Brookside Gardens will always be a special place. The gardens are always beautiful and every time I visit, there’s always something different in bloom.
This weekend’s visit was special because the indoor garden building was open. It has been closed last year and every time we went this year it was a little too late to go inside.
We were able to see the cacti, orchids, palms, and other beautiful indoor dwellers. It was like revisiting old friends. Such a peaceful place to sit and breathe deeply and take in everything around you.
I struggle not to take a thousand pictures every time we visit. I limited myself to just a few. Including the obligatory proof that I leave the house at times.
I got Moderna #2 on Monday. Yesterday, I felt wiped out. I can best describe it as the flu with a touch of dementia. I couldn’t find words. My brain was foggy. Everything ached. I laid around all day half-watching things on Netflix. Today, I took the day off to fully recover before leaping back into the stress of work. I spent the morning listening to poodcasts and taking a photo walk around my favorite lake. Then I went to Brookside Gardens, and took more photos of the beautiful flowers there. It was a superb day that I desperately needed.
White little flowersTulipsI loved this two-toned flower.This one reminds me of NIN’s 1999 The Fragile artwork
The weekend is here again. Or is it gone already? How is it already 7pm on Sunday? They fly by without a trace.
Well, there is some trace. The new butterfly bush we planted yesterday after finding Country Nursery, a lovely little nursery. It meets my internal passing grade of a quality mom-and-pop nursery because you can never quite tell whether you’re supposed to be where you’re standing or not. Everything flows together.
Butterfly bush, pre-planting.
We didn’t know this nursery existed until passing it on the way to Meadows Farms, the only nursery I know from frequenting one near the farm where I grew up.
Their prices on everything were far below anything Meadows Farms or Home Depot/Lowes can offer. As we talked to the woman behind the counter, she said “We order what people want to buy.” Which seems like a perfect way to do business.
We did buy a selection of indoor plants form Meadows Farms. A found a pair of cacti I allowed myself to buy after keeping the one I bought last year alive and doing well. Add to that a coleus (the red fuzzy one).
Annie got a Snake Plant and a ZZ Plant. Both hearty for shady indoor climates, which is our house.
This is our life now. Watching the birds at the feeders. Clearing areas to plant more bushes and flowers around our house. Annie is on a mission to remove anything that’s only green. It has to flower. It has to look pretty. And if it’s going to, it has to look pretty for as long as possible.
She lived in California when she was young and remembers the flowers everywhere, all the time. So while Maryland isn’t the same climate, replicate as much beauty as possible.
