flowers

Florida Discoveries 6: Azaleas! But While I Have Your Attention: Azalea Queen No More?

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Do we look like a bunch of pretty little azaleas to you?  Nah, didn’t think so…I still have my dress today, but can’t zip it up past my belly-button. At first I was just going to post pictures of the all the beautiful azaleas I’ve seen on the Florida Panhandle these past couple weeks.  I’ll … Read more

Florida Discoveries 4: Springtime on the Panhandle…Part I

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I know, it’s only March 10th, and many of my readers (I get 50 new visitors per day now, by the way!) are still sitting underneath snowpacks. But here on the Florida Panhandle, the brief winter* we had has definitely given way to spring: complete with thunderstorms, tornadoes, allergies and weeds! Things were brown when … Read more

Nebraska Discoveries 12: Lauritzen Gardens…Omaha’s Botanical Center

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Since I won’t be in the Omaha area forever, I realized recently that my time is running out for visiting the many attractions in the area.  Thanks to my boys’ field trips, Cub Scouting and birthday party invitations, they’ve already been to several area attractions.  But I’ve set a new goal for myself and the family: to visit every attraction on the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau’s “Pin Map”.

You probably can’t see it that well, but just click on the “Pin Map” link above and you can see the original PDF.   It’s called the “Pin Map” because in front of each of these attractions is an enormous mock up of a blue-tipped pin.  I’ll get a picture of one as soon as I can…
So…my goal is to visit each of the 15 attractions on the “Pin Map” before I leave the area.  So far, I’ve covered 7 of the 15 attractions (numbers 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, and 13)…and we have this summer to make our way through the rest.  Maybe I’ll blog about these “pins” as we visit them…I hope to, but I won’t make any guarantees.
Today I’ll share with you my first visit to #8 on the list: Lauritzen Gardens.
Timmy’s preschool class took a trip here on Monday.  I can’t believe I’ve lived here nearly 2 years and hadn’t been here till this week!  I guess it goes with living in a house full of boys, right?
This is a beautiful place, full of pretty flowers (of course) but I also really enjoyed the gardens “repurposing” sconces, corbels and other ornamentals from throughout Omaha…the pieces were rescued and help decorate the gardens.  The kids really enjoyed the flowers but the weather wasn’t very good and the walking was pretty tough on that group of 4 and 5 year olds.
So here are some pictures of the lovely visit.  I won’t include everything, just some of the more summary-type pics.  I STILL can’t believe I left our camera sitting on the counter as we headed out the door…so these pictures are with my iPhone camera.

This piece was repurposed from a downtown Omaha building:

Some Summer Color to Enjoy!

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First I thought I’d share some of our new friends in the garden. From 2009 08 11 BlackSwallowtailCaterpillars From 2009 08 11 BlackSwallowtailCaterpillars From 2009 08 11 BlackSwallowtailCaterpillars Go ahead…say it…. [Blog reader gets up from computer and does a heebie-jeebie dance] “EEEEEWWWWWW!!!!! Stop! Make it go awayyyyyyyyyy!” For my friends from Florida, not sure … Read more

Spring Splendor!

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“Wait just one doggone minute! It’s mid-February! Spring isn’t for another month!” (At least, that’s what the Groundhog said!) Well, someone needs to tell my flowers about that, since my crocuses and daffodils are opening up, just like all over the rest of central North Carolina. Seriously confused, they are. I didn’t mind the pretty … Read more