Kaylee's Visit to Riverview Farm

I took Kaylee to the Riverview Farm as a late birthday gift to her. I had promised her a pony ride. She picked the smallest one who was named Scooter. Somehow I always thought Scooter belongs more to a dog than a pony.

She had a great time and we ended a great day with home made ice cream. Yum!

New York Botanical Gardens

I didn't expect to have as great a time as I did at the Botanical Gardens so my back up plan was to skip next door to the Bronx Zoo. (yes, skip!) I've been to the Bronx Zoo and I know I'd enjoy another visit there. As it turned out there was no need for an escape route. I loved the Botanical Gardens!

One of my concerns about visiting the gardens at the end of September was that I thought mostly everything in the flower family has gone by at this time of the year. Well, I'm sure the gardens are even more spectacular in the Spring and Summer...but even at this time of the year there is so much to see that it was difficult to get through it all in one day. And now I know that just because my yard is relying entirely on the die hard dahlia's to provide a bit of color, they are in no way the only flower or even plant that can provide color and intense beauty at this time of the year.

I'm posting some of the best flowers and plants I saw while I was there. And I have to say some of the photography is pretty darn good too...even if I am tooting my own horn! My eyesight being what it is now I was truly shocked to see how good some shots came out. I point; I shoot and I hope for the best. I never check what I have until I'm done. I was really lucky this time!  Enjoy!

Note: Since first writing this I ran into problems making a video of my photos so I'm posting still shots instead. And with that first frost we had about a week ago all my dahlia's have been killed. So sad to see them go!

More Than Just Flowers

The botanical gardens also house several interesting old buildings, one of them being what is currently called the Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill. The mill was built in 1840 and originally was used to produce snuff. It was called the Lorillard Snuff Mill then. It's the oldest standing tobacco mill in the country; the mill ceased operations in 1870.

 I LOVE old buildings so I looked this info up...however although I've heard of snuff before I never knew what it really was. So I looked that up too. (I had the notion that snuff was somehow related to cocaine!) As it turns out snuff was a very finely ground tobacco and used by sniffing it into the nose to get a quick nicotine rush. (that must be why I thought it was cocaine). Who knew I'd be learning about snuff on a trip to the botanical gardens?

We took the tram tour by the mill first but then came back on foot to get a better look. I couldn't very well JUST take pictures...I had to wander the grounds too! There were people setting up the ground floor in preparation for some kind of function but they didn't seem to mind me wandering around outside to take pictures.

Water levels are low here (like mostly everywhere else right now) but it was still pretty. However it was the stone arch that was the bridge over the river that really caught my eye. Stone just makes everything look elegant to me.

What's That Smell??

 This is the face that one makes when they walk down the stairs into the section of the gardens that has the mystery smell. It's bad...that smell. And it's rather overwhelming when you first come down the stairs but it disappears a few steps away from the bottom step. Odd, don't you think? We thought so too so we did a little investigating to uncover what was causing that smell.
All three of us wandered slowly through the area sniffing each and every plant we saw. Not one single plant did we miss. And then Marie found it.....a tiny little blue flower in the middle of a bunch of greenery and it stunk to high heavens!!

Marie called me over saying 'I found it!'...like she's just won a prize or something. So I leaned in and took a big sniff, never suspecting that it would be so very strong that it would feel like it pierced my nose! I gagged and took several steps back....gross!! I won't do that again.

I didn't take a picture of the little blue flower. I couldn't stand being close to it long enough to take the picture! But I HAD to capture the look on these two faces now didn't I?

Ahhhhhh good times...good times! And now I can cross 'sniff gross little flower' off my bucket list.

Some Of The Extra's

There was much more than just flowers at the Botanical Gardens. These are some of the other interesting things we saw while we were there.

Adventure Gardens

 The Adventure Garden is just one part of the trip to the Botanical Gardens in New York city. I was delighted to see the creativity demonstrated throughout this section of garden. I loved it! The loud, rowdy, little rug-rats that were tearing through that place didn't seem to appreciate it at all. Kind of ironic that it was put together for children by adults yet it's the adults that appreciate it while trying to stop the children from tearing it apart.




Perhaps it would have been better appreciated by a younger set of kids but I've been told you can't get much younger than me (mentally at least). :)

By the way, this butterfly was man-made and huge!