It's fun to share!

     As you all know, Jeff and I love going to gardens. We've been to the Arboretum a few times, the Huntington Library once, and to Descanso about a dozen or more times. The one thing we haven't done, is invited our friends to come too! So, when Julia and Mike suggested that we should all go together one of these days, I jumped at the chance!

     So, we made plans to meet for lunch in Pasadena and then on to explore the LA Arboretum after. After a teensy wrench was thrown at the original plan, we decided to skip lunch and meet at the gardens around 1pm. When we arrived, the sun was high and blazing, and due to the heat (it was beastly hot!), we decided to stick to some of the shadier areas. We traveled first to the prehistoric forest and the lake, passing the citrus orchard and rose gardens along the way. It was so great just to walk and talk out amongst the trees and flowers. And, despite the heat (it must have been at least 85F), we had a great time. Julia and I would get distracted, taking photos of the peacocks or occasional hummingbird or duckling, and instead of J getting a bit bored (as I'm sure sometimes happens when I get super snap-happy), he just walked on, chatting happily with Mike. It was great! 

    Speaking of photographs, it was nice to be able to take photos of other people without it being awkward (I've been trying to practice my portrait-taking, etc).. and it was equally nice to have a friend to take a photo of J & me. So, without further ado, here are some of the amazing snaps taken on this joint adventure!

 
     When the day was done, we were fairly worn out and very hungry, so we decided to stop for dinner at the diner M&J had suggested for lunch earlier. The place is called Pie 'n Burger, and as you may be able to guess from their name, they are known for their burgers and homemade pies. It's a cute little diner, started in the 60's, and tucked away and so small that J and I missed it the first time we drove past. Once inside, we collapsed into the bar seats and ordered up some milkshakes (and a diet coke for me) and burgers. I ordered one of my all time favorite foods: a patty melt. The patty was juicy and the cheese and onions melted to perfection on deliciously crispy rye bread - it was wonderful.
     With a plan in motion to meet back at the apartment for drinks and board games, we ordered a boysenberry pie to take with us. On the way home M&J grabbed a carton of vanilla ice cream - because hot pie deserves to be served a la mode, of course. And so it was, at the end of our adventure, that I served us all a slice of hot out-of-the-oven pie topped with vanilla bean ice cream, and we finished our day in a tasty reverie, until the very last bite was gone.

Pretty Plumage

    So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the Arboretum has a surplus of peacocks. I find them oddly fascinating, and they make excellent photo subjects since they aren't terribly skittish or quick, so I made it a point to return just for a feathery photo shoot.
    Less than twenty feet through the front entrance and I came across a group of peacock hens lounging about, and not too far away were several colorful males. I have suspicions that they were doing some sort of mating dance, since they were parading about with their feathers out, turning circles, and walking backwards. Either way, it provided some good opportunities for photographing, and I got a lot of great shots (I'm only going to include the best 5-10).

Peacock Smooch

    While photographing these bird brains, a much smaller flock of feathery friends made an appearance in the flowering plants and succulents around me. At times, they flew so fast and so close that I only felt them pass.. but I was lucky enough to catch a few of them unawares.
(I tried to identify some of them - feel free to correct me if you spot a mistake)

 Allen's Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird

Black-Chinned Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Hummy Tongue!

Today's photo-hunting was such a great success! I will definitely be returning there again. 

Arboretum Adventure - One of Many

    So, one of my favorite things that J and I have acquired this year, is our Descanso Garden Membership Cards.

looks like this!

    In the basic sense, it's a year-long membership to the Descanso Gardens, which are just a stone's throw from our apartment and very pretty as well. But, what it really means, is that we have membership to the Descanso Gardens PLUS free admission to about a hundred other gardens around the US. We now have free access to the San Francisco Botanical Garden and the Conservatory of Flowers (which I will be dragging J to at some future time. We also have access to a bunch of local gardens, including the Los Angeles Arboretum. http://www.arboretum.org/

    So, what shall we do this weekend? Movies are expensive, as are theme parks and most museums, etc.. but the gardens are now FREE. So, this weekend we decided to finish our exploration of the Arboretum. We had visited for the first time about a month ago, but since the park is pretty large and full of interesting things to explore, there was a whole side we hadn't seen yet. Of course, you don't have to walk too far before you walk into the path of some of the Arboretums permanent residents: the peacocks.

    One of these days, I'm going to grab my camera and just spend the whole day photographing these guys. They are very odd birds, and not at all skittish around people. The photos above were taken without zoom, so I was able to get very close.. so close that J was sure that one of them was bound to peck at me.
    Un-pecked and on a mission, we strolled off towards the unexplored portion of the park. We came across a lake surrounded by trees trellising numerous grape vines.

    We sat for a spell in a flower garden, watching butterflies flit to and from, and bumblebees collecting their share of nectar.

    We sat and watched a waterfall, enjoying the sounds as well as the cool air surrounding the pool.

    We climbed above the falls and found a small water garden as well as a field of small plumeria trees. J, knowing how much I love their flowers, stole the camera to take a picture of me.

And he wouldn't give it back...

    Our path back to the gates took us through a rose garden, surrounded by fragrant citrus trees of every variety. The gardens close before the sun goes down, so with the shadows growing, we knew it was about time to leave. But we will definitely be returning again soon, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the garden change and grow next spring.