Monday, May 10, 2010

Cherry Blossoms - Brooklyn Botanical Garden

With the crazy spring weather in NYC - warm days and then cold days and lots of rain - the cherry blossoms hit full bloom a few weeks earlier than usual.

Lucky for me I was in town (usually I am in CA for Mom's Day when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom) and we spent a lovely Saturday afternoon at the the Brooklyn Botanical Garden (BBG) wandering through the cherry trees in full bloom. The BBG has the largest concentration of cherry trees outside of Japan (that's right, even more than Washington DC).

When you first enter the BBG, you are on a hill above the grounds. The trees are in two main rows down below. When the leaves eventually fall off of the trees the ground looks like a pink carpet.






After my gum paste flower class I look at flowers differently. I like to see how many petals the flower has, what do the leaves look like, how is the calyx attached. I have to think in my head how I would make that particular flower.







Standing down among the rows of trees is just amazing. Every where you look there are beautiful pink flowers. It was very cool the day we visited and fortunately it wasn't too crowded.




I stood in the middle of the rows of cherry trees and tried my best to capture a 360 degree video - you get the gist.


One of Michael's famous self portraits!




The BBG also had a beautiful tulip display. There were so many colors and varieties on display.





This was one of my favorite tulips - the heads were really large and the bright pink color was just amazing.

They also have a conservatory with tropical and dessert gardens. While the cactus and rocks have their place I definitely preferred the lush Jurassic feel of the tropical rain forest garden.
Is that a dinosaur? No, just Michael! (The dinosaur is taking the picture....hee)




Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Best Thing I Read Today

"When life gives you lemons, make margaritas."