I have a few neat ‘reflect’ photos, the latest being up in NYC at the 9-11 memorial (shared the end of Feb.). I really like this one of the Brandywine River Museum from a few years ago. It’s a lovely place to visit! The wildflower gardens and river are especially nice to stroll around (outside for free).
Brian, mom and me went a few town over from her house to the Scott Arboretum which in on the campus of Swarthmore College. We’ve never been! The photos on the arboretum’s facebook wall enticed us to go and ‘free’ is good too. Well worth the little trip for us. There were dozens of lilacs, cherry trees and peonies blooming ‘three weeks early’ (as the lady in the main office told us). I will add more tomorrow as my tummy is a bit off tonight. I did a lot of walking a few days ago and I believe I’ve had a bug or something and shouldn’t ignore it and now my system is off. Ginger ale and gum sure helped.
Mom and me among the wood hyacinths
Mom took this one
Some of the most gorgeous peonies I’ve ever seen!
Wow, it was the perfect day to go for a walk, which I did at Longwood Gardens. First I saw this rainbow of tulips:
These were at the entrance, so the building blocked the sun a wee bit. The others inside were mostly opened up, but still gorgeous.
These pale pinks are so delicate and I like the orange too!
As I only walked to one area and back, I got to see the ‘light pods’ they are setting up for night displays. The lady in the gift shop said to come back after Memorial Day to see them lit up.
It was around 4 pm!
Pretty orange azalea with the lake behind it.
The Wisteria are really pretty this year!
Awesome display with light effects, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
Lucky for me, I call a few things ‘awesome’ now and then on my Flickr photo site. Glad I do that as I have 12,800 photos there right now!
This was from the 2008 Philly Flower Show. I like everything about the display from the ‘keyboard’ table, to the way the flowers are arranged and what they are in and the lighting effects. Look at how the napkins on the plates have polka dots! And the lady in the background is really taking it all in! Wow!
There’s a special exhibit going on down at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It’s one I didn’t think I’d get to see like so many I thought I’d go to and then the show was over and moved on. Well, I said to Brian, this would make an awesome 28th anniversary gift if we could go in the first Sunday of the month when it’s pay what you want (seriously?-just say it’s free, we are buying food and gift shop items). But, it did cost admission to see the Van Gogh exhibit. And lookie here:
We weren’t allowed to take photos in the actual exhibit, but I saw people using their phones and the guards didn’t say anything. It was amazing to see one of the Sunflower paintings and the Flowering Almond branch he did for his namesake nephew when he was born. He applied the paint so thickly on many of his pieces making them very dimensional. He died at a young age of about 38.
We did go through the European artists and we also saw some local artists from Bucks County, PA. in another gallery. We were allowed to photograph these without flashes.
Mary S. Cassatt was born in Philadelphia, but lived in Paris. She loved to paint mainly women and children.
Family Group Reading
Woman with Pearl Necklace in a Loge
Have you ever seen a Picasso like this? So beautiful!
One of my favorites was by Perrier called Evening in Spain
And Brian checking out some local artists from Bucks County, PA
When we left the Van Gogh exhibit, we went across the street to check out a meandering park near the old Waterworks for the Schuylkill River. When I went to junior college, my friends and I went to a few St. Joseph University’s frat parties on boat house row there on the right.
The Water works building is a swanky restaurant now!
The city! I grew up only about 11 miles from here!
Happy to pose outside. We forgot to go see the Rocky statue. The stairs that he ran up were on the other side from where we were.
Yes, I bought some souvenirs, 3 of those lovely bags were only $1 each. I got a double light switch cover of ‘Starry Nights’ (I had seen that painting up in NYC in Feb. ) I got my mom some pens-she collects them. I hope we can come here again in the future, but not through the neighborhoods where the GPS told us to go. These little daytrips do us the world of good!
Bunch of Fresh Rosemary, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
I love to grow fresh herbs. Not sure if these are out of my herb patch, but they surely could be. I do try and grow Rosemary every year. This year I see Fennel already sprouting. I have Catnip in a pot (for many years) for Cosmo, but he likes it dried.
I’m sure a lot of you have heard about the debates about using Pinterest and copyright issues. They ‘basically’ own the photos you put up. They can do with them as they please, even sell them. I get a bit nervous using other’s photos and make sure the original link to the blog or source is connected to the image. I’m not as worried about recipes. If a person has a blog, they should consider that their images may be used. I’m not one to water mark every single photo. I have all my photos on Flickr which makes them copyrighted-did you know? I use about 95% of my own images on this blog. I noticed some pals use a lot of people’s photos to explain a topic, etc. Just be careful…someone may get unhappy. I’ve been asked if my images could be used and most times I say yes. The one exception was an android or iPhone travel app. I think a little compensation would have been nice and I said no.
Oh, I have plenty of ‘symbolic’ statue photos!
This one, the Pilgrim statue was taking in Plymouth County, Massachusetts back in the fall of 1984. My fairly new hubby and I went on a driving trip to New England. Never been back, but want to! And it’s a film camera print-gasp!
My newest is of George Clymer who is down in Philadelphia near Independence Hall.
He signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution! This is a wee dark as it was dusky. We were about to take a ghost tour of Olde City Philadelphia which was neat!
Well I was up in air as to what to do today as it was a bit breezy, but warm. Longwood Gardens is having their orchid displays until the end of March, so I decided to go for walk and some photo taking. I renewed my membership for the year which went up $5, but they also give you two free tickets for your guests. It pays for itself after about four times.
Here are some of my favorite shots:
What you see when you enter the one end of the conservatory
A very tame squirrel. I had fun editing this for a friend
White columns of orchids
Begonias and Aechmea
Amazing Stargazer lilies
One of my favorite flowers-Blue Poppies
Hanging orchids and an archway
A trained Nectarine tree with blooms
Yellow butterfly bushes that smelled like exotic honey.
A moth-like orchid the Calathea
Take it from the Longwood gardeners-how to prune a rose bush-many only had one or two main stems!
Mother of Thousands plant
I’ve been taking Olive leaf capsules for my blood pressure (think it is helping-thanks Dr. Oz). Here is an Olive tree
There are more photos in Flickr-just click on a photo above.
It was crowded beyond crowded at the Philadelphia Flower Show on Tuesday-must have been the bus crowd as the average age was 65+. We usually go on a Sunday and on a train and doing so we can usually get closer to the exhibits. My middle brother drove and took the long way in because of Sean’s GPS. It was nice to go with my brother as our relationship had been rocky for a while. When we got down to the city, we parked in Chinatown and Sean and I went into a restaurant to use their bathrooms. We said we’d be back and we did go back.
Sean and I decided to go to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch as it was going on to 1:30 as it was. Mom and her friend Jim went into the show and my brother went in another direction. That would be the only time we would see them all until we left at 5:30.
It was also crowded. We got premade tuna wraps and a soda and there was no place to sit down inside. We sat in a little park area and ate. There was this neat mosaic structure.
When we went back in the convention center (which was expanded) we looked up and saw empty tables on the next level. There was also a restaurant in the middle of the flower show. It was $18 for three courses. No one in our party ate there.
So we saw the cool ocean exhibit first and then the waterfall exhibit which was packed. It had music and an interesting light show. It was also hard to photograph.
The orchids were abundant at the show. These were at the base of the waterfall:
The surfboard table was rather unique:
I love these colors together. The butterflies were a nice addition
These were unique too-from the Vancouver, BC area
A hammock is required for Hawaii!
Hawaiian Anthuriums
It wouldn’t be the flower show without a Azalea or Daffodil display:
The Bonsai were very lovely:
A canoe garden:
This nursery is a few towns over from my mom. Not sure what the significant of the piled up stones is. It took up a lot of space and wasn’t colorful.
Here’s something for Pinterest for sure!
The gardens in this display were very lush:
Near the end, my photos got a bit blurry. I had the ISO set high and maybe near the competitor’s plants it was bright enough to have it lower.
And here’s the restaurant where we ate. Sean didn’t care for his meal as they added green peas to his old standby of Shrimp and Cashew nuts. He never liked peas. They said that the original thing he ordered, Baby shrimp and Macadamia nuts was seasonal. I think they didn’t have a jar of them maybe? The food was good.
I bought only a few things, “Jade” roses for $5, the real lei and a bouquet of dried flowers which I don’t have in a vase yet. Pretty!
I’ve got plans already for Brian’s birthday weekend down in Elkton, MD. in a few weeks!
Collages & Creative Goodness 