{"id":2260,"date":"2013-07-04T12:28:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-04T17:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=2260"},"modified":"2013-07-04T12:28:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-04T17:28:54","slug":"alabama-discoveries-6-bellingrath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/07\/alabama-discoveries-6-bellingrath\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Discoveries 6: Bellingrath Gardens for Mother’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DSC_2986\"<\/a>
I love this picture!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As always, when asked what I want for Mother’s Day, the answer is the same. I want an outing with the family at a\u00a0location\u00a0of MY choosing.<\/p>\n

It often involves something more feminine. Being in a house full of guys, I usually have to give up the girlier things during the year, but for Mother’s Day I get my berry picking and botanical gardens visits!<\/p>\n

This year, I asked for a trip to Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile, Alabama. Again. I had already dragged the family out there over the holidays to see the fantastic light show<\/a>, but I wanted to see it in the spring with all the flowers in bloom before we moved to Colorado.<\/p>\n

I was not disappointed. And Timmy, my little naturalist, was just as impressed with all the flowers and animals.<\/p>\n

I took the good camera with us so I could capture the beauty! Enjoy some pictures. Be forewarned, I took over 300 pictures, so I’ve distilled it down to about 30 of my favorites.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Timmy<\/a>
Timmy was helping me find pretty flowers to photograph in the rose garden. I was in heaven with all the roses!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Plumeria!<\/a>
These next few are in a tropical greenhouse exhibit. Plumeria! The scent of these flowers bring back so many memories of Hawaii!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pretty<\/a>
Pretty orchids!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A pineapple plant! It was cool for the kids to see how pineapple actually grow…NOT on trees!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Back<\/a>
Back outside, plenty of pretty flowers as you walk through the gardens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"DSC_2940\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_2942\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I had zinnias in my garden in Nebraska<\/a>. I love how bright and cheerful they are.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fuchsias!<\/a>
Fuchsias! I had one of these as a hanging basket in college. It was very big and somewhat overwhelming.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Reading<\/a>
Reading the dedication of the park to the Bellingrath family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"There<\/a>
There was plenty of wildlife to see also. This carp had to be over 2′ long!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I attempted to manually focus this picture so we can see the spider web and the TINY little spider (towards the left) who did all this work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"If<\/a>
If you look closely, there’s a snake on this tree branch. Timmy amazingly saw it slithering in the brush and brought our attention to it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Look,<\/a>
Look, it’s a real live armadillo! I think Jacob was the one who saw it from a distance scavenging among the dead leaves. I had to seriously zoom in on this picture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The kids were impressed with the bamboo. They were feeling the velvet-y exterior.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I<\/a>
I don’t know what this is, but it’s pretty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"There<\/a>
There was a nature walk through a wildlife refuge…I liked the cypress with the Spanish moss.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A lizard. We saw many of these on the boardwalk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"There<\/a>
There was an edible garden area. Swiss chard, parsley and pansies. I had that same Swiss chard among my zinnias in Nebraska. It’s called “City Lights” if you want to find the seeds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Pansies.\"<\/a>
Pansies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Heading<\/a>
Heading towards the Asian garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
More carp…these ones were pretty friendly. I guess they assumed we’d feed them, so they followed us around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Here<\/a>
“Here fishy fishy….”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My camera’s flash was being temperamental here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, when asked what I want for Mother’s Day, the answer is the same. I want an outing with the family at a\u00a0location\u00a0of MY choosing. It often involves something more feminine. Being in a house full of guys, I usually have to give up the girlier things during the year, but for Mother’s Day … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[170,233,393,51,229],"class_list":["post-2260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alabama","tag-alabama-discoveries","tag-bellingrath-gardens","tag-flowers","tag-garden"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t