Monday, March 20, 2006

A Walk in the Park

Gardens... should be like lovely, well-shaped girls: all curves, secret corners, unexpected deviations, seductive surprises and then still more curves. ~H.E. Bates, A Love of Flowers

In this spirit, I give you the lovely Alice Keck Park.
In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful. ~Abram L. Urban

Alice Keck Park was a philanthrapist sometime....before now - I just realized that her name wasn't Alice Keck, it was Alice Keck Park - thus the place is called Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens. Bit of a mouthful, but surely less confusing when compared with "Alice Keck Park Park."

Technically not from the park - but v. v. close so I'll just pretend.











Bouganvilla - say it with me, "Boo-gun-vee-yaa" - not, "Bow-gun-vill-ea", grows like crazy all over S.B. Sometimes pale, creamy and almost light yellow, the more common pinky-red color, deep purple and dark red, or my favorite, this salmon-y shade. Nasty thorns make it a real pleasure to trim - I actually had a "fort" of it as a kid - my friends and I hacked out a bush of it to make it hollow over one Christmas, er, I mean, winter, break. Said bush (dark red) was about fifteen feet wide and about ten deep, and grew on a slope of about forty degrees. I'm amazed I don't carry the scars from the inch-plus thorns to this day. Fun fact: Those are technically not flowers, but leaflets. The flower portion are the little ball-shaped doodads in the center of each grouping. Ok, not so much "fun" fact as "nerdy plant-based" fact, but - you never know when you're going to get caught up in a game of Trivial Pursuit.



Some trees with pretty, pretty red leaves.



The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses. ~Hanna Rion

A tiny waterfall and some more of those darn succulents (love 'em!) and what I believe is some kind of squash family flower conclude today's tour.



I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. - Claude Monet

Enjoy the park! Koi ponds and the thorn-covered tree next time!

3 comments:

Maya said...

I'm currently using (LOVING!) the darling little Cannon Power Shot SD 450 Elph. Pertinent details: 500 megapixels, huge screen so you can actually see the picture, video-capable (haven't used that bit yet) and (bonus!) good old hubs got me the spiffy deep red case and strap for it. I love it so much, I may name it. Yes... what to call a camera? Suggestions?

Kelly said...

Those are breathtaking pictures and I love the little quote/poems associated with them.

Maya said...

Why thank you, thank you both! and Ruby she is. So now it'll be "Travels with Ruby" or "Ruby Tuesdays"...