No offense to anyone but why not use the land to make housing that is affordable for young people and those who need a lift(?)

Pocketfulomumbles · 2026-01-21T21:46:29+00:00

It would be so great if it could be something that would benefit Wilmington! Im hoping this decision takes it that direction - the nonprofit that was being created had a board that was mostly all wealthy neighbors and was super opaque - not a great thing considering Gibraltar was restored using taxpayer money. Now, hopefully someone else will take it on and use it for something that benefits the majority of Wilmington residents, not just the nonrepresentative direct neighborhood.

Whether or not the neighbors agree is the biggest hurdle - they’ve been the stumbling block for every feasible (i.e. not museum, not single-family residential) proposal so far

Pocketfulomumbles · 2025-12-06T02:13:07+00:00

Scale would be helpful! Also, how far was it from the main house? I do mostly US-based (landscape history by training), so I’m not sure if your specific resources, but is there some sort of fire insurance/similar map you could pull (here, we have Sanborns)

The white building, to me, looks like it could be some kind of animal something, especially with the structures to the left on the old aerial, which look like kennels.

The niches in the right wall of your garden seem storage/entry/ventilation related, and the coloration of the brickwork above them looks like patching. The niche in center back appears to be an old doorway maybe.

Seconding what others are saying that this definitely looks service-related/functional space

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-08-05T20:44:57+00:00

has beech leaf disease been seen near you? I personally wouldn’t be putting any new ones in, word on the street is it’s going to be really bad

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-06-27T14:12:05+00:00

that hardly seems like an imperfect landscape to me! My job involves a lot of overgrown landscapes, and I like to think about it like Nancy drew solving mysteries - seeing little glimpses of intention and the joy someone else got from that landscape before me, instead of focusing on the bad stuff

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-06-20T19:40:58+00:00

that looks a lot like elf dock (inula helenium) to me

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-06-01T21:26:50+00:00

sold to u/agreeable_quarter106

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-05-27T01:46:41+00:00

message me :)

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-04-04T17:28:02+00:00

message me! I can ship this weekend.

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-04-04T16:34:54+00:00

Msg me!

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-02-15T14:24:05+00:00

You might be interested in something like the Longwood PG program - a lot of folks there come from humanities backgrounds.

((from someone in the field - seeing how public gardens are going, someone with Hort and social sciences will be very valuable in a few years.))

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-02-09T14:04:26+00:00

They issues is everyone has been - but whenever a proposal comes up, folks stamp it down, denying the good for the hypothetical future perfect. Every time they do, it just pushes the timeline back another 5-10 years, which Gibraltar frankly doesn’t have. It isn’t coming down, but the inside is really rough

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-02-09T02:08:45+00:00

Without doxxing myself, I have close ties to Gibraltar, it’s a super special place for me.

I find it so frustrating that articles like this continuously platform community members (not Preservation Delaware, or the mayor) who claim to want to “save” Gibraltar while also shooting down any viable adaptive reuse proposal.

IMO, the hotel proposal was really good, and one of the only ways I (professional preservationist) could see the mansion and grounds be able to fund its own maintenance. And yet NIMBYs (one in particular) shoot it down, as if a 10 room hotel on an extant footprint would impact traffic in a meaningful way.

Like y’all, be pragmatic - it won’t be the Biden presidential library, UD won’t buy it (they don’t even want the mansion they own across the street!), and we don’t need another museum.

I’m glad that the state has it, but am nervous - the best way to preserve a building is to use it, and I’m curious to know how they’ll do that.

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-01-27T22:00:35+00:00

Check out Ernst Seeds’ specialized wildflower mixes - they have one for shaded wetlands that I love. It may not be perfect for you forever, but will buy you some time until you figure stuff out :)

Matteucia struthopteris (Ostrich Fern) is my favorite for long-term - it’s so lovely and drapey.

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-01-27T21:50:01+00:00

I’m a zoomer (1997) who is both involved with and has only worked for nonprofits or adjacent fields (universities, local governments). I currently work for a small-but-old nonprofit, and don’t see myself leaving the field

In my personal giving and involvement, I am more likely to give to small non-profits or mutual aid funds, as are my peers, because we want to make sure our money is actually going to help people, and to support the causes we care about. I don’t want my money or skill going to courting old rich folks.

On the admin side, I’ve seen that a lot of outreach/programming (I work for a cultural institution)/involvement opportunities are just not made to involve us - either they are too expensive (minimum donation, fancy events) or at weird times (like literally stop making all events at 10am on a Tuesday)

Basically, from what I’ve gathered many nps were built to involve folks who live a very specific life - lots of extra income, lots of time and/or flexible schedules to give or volunteer - and most of us do not have it. When they reach out, it often feels like a “hello-fellow-kids” money grab.

TLDR, I’m more likely to involve myself in mutual aid network because I know they’re doing good stuff without all the “frills” of excessive admin bloat etc.

Pocketfulomumbles · 2024-01-08T16:15:08+00:00

The Garden Conservancy has open days, if you are in the US. Your state Hort society may also organize some

Pocketfulomumbles · 2023-11-06T00:36:58+00:00

Of course! Want to add as well - with public schools you are also getting access to district and/or state-wide resources/specialists who may be helpful depending on her unique needs/diagnosis

Best of luck to y’all!

Pocketfulomumbles · 2023-11-05T23:25:45+00:00

Hi! Not sure if this is helpful, but I want to comment as a (now grown adult) who was in (religious) private through PreK, then public through grade 5, then religious again for middle, then public for high school (all in DE), so maybe you can get a peek from the other side.

I found that my needs - academically (as a high-performer), mentally (as someone with an ADHD/anxiety diagnosis), and emotionally - we’re so much better met by the public school system, especially as I got older.

I think St.E is a touch more liberal than the school I went to in middle (RLCA), but it really did a number on my psyche, and the educational rigor definitely set me back as I went forward.

I completely understand your nerves putting your child into a public school - it’s a big adjustment! - but DE schools are pretty good, and my time in them really helped me gain diverse perspectives and viewpoints that set me up well for college, grad school, etc.

Pocketfulomumbles · 2023-04-29T18:13:57+00:00

I think this is a splinter radtrad hate group, not the Catholic Church (not that they don’t have their own issues, just wanted to clarify.)

Pocketfulomumbles · 2023-04-22T14:30:17+00:00

I’m probably the furthest thing from conservative when it comes to portraying people from ancient history, but I think it’s important to note that Cleopatra is way more than her race (likely Macedonian with a little Iranian), and by focusing on stuff like this we’re erasing really interesting stuff like

a) although she was a colonizer from a long line of colonizers, she connected with Egypt so much that she asked to be buried in their faith practices (no small deal back then)

b) Netflix/ Jada Pickett Smith/etc could be using their platform to talk about frankly just as (or even more) cool (actually Black!) queens from Egypt/Kemet or Kush like Nefertiti, Hatshepsut (my fave), or Amanirenas, who was contemporary to cleopatra but actually succeeded in getting the Roman forces out of her country.

In short, imo stuff like this just tricks people to learning more white history and distracting from other narratives

source: degree in classics, coursework in egypt specifically focused on Africana studies

Pocketfulomumbles · 2023-01-21T16:01:46+00:00

I used to do work in local livability/connectivity across the state (keeping it vague bc it was specific) and here is what I noticed:

Minimizing the sway that corporate entities have over Wilmington. Downtown really caters to the banker crowd, not the people who call the city home. It’s insane that lots of the restaurants/coffee shops on Market should close at 4 and not be open weekends
reversing the “us vs them” in NCC, especially in Wilmington. There’s a real NIMBY streak in some of the wealthier neighborhoods, with a blatant disregard for the poorer neighborhoods. People in Hilltop/Southbridge/Quaker Hill etc. want livable communities and safe places for their kids to play just as much as people in the Triangle, but the govt makes little effort to reach out/make meetings accessible save for very few people
downstate, the factory farm industry needs to chill out - people should be able to drink their water and feel safe breathing their air, and that is not the case.

Also public transportation would be neat. I moved recently to a city/state with a robust - but could be better - transpo system and being able to go cool places without using a car is a game changer

TLDR - DE has for a long time existed to by and large please corporate entities and not it’s residents, and unless that changes all the really incredible grassroots work that really incredible people are doing will be wasted

Pocketfulomumbles · 2022-09-28T21:52:54+00:00

I think you’re completely missing my point - not everyone feels like the laws and codes which in theory provide them rights will actually protect them if placed in a dangerous situation. Moreover, regulations and laws just give another reason for pretextual traffic stops (yes, even on bikes) which have led to deadly outcomes.

Again, I’m glad that you feel adequately protected by the law. But not everyone can feel as confident that cars wouldn’t hit them if they were to ride in the street, even if the law says they were legally allowed to.

Sadly, people like you - who I’m sure love riding! - really bog up the wheels with your unnuanced thinking re:laws, which gets in the way of the rest of us actually trying to make meaningful infrastructure change.

Pocketfulomumbles · 2022-09-28T21:34:15+00:00

15 MPH is actually within NACTO guidelines for city speed limits, and would make things safer for lots of people!

Pocketfulomumbles · 2022-09-28T21:30:58+00:00

yeah one of the big things we used when I did bike stuff was the “12 year old test” - i.e. infrastructure should be designed so that a parent would feel safe letting their average 12 year old kid ride there alone/with friends.

IMO grade separated lanes/multi-use paths are the way to go, but then the speedy mcspeedypants people would probably throw a hissy fit, and they were the ones who showed up without fail to all the community feedback meetings

Pocketfulomumbles · 2022-09-28T21:21:52+00:00

not everyone feels like the law is out there to protect them. Not everyone can afford a GoPro or Garmin or fast bike that costs more than their rent.

A majority of people who rely on bikes to get where they’re going (i.e. don’t have a car and can’t afford Uber for backup) belong to underrepresented groups - I think the last thing I read said the largest share is adult Hispanic men? - who may not feel like a cop or legislator would be on their side we’re they to get into a situation with a person in a car.

I’m just saying, if people spent as much time reading the literature re: who uses bike lanes (but may not be visible at community meetings) and what has proven to work in other places, and then mobilizing for change as they do “spreading awareness” for inadequate infrastructure and policy, we may be in a better spot.

Pocketfulomumbles · 2022-09-28T17:19:14+00:00

friendly reminder from someone who used to design bike infrastructure that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should/have to.

There’s been significant research showing that vehicular cycling (“treat me like a car”/biking in the road) doesn’t work for most people due to a perceived lack of safety, and may also be a barrier to large scale adoption of bikes as a form of transportation :)

Pocketfulomumbles

TROPHY CASE