An Afternoon In Another Garden

Our son Andy and his wife, Kristin were visiting recently and while they were in town they decided to test out some lawn furniture. They look pretty happy with this chair, too bad it won't fit in their luggage.

Even though we are all fully vaccinated, finding something to do in our town - that doesn't require a boat - is pretty tough. So we opted for a visit to an old stand-by, The Paine Gallery and Gardens. 

It was open only by appointment during the pandemic. That took way more advance planning than His Madness and I are capable of so, we haven't had a good look around in ages. 

I have been avoiding any outdoor spaces that are regularly maintained so I wouldn't feel so bad about my poor out of control garden. As luck would have it, there was a wedding that afternoon, so of course the whole place was absolutely pristine, ha! Somehow, maybe because it was so spectacular, I completely forgot to feel guilty.

You could hear the bees buzzing in these alliums from ten feet away but somehow only one showed up in the photo! Next time I'll have to take a video. Maybe No Mow May was a success after all?

After not seeing the gardens for such a long time, they seemed very different, but then I guess we've all changed a lot in the last year and a half, ha!

As the afternoon wore on and the heat and humidity increased, even the sound from the fountain wasn't enough to keep us cool.  

 

We headed for the deeper shade and Andy played us a tune on one of the Tongue Drums, cleverly disguised as mushrooms.

 

I was intrigued by these very tall lilies growing straight out of the gravel, in some pretty deep shade.

Eventually it was time to admit defeat, mask up and visit the galleries to cool off in the AC.

We had also headed inside to avoid a brewing storm, which turned out to be just a little rain, ha! It was enough to raise the misery level of the humidity but wasn't so bad that it ruined the wedding. Is it just my perception or are those globe things on either side of the bench a little weird?    

That evening turned out to be very pleasant, it even cooled off enough so we could have dinner on the patio. There was a pretty sunset (that I didn't quite capture in this photo) and by some miracle, not too many mosquitoes made it through the screens. The garden wasn't looking too bad either, especially after it got dark!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks to Andy, Kristin and HM for being such good sports!