Arboretum, Ho!

We go to the Arboretum fairly often, but yesterday the weather was so great and the colors so luscious that I took 99 pictures! (I was going to take one more, but I had already set a limit of 99, and I stood by my decision.) Unfortunately, Blogger won't let me upload 99 photos, so you'll only get to see about 57 of them. But I'll show them in several posts, to make the fun last for you!

Here are some peacock pictures. Peacock are ubiquitous at the Arboretum anyway, but yesterday, there were trillions of them. We had to hack through them with our machetes just to get to the water fountain. Apparently, everyone hatched and they think they own the place. Lots of juvenile males stomping around. Lots of hens watching over their babies.









And here's the rose garden. When there are more roses blooming, the scents are incredibly sweet. But even when only a thousand are blooming, it's still gorgeous there.



My favorite rose smells are yellow and white. But here's a lovely rose-colored rose, the only one in bloom on this bush.




A Peahen was in the garden with her two babies (one is just out of sight, playing with a yellow leaf). Mama stuck her head up when we walked by, and flipped on her dogs-snarling-and-barking tape. This is a common defense mechanism among peahens, as you probably know.

The Catawumpus is a fairly new installation. Someone sculpted this from branches and now has it carted around from place to place, like it's a big deal or something. I should have researched as to what kind of branches and whether the installation is staying at the Arboretum. I think it's probably worth flying from Minnesota or Portland or Kansas to see. Australia...

not so much.






Here are hibiscus. Love them!












Here is a butterfly. He was really munching out. I give you several of him because he's the man. Or, it could be a woman. I couldn't understand it because its probiscus was full. In any case, I'm not particularly nervous about butterfly gender identity, and photograph girl or boy butterflies equally.






I tried to get a picture of a turtle, but it happened to be the one turtle in the history of park-visitation which actually saw us coming, freaked out, and jumped off the rock and into the water.

And the rock wasn't really a very good picture.

And there are Even! More! Pictures!

... but I'll put those in the next post.

Remember to hug your local Arboretum today!



Next up: Chris walks too much and gets a major cramp.