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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Another Day, Another Bridge... & Ruby Tuesday...

I, Melli, do hereby solemnly swear that this post

DOES indeed include a bridge, AND a Ruby Tuesday!
Read on...

Alice at Born2cree8 is hosting this one!
It runs this week 8/24 - 8/30.
If you want to play, sign her linky!

RUBY Tuesday is hosted by Mary, The Teach
It plays every Tuesday! (duh!)
If you want to play along, sign her linky!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soooooooo we went back to the Butterfly Garden yesterday! Took Amanda & Luz with us! Luz was soooooooo excited to go see a Blue Morpho Butterfly! She had learned about them from Dora & Diego! I'll tell ya... they teach her a LOT!!! So does Little Einstein!

Anyway... FIRST I gotta show ya this!

Remember the Golden Chrysalis?
Well these guys are the Asian caterpillars that came out of them!
Weeeeeird lookin', huh?

Stuff changes SO fast there! I think I need to go once a week!

This is my two girls studying real hard!
Well... okay... Luz was a little grumpy...
but Amanda really was just lookin' hard!
(I looooooove this chair!!!)

Here is little Luz with a magnifying glass!
She is studyin' that butterfly big time!

And here she got to pick up a dead Blue Morpho! I was sO
surprised she did it! Sometimes she is ewwwy about things
and other times, she digs in with both hands! You never
know - but I just thought she wouldn't touch "dead". She
was really impressed by the velvety feel of the wings!

And here she is just intently listening to whatever
the worker there was telling her. She was still
hanging on the Blue Morpho...

This time I was the lucky one who got a butterfly on me!

Several actually tried to land on Luz - but she moves so quickly that they would change their mind at the last minute! One landed on Amanda's head too - but she didn't like it! Amanda I think had a love/hate relationship going on in there! She was fascinated by their beauty - but had a definite ewww factor happening! So we didn't stay in there too long this time. Amanda's ewwishness, and Luz's very short attention span coupled with the MUCH higher heat index than last week, dictated that we move on outside!

Around the corner, in the Rose Gardens we found this pretty water feature. It was sort of in the shade and had a nice bench in front of it should you want to do some water gazing! We did stop for a few minutes... Luz tossed in some coins and made a few wishes. And then I caught this picture of her with the water inbetween us...

I love this!

We walked through a few of the gardens today. We didn't cover the whole thing, but I think we hit enough of the highlights. I was VERY disappointed to find that the memorial that I showed you last week - to the victims of the sniper attacks -- had been marked up with graffiti this week. It just hurts my heart that people feel a need to do that. The people that work there were pretty sure it had just happened over this weekend. We ran into a woman who was walking around inspecting for "vulgar graffiti"... we told her about the memorial and she had not known. When we left there were police there taking pictures - for all the good that will do.

There were a couple of flowers there today that I want to share... first these silly things! They hang UPSIDE DOWN! I guess cuz they grow on a tree and God wanted us to SEE them!

They are BIG gorgeous flowers
(when fully open I would imagine they
are spectacular!)
... But they hang UPSIDE DOWN!

And then there were these...

I call them Christmas Light Flowers!
(AND we will call them Ruby Tuesday too!)
I don't know if they are actually going to open
up and BLOOM... or if this is IT!?
They are gorgeous as is! But weird!
(big them!)

And then finally... oh finally...

I found a bridge!
(did you think I forgot???)
This bridge crosses over the pond that the turtles are in.
You remember the turtles?
I remembered the turtles!
But I just had NO idea about the turtles...

This is a potted plant island that floats in the middle of the pond...

(I sO wish I had had this for reflections!)
Apparently turtles crawl up onto this thing at will and for
the most part all 4 sides of it were Turtle Central. Or at
least that was what we thought...

Until we looked ... really LOOKED around the edge of the pond and realized that every single possible little nook or stone that a turtle could get ON to, had at least one turtle on it! And then we looked DOWN... into the water... and I kid you not there was hundreds of turtles! We were so utterly amazed by the turtles I just can't tell you! And of course, Quilly knows... turtles are HARD to photograph! They come up for a minute... and then they dive! And they stay DOWN for about 10-15 minutes... and then they come up, grab a gulp of air ... and disappear again! OY! But we did see many many turtles... and we saw a couple that were quite large! Look at this...

Look at that BIG guys HEAD compared to the
other ones!

Here... Look closer!

It was an amazing Turtle Day!
All I could think was how much my boys would have
LOVED this back in their Ninja Turtle days!!!
LOL!

Labels: Bridges, Ruby Tuesday

25 comment(s):

What a lovely day out!
First - I WANT one of those butterfly chairs - it's awesome.
The Christmas tree flowers remind me of multi-colored peppers - really cool.
The bridge photo is a very scenic and peaceful landscape - great find on this one!

By Carletta, at 8/26/2008 1:24 AM

That was a nice excursion !! I would love the butterfly seat for my garden and you really look great on this picture with your living broach ! I still hunt for a bridge !

By Ingrid, at 8/26/2008 2:11 AM

Hey so the Brugmansia, beautiful isn't it. They look really cool when you put them up high like on a fatty fence post so that you can see their blooms better. what a lovely one and in full bloom - but did you smell it! I love flowers that have beautiful fragrance.

By Lanny, at 8/26/2008 2:26 AM

Melli, those gorgeous flowers grow here in Hawaii -- didn't I post some for Project Yellow? AND, your turtles are great. How exciting to see so many all at once.

By Anonymous, at 8/26/2008 2:39 AM

Sounds like a fabulous day! I love butterfly gardens. The bridge is lovely, the turtles cute, and the kidlets are ADORABLE :)

By Minkydo, at 8/26/2008 6:01 AM

Wow, what an amazing place! Those flowers hanging upside down and the "Christmas light flowers" are stunning -- I have never seen anything like them! How fun to watch the turtles! And that bridge is one of the prettiest I have ever seen.

But the best pictures are of Luz concentrating while holding the butterfly and then the shot through the water. Beautiful!

By Anonymous, at 8/26/2008 8:06 AM

There are so many things to love about this post! O do love the picture of Luz taken through the waterfall. Lovely!
And the one of you with the butterfly is also great!

By Anonymous, at 8/26/2008 9:22 AM

I would have loved to go there!! What fun you all had. Those Christmas bulbs are something else. I have never seen anything like that before. Wonder if we could grow them..wow!! You had a great time. I love butterflies.

By Ramblins of a middle-aged goddess, at 8/26/2008 9:24 AM

What a wonderful post, Melli!! Holy cow you really got everything in...and your post reminded me I have a bridge in my archive from the gardens in Arkansas we liked so much.
You are going to be so glad you have taken all these wonderful pictures of Luz to look back on when she becomes punky teenager :)

The Christmas tree lights are ornamental peppers. I have some in my little garden by the driveway. I just love them. Are those snappin' turtles? You know what they say about them, doncha...if they bite you they won't let go until it thunders. :) eep
Our botanic garden is "open" I guess, but it is just so hot they don't even have anything scheduled until nearly October....when they have the fall sale.

By Amber Star, at 8/26/2008 11:33 AM

Hi! I wanted to let you know that if you follow www.dackelprincess.com in your Google or bloglines reader, you will need to unsubscribe and then resubscribe to get the feeds. I switched my platforms from Movable Type to Wordpress and so the feed switched.
I hope you'll follow me!
Maribeth
The Dackel Princess

By Anonymous, at 8/26/2008 11:39 AM

Hi Melli, I love all of your pictures in the butterfly garden...I am going to have to share my mom's butterfly serving tray...You and Luz always find fun things to do together..she looks so pretty in all of her shots..Amanda has a loving and blessed child..

Where do you find such gorgeous flowers?? I love the Christmas lights one..and the yellow hanging down plant..
Have a good day ... Love ya, Baba

By Baba, at 8/26/2008 12:23 PM

This was another great tour of the butterfly garden and I know Luz had a great time there. The little bridge is so lovely and serene looking to me.

By Anonymous, at 8/26/2008 1:21 PM

the ruby tuesday flowers look like peppers to me... not flowers but seeds :)

anyway, looks like a wonderful day...

By juliana, at 8/26/2008 3:01 PM

What a great place to visit and so thoughtful for them to place a bridge there :0)
Love all those turtles...

By Anonymous, at 8/26/2008 3:35 PM

I know all my grandsons at one time would have loved seeing all the turtles too!! I loved your tour of the butterfly garden. Luz is so cute! Love and hugs, Grams

By Talk..to..Grams, at 8/26/2008 4:06 PM

What a pretty place you visited! Looks like your little girl was fascinated. I love the Christmas light flowers and the ones hanging upside down are angel trumpets. I have a bush in the yard but they bloom really late and then frost seems to kill them. Very nice pictures and post!

By dot, at 8/26/2008 4:34 PM

OMG... the Ninja Turtles... I saw them in concert on the "Out of Our Shells Tour" when my oldest was about 7.

Thanks for the memories!
- Mojo

By Mojo, at 8/26/2008 4:47 PM

What a fun day. We just discovered a butterfly garden in our area. So fun! Great post!!

By Laura, at 8/26/2008 6:02 PM

Wow, what a beautiful picture taking day. Love the butterfly gardens! Sounds like a fun day! Miss you.

By Lazy Daisy, at 8/26/2008 7:02 PM

Wow so many things in one visit. I wish I had time to comment bvut this is grandson week and my time is limited.

By Dr.John, at 8/26/2008 7:22 PM

wow this post has everything!!

ruby tuesday and nature and bridges and critters and beautiful children - wow!!

those christmas tree lights are marvelous!

By Dianne, at 8/26/2008 7:39 PM

What a wonderful day..turtles, butterflies, children...what could be better...

By RamblingWoods2.com, at 8/26/2008 8:29 PM

Melli, I saved your post 'til last, lol. I wanted to take the time to go through this properly, once I saw it, so I left and came back later. I sO enjoyed all the photos and the story of your trip to this divine place. I would so love to have been with you and Luz. She is sO sweet! I love the butterfly chair, and the bridge, and the turtles, and everything about this post.

By Anonymous, at 8/27/2008 1:30 AM

Whoof, Melli! Do they let dogs in there? This is spark...errr, spick.... errr, spectacular!! BARK!

By Anonymous, at 8/27/2008 1:32 AM

Love all these pics! But especially loved the wry amusement on your face when you sported a butterfly on your shoulder!

By Gemma Mira Wiseman aka Pamela Adams, at 8/28/2008 6:42 AM

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Another Day, Another Bridge... & Ruby Tuesday...

25 comment(s):