Beauty can be found anywhere within anything.
My backyard is pretty much an overgrown jungle. Nothing good grows back there. Or so I thought. As I was filling the bird feeder one morning last week, I turned and noticed I had a Cherry Tree! Who knew! Spring is in full bloom, so prepare yourselves for flower post overkill.
Dogwood Trees at an Elementary school near my parent’s house.
Dogwood & Redbud Tree in my parent’s backyard.
What a perfect Spring day! Rather than go to Lewis Ginter again, I decided to take a jaunt an hour and a half east to Norfolk. The map online made it look big, but I had no idea just HOW big! The brochure said it was 155 acres with over 12 miles of paths and walkways. I only saw about half there was to see. Which was just fine because not everything was blooming, so I plan to go back in a few weeks and see the other half, hopefully more will be in bloom by then.
Pretty daffodils and hyacinths greeted visitors at the entrance to the Visitors Center.
Japanese Garden
I normally try to avoid people in my pictures; I either wait for them to leave or I shoot from a different angle, but this was the angle I wanted and he didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. By the time I had moved for a different angle, he left. But I felt like keeping the human element in this one.
Boat Basin
Fragrance Garden
Daffodils! Lots and lots of daffodils!
The Hydrangea Garden was pretty barren, but I’ll be back!
There were some Magnolias in bloom though.
Friendship pond
Camellia Garden – I’m not sure if they had bloomed early, or they just didn’t do well this year. Judging by the amount of petals on the ground I have to assume they were bloomed out and done for the year.
Renaissance Court
I cut through on a path somewhere that wasn’t named on the map, so I’ll call it the yellow-moss road.
Statuary Vista
There was an overlook (Nato Tower) looking over just about the entirety of the gardens, this was one of several vantage points.
I love Forsythia!
Random monkey-holding-a-bowl statue…there were numerous statues around the various garden, all bird-themed, but I thought this one warranted posting because of the odd, uncommon nature of it.
I think I was in the Colonial Garden and had my camera pointed toward the Conifer Garden.
Nato Tower
Path leading to the tower
Flowering Arboretum
This bridge was in-between gardens so it’s the “no name” bridge.
Bicentennial Rose Garden – nothing bloomin’, but I bet it will be spectacular come Summer.
One of the boats as it toured the gardens from the water.
Can’t wait to go back and see it in full bloom!
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