The drive over was past bleak and dismal countryside, grey still with winter, but no snow at this time of year to blanket the countryside and soften the barrenness. It’s so flat here in central Illinois that we can see miles and miles of grey-brown tilled fields, waiting for planting. The wind whips across, and the view is broken only by a few clumps of trees clustered around farmhouses and barns. But, it feels much better once we enter the park---the narrow road has tall trees arching on either side, like a tunnel. Even though the trees are totally bare still, they lighten the mood immediately. For me, there’s something very special about trees, just as I’m sure the fields are very special to the corn and beans farmers.
We walked in the woods after brunch, along dusty paths. The trees haven’t budded yet, but there are other signs that spring is coming: the leaves of wild daffodils are in bright green clumps, and single purple star-shaped flowers poke past dried brown leaves. By the pagoda, a sweep of grass next to an avenue of osage orange trees is alight with tiny golden yellow wild flowers and bunches of white snowdrops. It’s a beautiful proof of renewal and regrowth.
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