Last weekend we went back to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Since we’ve been there recently, we decided to distinguish this trip by making our photos have a lot of interesting optics. Brad and I both wore sequins, and he used a lot of unusual optics to create moods and highlight features that we didn’t last time. I wore a champagne-colored sequin dress, Felix the sable and white Japanese Chin wore a lavender vest, and Brad wore a sapphire-emerald sequin tuxedo blazer, sparkly blue pants, and accents in royal blue, sky blue, and green.
Our first order of business was to find a place to eat lunch. We brought sandwiches! On our way to find a place to picnic, we passed a garden we hadn’t seen before, so Brad snapped a few pictures with me in dappled light in front of a white trellis. The smeary blur is from a centerfield split diopter on his lens.
All the picnic tables were taken, so we found a bench in the shade we could set our food on. We already brought our own chairs LOL! Brad took some pictures of me getting out the food and wondering when he’d stop taking pictures so we could eat!
We had a good lunch, and on our way back explored a fountain with forced-perspective metalwork. It had bars around a statue that made it look like it was receding into the distance. Brad had fun taking a few pictures of Felix and me in front of it.
Next we visited the west arbor. This is a long walkway with plants growing all around and on top of it. It has nice dappled shade with a strong grid of shadows from the overhead trellis, and is really really beautiful! Brad got some really pretty pictures of Felix and me, some of the various flowers in the arbor, and a picture of Felix making a really funny tongue-out face while eating a treat.
Next we ventured into the main walkway that leads from the center of the entrance all the way down to a main fountain. This Ragan Canal Garden has a river of water running down the middle with some large fish sculptures that are just amazing. It was really hot, though, so we pulled over to hide in the shade a bit and got some great photos of Felix resting next to my wheelchair.
It was so hot in the sun that we took a side path and entered the children’s garden. Since it was a Saturday, it was pretty busy with kids so we didn’t explore it too much. We just did a few paths, got some portraits of Brad’s awesomeness, and got a few pictures underneath the gazebo stone supports. Brad also got two pictures of a tired Felix, one with his tongue hanging out crookedly!
And last up for today’s blog entry, we posed for a few pictures in front of the big fountain at the end of the main river walkway with the fish sculptures. Unfortunately that fountain was not turned on, so it isn’t as spectacular. But we did get some pretty spectacular shots of Brad and me posing with extended arms and legs in front of it!
Stay tuned for my next blog entry which will be all about my favorite fountain in the gardens—the one you can walk through!
Great pictures! What a fun outting!
Thank you!