Amy Gable lives here now, but it will always be Carol Gable's house to me. Carol, a very capable former Daily Record and Gazette and Daily reporter, lived in her Stewartstown house until she died in 1998.
Her father, Joseph Gable, a noted botanist, rhododendron hybridizer and author raised Carol and her brother here, and planted some of his botanical gems in his yard and woods behind the home, trying to grow a rhododendron hardy enough to survive cold winters.
Today, Carol's grand niece Amy lives here, and the house is being fixed up, the yard thinned of overgrowth and dead trees, and most of the rhodos and azaleas have been saved. Landscaping is even more beautiful than a few years ago. Amy owns about 70 acres of land, some of which is still forested, populated with colorful plants from her great grandfather. A loop path leads visitors through the woods, back into Amy's backyard and between the picturesque barns, which are next on the list of renovations.
There are places charging admission that aren't nearly as pretty as Amy's backyard.
It's quite a backyard. And in the corner is a rhododendron named for Carol Gable. It's fitting that it's a beauty, because Carol was a very special lady.
