Garden Walk

More pictures of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Here's a view approaching the Climatron.

And the reflecting pool filled with more vividly colored Chihuly glass sculptures, walla walla onions. They are loosely tethered and gracefully laze about the water.

The colors are so intense it's hard to choose a favorite.


Here's one of the two waterfalls inside.

The conditions mimic a tropical rainforest with 1200 species of plants.


A Barbary Dove which allowed us to get ridiculously close for a picture.
The garden was such a pleasant surprise, I highly recommend visiting if you are ever in St. Louis.
I'll leave you with a quote from Dale Chihuly that I like, "I can't understand it when people say they don't like a particular color. How on earth can you not like a color?"
Next time, pictures from a quilt exhibition. Thanks for visiting.

Return Trip

We arrived home several days ago and have been busy unpacking and settling in. It was certainly easier moving in than moving out. The college had provided lots of volunteers back in August, which came in handy as my daughter was on the fourth floor of a dorm with no elevator. Move out was another story, 42 steps up and 42 steps down, not to mention the walk to the car. But it's done and here's the empty closet room.

This is a 12 foot bronze statue on Washington University in St Louis' campus, Thinker on Rock. I always visit it when I'm on the campus.

After 2 days of packing, sorting, and meeting professors, it was off to the Missouri Botanical Garden. We had beautiful weather and the gardens did not disappoint.

When I lived in Memphis in the mid to late 90s a friend introduced me to the work of Dale Chihuly. He is a art glass sculptor extraordinaire. As you enter the Gardens, there is a huge glass sculpture hanging in the lobby. It's just spectacular.

Little did we know we'd encounter more of his art later.

Here's the greenhouse.

A fountain in the Asian gardens.

And just flowers everywhere.

The iris garden was just breathtaking. There were over 1,000 different types and almost all were in bloom.

This is one of my favorites.



The Japanese Maples were witness to that gardening adage, If you have room for only one tree, make it a Japanese Maple. The foliage was something to see.

More Chihuly glass showed up in the Climatron. The Climatron is a geodesic dome with a tropical rainforest recreated within complete with birds and waterfalls.
More pictures and Chihuly glass next time~ thanks for stopping by!

Coming Home

I am leaving for St Louis this morning to collect my daughter from college. The school year is over! I am flying up, renting a car, loading it up and with a high school graduation in Memphis and a little sightseeing thrown in, driving back to Florida. See you then!

A Fresh Start

After a nice long break of twenty-two days my daughter is back at her university. She did very well with her classes last semester, I'm so proud of her! We had a great time just hanging out together. I was missing her something fierce yesterday so...

what would a quilter do? I headed on over to a quilt store. I am lucky enough to have five in about a twenty mile radius. The one yesterday just recently moved to much larger location and doubled their stock. I have been really good about my purchases and didn't buy a whole lot yesterday.

A few patterns mostly from one of my favorite designers Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.

And a few lights I am running low on, two charm packs and some extra yardage from the Recipe for Friendship Collection by Mary Engelbreit. This collection is so bright and cheery, just what I needed!

Venice

My daughter and I drove to Venice on Saturday afternoon. Once you cross the bridge you find yourself on a tree lined boulevard filled with a variety of stores and restaurants.

Here's the city hall.

In the spring the street is closed for an arts and crafts show. Further on down, is Deborah's Quilt Basket of which I forgot to take a picture. It's a great fabric store with a nice assortment of fabrics.

Venice has a quaint feel with its low buildings and tree lined streets. The town was built mainly in the 1920s utilizing urban planning before this was even popular. While you can't tell from my pictures, most of the buildings were constructed using Northern Italian Renaissance architecture. Venice was in the news in 2001 as 3 of the WTC 9/11 terrorists took flight lessons at the local airport while living in Venice.

If you drive to the end of the boulevard you come to Venice Beach which has the reputation as being the Shark Tooth Capital of the World! With a bit of diligence you can find fossilized shark teeth in the sand. We decided to go to Caspersen Beach which is usually a little less crowded and also has shark's teeth!

Wonder who made these?

Willets! We followed these guys down the beach.

It's always amazing how close you can get to them.

After about an hour they took off.

The water was very cold about 65 degrees. I love the beach in Winter.

Back to Venice for dinner and a look at the shops. Most were still decorated for Christmas.

This window seemed particularly pretty.

As well as this one.



The end of a delightful day, hope you enjoyed the photos!