Several months ago, my niece moved back in with her mother and has not been able to visit much. This week, though, was Spring Break, so I got to help my mom watch her on Monday and Tuesday mornings. One of our favorite things to do is to go to the Botanical Gardens, so that is where we headed on Monday morning. It was so beautiful with daffodils and tulips everywhere! I took tons of pictures to share with you.
The first photos are those of my niece. She is such a beautiful, photogenic young lady. I normally do not share photos of people, but I am really proud of these. Some of them I have in both color and black and white.
As we were walking down the terraced gardens, I thought I caught a movement to my side and felt like I was being watched. Looking over, I saw a rabbit, frozen in place. I took some photos and called my niece over to see. She pointed out that it looked like a very realistic statue and she was right. It finally bounced off around the corner and stopped below a bench. I got a few more photos before it decided that it was tired of being a model and took off towards the woods.
Later in the visit, we were in the children's garden and I heard a chirping sound. I looked up and saw a squirrel in the tree above us, just chattering away. Took several photos, but only two came out decent.
The gardens also have several really pretty metal and stone artworks, gates, entryways and statues. I only took a few photos of the metal gates, one in the terraced gardens and the other at the entrance to the children's garden.
Another feature of the gardens that I like is the back wall of the gardens at the top of the terraced gardens near the main building. The wall is covered with ivy and looks like it belongs on a castle grounds.
The garden also has several water features, including a stream through the gardens on the side of the main building and several connected features in the children's garden. The one in the regular garden starts from under the building and has a really pretty stream area from some statues down under a bridge and through a little field.
The children's area water feature has several small waterfalls in a runnel system down to a small pond. The water is actually released into the runnels by the children pushing a button and they can play in the water in the runnels, with their hands or by walking in the water, but are not allowed to play or wade in the water in the pond. I took some close up images of the water in the runnels that I thought looked interesting.
The pond has a lot of algae in it that makes wonderful designs in green under the water.
I know, I have been yacking about other things and have not yet shared my flower pictures, other than the initial two. So, without further adieu, here are the rest of the flowers:
As always, there will be a zip file of all the photos, except for those of my niece, for sale in my shop. If you also really like a photo and would like a framed copy of it, please let me know and I will order you one. I hope you enjoyed this and I do plan on returning several times over the summer so we can see the evolution of the flowers. I will also be working a lot over the next few weeks, so if I do not post much, I am sorry.
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