Staying directly across the street from The Botanics, I arrived Tuesday morning to a familiar sight and a warm welcome from Elspeth MacKintosh and John Mitchell. I was incredibly eager to see the progress of their tufa wall and new alpine house and made a B line to both. The morning commute through the Rhododendron gates For those who do not know, I was here two years ago on the same Diana Aitchison Fund to study how alpine houses are built. On my last part of that trip, I spent a day talking with John and Elspeth on their alpine houses to better understand how they are built and to get ideas on how to build one for Betty Ford. The alpine display house had signs of age and was undergoing plans to be rebuilt. At first I almost mistaked the new one for the old one but quickly noticed the new cedar and paving surrounding it. In keeping with the same look as the older one, the new alpine house is absolutely beautiful and quite "smart" as Elspeth would say. Th