Walking Squares: Belfast Botanic Gardens

Again, much thanks to Life of B for this month’s Squares Challenge: Walking Squares! So much fun to create a gallery of memorable walks!

In April, self finally crossed Belfast off her bucket list. She’d been wanting to go ever since she got into Game of Thrones, the HBO series. She was a huge Gendrya fan, and every time Joe Dempsie showed up in Belfast she would cheer!

She stayed at the Europa Hotel, which was fantastic, and each day she explored a different area of Belfast. One day, she went to Queen’s University and explored the botanic garden, right alongside:

Walking Squares: Allied Arts Guild, Menlo Park

This is one of those places that never seem to change — a little oasis of peace right in the center of the city of Menlo Park, a bedroom community for Silicon Valley tycoons. Every year, the shops have seasonal “themed” parties — Fall, Christmas.

The day she took these pictures was her birthday. She was with her son and daughter-in-law and Lucia.

Thank you to Life of B for reviving the Squares Challenge!

Cee’s Flower of the Day: Oxford Botanic Garden

For this Flower of the Day Challenge, self decided to go back through her archives.

She took these pictures when she visited the Oxford Botanic Garden, late May.

Fan of . . . # 175: Secret Gardens

Thank you to Jez for hosting the Fan of . . . Challenge. Self’s post isn’t on arches, though, lol

In May, self returned to England for the first time in three years. She decided to stay in an Airbnb in East London, a part of the city she’d never been to.

Her unit was directly across the street from Hackney City Farm (it’s on Hackney Road, which is a very fascinating road, a cross-section of London’s population, and hardly any tourists, ha!). She was so tickled to find an exact replica of a California organic farm. In East London! They sold all the same things she could get in a California organic market: raw yogurt, grains, fresh fruit and vegetables. Next to the farm was a small garden. So pretty! Self loved exploring the narrow pathways.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge # 208: SUMMER VIBES

Oh, what fun. It is summer, self’s favorite time of year. It is hot as all get out, self is wearing a muumuu, she even wore it to go to a dentists appointment, and her dentist complimented her and asked where she got it.

This is wildfire season in California, and as a matter of fact there was a fire quite near her, just off Edgewood Road. But that was handled in three days. There’s another, bigger fire in Yosemite which is hopefully on its way to containment. There is a drought, so everyone’s been asked to limit watering to two days a week. Other than that, it’s been a good summer. Self has raised three new rose bushes and a bougainvillea in her backyard. And she’s been reading, a lot. In the past month: four Dr. Ruth Galloway mysteries, two Gone novels, Book One of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The Final Architecture trilogy, and Where the Crawdads Sing (she’s still not sure if she’ll see the movie).

The guest host for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is solaner, and the prompt is SUMMER VIBES:

• Show us your favorite activity (yes, chilling is also accepted as an activity in this context) in summer. In my gallery below, I have some of them as inspiration: biking, mountain climbing, hiking, swimming, diving, sailing, surfing, kite-surfing, beach sailing, chilling, bbq-ing, beach partying, traveling, sightseeing, reading, dreaming, loving, dancing, and I’m sure, you’re finding lots more like i.e. Midsommar in the Scandinavian countries or the White Nights

Here are three little glimpses of self’s Summer of 2022:

• Her backyard — Roses are blooming!
• Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park, which has such beautiful gardens! The bougainvillea is gigantic.
• Café Wisteria — She celebrated her birthday (Bastille Day) there last Saturday, seated in the courtyard. That’s the best thing about having a birthday in July: you can celebrate outside!

Water, Water Everywhere: 3rd Sunday of July 2022

Yesterday, son and Jennie and Lucia went for an outing to Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park. Such beautiful gardens! Lucia particularly liked the water fountain. Self thinks this picture is perfect for Jez Braithwaite’s Water, Water Everywhere Challenge.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #207: SEEING DOUBLE

The host of this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is Jez Braithwaite:

• Seeing double is all about reflections—probably one of my biggest photographic obsessions. I tend to see them everywhere & actively seek them out when they’re not readily apparent. My reflection hunting started shortly after I got Snappy, my DSLR, 12 years ago with some poolside reflections.

This was such a fun challenge. Thank you for dreaming it up, Jez!

• Lily pond, Oxford University Botanical Garden:

• Ruth Asawa, permanent collection, De Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco:

• Alexander Calder mobile, from Calder/Picasso Exhibit, 2021, de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park:

Flower of the Day (FOTD): All Dressed Up

This year, self placed three large planters just in front of her French doors, and filled each with roses.

Her Chrysler Imperial rose went into bloom last week. Now it’s the turn of All Dressed Up.

Posting for Cee Neuner’s Flower of the Day:

She’s never had roses this big and fat in her backyard. Location is all.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge (CFFC): Waterscapes

This week’s CFFC is: LANDSCAPES or WATERSCAPES.

Self has lately been thinking of adding a water feature to her garden (though, she is worried about Lucia falling in, so maybe not until she learns to swim). Here are examples from various gardens she has visited in the past month:

• The Glasshouses, Oxford University Botanic Garden
• Central Fountain, Oxford University Botanic Garden
• Central Courtyard, Christchurch, Oxford University
• Filoli Gardens, Woodside, California

Flower of the Day (FOTD): The Merton Borders, Oxford Botanic Garden

The Merton Borders were sown in November 2011. The purpose was to create a natural plant environment by sowing, directly into the ground, seeds of plants that would not require intensive management (i.e. no artificial irrigation, no fertilizer).

This is how the Merton Borders look today. Posting for Cee’s Flower of the Day: