The Secret Garden.

I've been battling a bit of a cold this week, taking lots of sinus and cough medication and sleeping like I was Rip Van Winkle. I'm glad to be finally feeling well enough to do things around the house, and that includes posting the last couple days from our vacation.

Last week we spent a day at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. I found out how large the gardens actually were when we had walked for about two hours then looked at a map of the estate and saw that we had covered only ten percent of the grounds. By the time we were worn out I think we managed to see half of the whole gardens, but none of the Japanese Botanical Gardens. Next time, we're definitely hitting the Japanese side first.

There were a couple of spots that had the biggest hibiscus flowers I've ever seen. They were maybe ten to twelve inches across, and in these really bold pinks and dark reds. Hibiscus plants always remind me of my mom; she loves to grow them in her backyard and they always produce such gorgeous blooms. 

Can you spot this sneaky lizard in the picture on the left? H. was the one who found him,
and luckily the little guy stayed still enough for a few pictures. 

Can you spot this lizard in the picture below? H. was the one who caught sight of this sneaky guy
and had me take a couple snapshots before he scampered off into the bush. 

There was a designated rose garden on the grounds that I was very excited to see, but because of the hot weather and lack of rain throughout the summer, they had torn up most of the bushes and had not replaced them yet. That being said, some of the roses that were still growing were exactly my kind of roses. 

The aptly named Candy Cane Rose. 

These are both the Watercolor Rose, which is what I named them before I looked at the sign.
You can probably tell that they had the sprinklers on the whole time we were there. 

I completely forget what this flower was called - I'm not even sure it's a rose - but I was really enamored with that cute little bumblebee getting pollen stuck all over its fuzzy little legs. 

H. said that this flower, the Trumpet Creeper, was donated by the Bignonia Family.
I tried telling him that's the flower family it's from before realizing he was joking.
And he thought that was hilarious.  

There was a slight river running through a portion of the garden, and when we stopped for a moment,
these huge koi fish started swimming at the surface. If there was a fish feeding station, I would've
doled out fifty cents in a heartbeat. 

This sculpture stopped me in my tracks. I wish it was cleaned up a bit, but I guess that might be
difficult with it being outside the whole year. Regardless, I think it's just beautiful. 

These were one of the last flowers that we saw, but they were one of the most vibrant flowers there. I love that these are teeny tiny bushes of numerous blooms, and they've got a blast of color, and that it's the perfect coral color. 

I would highly recommend seeing these gardens, especially since we drove up, parked, and walked right in. There wasn't an admission fee as far as we could tell (or at least the portions that we saw were free and open to the public). After a second glance at the website, the greenhouse and the Japanese gardens have an admission fee, but I imagine it would be well worth it to see those parts of the grounds, and that's exactly where we're headed when we go back a second time. 

I believe that about sums it up for our vacation, or at least the parts that I took pictures of. Oh, there is this one picture of downtown Fort Worth that I took to try and capture the feeling of being a tiny person walking between skyscraper buildings.

It turns out those buildings are really tall. 

I really loved just walking around downtown and looking in at all of the shops along the way. And I loved that we had nowhere to be and no appointments and we could walk wherever we want and do whatever we want. We ate frozen yogurt and I got three flavors of fro-yo with about seven different toppings and figured out I really love coconut frozen yogurt. It's divine! 

Alas, it's back to the coal mine for me. It'll be another hard push til the end of the year - not much time off around the holidays (more like just the holidays), but I can hope that one day it will snow and ice and turn into a wonderful Snow Day.