August Break - Day 13

Good Morning!

"If you see something that moves you,

and then snap it,

you keep a moment."

~ Linda McCartney

Cool Water

We're definitely into July; hot and humid! So humid my glasses fog over every time I step outside. We did receive a small amount of rain this afternoon. Much needed rain I might add, although it made it even more humid!

The rain made me think of how refreshing water is to my plants and lawn.

Which made me think about how hot my sister and I were when we visited Garven Gardens and how we kept splashing our hands in the waterfalls to cool off our faces.

Which made me think, I've never shown you those pictures.

When you're hot there's nothing like following a pathway that leads to a shadowed pool of cool water. This pool is at the top of the waterfall below.

I could sit all day and listen to the sound that is created as the water splashes down the rocks.

I liked the contrast here between the soft pink flowers on one side and the hard rocks on the other. Do you think the large rock on the right looks like it has a giant spider embossed on it? Kind of gives me the creeps!

 

 

 

This was the tallest waterfall. Sorry about the bright sun, but it was mid-day.  As I was walking down a rock stairway to get a better picture of the waterfall, I almost stepped on a snake which was slithering across the step below me. Gave me the shivers!! I have to keep reminding myself when I go to gardens that snakes like gardens, too; especially gardens that are natural like this one which is on a peninsula on Lake Hamilton.

 

I guess I was into seeing things in the rocks, but I thought this looked like a giant turtle hiding away in his shell. I say giant because it was a very large rock, probably 7 or 8 feet from end to end.

In the children's section of the park they made a cave out of huge rocks. They've made a little area that looks like a fire pit inside and left small openings between the rocks for light. It would be such a fun place to play in!  This delightful waterfall was cascading down one side of the cave opening. Delightful, yes, because my sister and I both stuck our hands in the water and splashed ourselves to cool off! 

Well, it may be hot outside, but I feel cooler just looking at all this cool water!

I hope it cooled you off too!!

Flowers in the Garden

When my sister and I went to Garven Gardens (Hot Springs, AR) last week, we saw more than the gorgeous summer glass display. (I wrote about it here)  It's a botanical garden so, yes, there were flowers. They took a back seat to the glass on this trip, but we did enjoy they're beauty. It's hydrangea time in Arkansas and the garden was full of them. Every color and variety you could imagine. They were hard to photography due to overhead sun, but you can't plan the weather, you just have to go with the flow!

I'm not a botanical expert, so I don't know the names of all these flowers. I could do a little research, I know, but I think I'll just enjoy their pink beauty.

 

 

More pink. I do know this is Bougainvillea in the foreground. In the background you can see the pavilion with the glass roof where I took the shots laying on my back of the glass chandelier.

 

 

You want to see one more of the glass chandelier? Okay!

 

 

Although all the flowers were beautiful there was one bunch that blew me away! As we walked around the great lawn,  we rounded the corner and WOW, rising from the other flowers stood these gorgeous lilies.

 

 

 I've never seen a stalk of lilies with so many blooms.

Nor, have I seen lilies this tall. We decided they were at least six or seven feet tall. Way over our heads!

 

 

 

I've never see blooms this huge. The blooms were wider than my hand span. Maybe 8" across. No kidding!  Huge blooms.

 

We wondered about them. How do they grow lilies this big? I know this garden has the best in everything, soil, light, care, and watering, but really eight feet tall!  I learned the answer later that week. I follow the garden's blog and they posted on just this subject. I'll just quote the blog...

 

"It's an Orientpet, a cross between the large, fragrant orientals so popular with florists and a trumpet lily, known for their vigor and tall, strong stems.  This one has the huge, fragrant flowers of the orientals, with the height and trumpet shaped blooms of the trumpets.  And when we say height, we mean it.  Some of the taller stalks on this lily are easily 7 feet or more!  It’s a spectacular sight, with each statuesque stalk holding five to seven huge blooms at once. Between the lilies and the gardenias the garden is an ocean of sweet scents, almost like walking into an incense shop."    http://www.garvangardens.org

 

I love that description "sweet smells that overwhelmed our senses!" The fragrance was simply indescribable!

 

I hope you enjoyed the flowers. Next time I'll show you the water, which really looked cool on the hot day we were there!!

Splashes of Glass

Surprise!!

I'm actually blogging today and it's not for a class or prompts!  I finally have something to blog about and some halfway decent pictures to add!
 

 

I want to share  a few pictures I took recently! Maybe I should reword that, I want to share quite a few pictures. My sister and I visited the beautiful, botanical Garven Gardens in Hot Springs, AR. We only intended to stay a couple of hours, but, wound up staying all day and taking hundreds of pictures!  The garden was sparkling with the unique art glass creations of James Hayes.  Mr. Hayes,  from Pine Bluff AR, created about 225 pieces of multi-colored art glass that are exhibited throughout the garden. The glass depicts flowers, onions, mushrooms and vines, as well as some of his traditional bowls and chandeliers.  It wasn't easy to get good pictures of the glass. It was too sunny, you couldn't get close to most of them, and the backgrounds were usually very busy with plants and trees.

 

 

One of his chandeliers was hanging under the Full Moon Bridge.

 

Glass balls were floating in the Koi Pond and vases were sitting on the rocks.

 

 

I was a little disappointed in the pond. I wanted it to be fresh and clear where I could get some good reflections of the balls. I had forgotten the pond is not clear, in fact it's quite muddy. The water for the ponds and for watering the garden is pumped out of Lake Hamilton. As you know, lake water can be very muddy!

 

Also, the pond was filled with Koi fish that kept the waters churned up!

 

 

We were constantly on the look out for the glass. We would round a corner and there would be spirals of glass hanging from tree branches or...

 

sticking up from the ground.

 

 

We got in every position you could image to get pictures. There was a lot of stooping, squatting, looking up, and looking down!  No wonder we were a little sore the next day!

 

You probably know I love mushrooms, so I was in mushroom heaven when I spotted glass ones. I'm not going to tell you how many pictures I took of the mushrooms!  Way too many!  But, they were so cute!

 

How about some glass onions hanging from the roof of a pergola?

 

In the middle of the park is a large pavilion. Hanging from it's glass ceiling was this stunning chandelier. I'm no good at guessing, but it's probably five to six feet tall.  Since the roof of the gazebo is glass, it allows light to shine on the chandelier and...

 

create cool shadows on the floor.

 

 

Speaking of the floor. My sister and I both managed to get down and lay on the floor and look up.  We got down better than we got up!  That took a lot of shuffling, grunting, and laughing! It was worth it though! The view of the chandelier from below was breathtaking.

 

 

We had such a great time together! Oh, before I go, let me show you what we had for lunch from the Chipmunk Café in the park. 

Doesn't this look delicious?  It's grilled chicken with romaine & iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado; topped with bacon & parmesan peppercorn dressing and served in a spinach wrap. YUMMY!!

 

Thank you for being patient we me, while I'm struggling with my photography and not blogging much. It is getting better!  I've been spending a little time outside each day, seeking light, and I'm even keeping a few pictures! That's an improvement!

 

I so enjoy when you stop by to visit me!

Enjoy the rest of your week!