Quarryhill Botanical Gardens

Having driven across town for my semi annual visit with the dermatologist, and having had the requisite two pieces of flesh removed and dozens of others zapped with frozen nitrogen, it was definitely time to do something pleasant. 

Anne and Harold and OilMan and I have been friends for so long that we could probably sit around in our pajamas all day just trying to figure out where to go and what to do. I left the three others to come up with a plan while I was gone. An hour and a half later I came back and there was no plan. But it was lunch time and we were all hungry, so we fairly quickly decided to take ourselves off to VJB for pizza and deli salads. 

Having had enough wine last night to last us through lunchtime, we passed on the wine, enjoyed the umbrella filled courtyard and the ample people watching opportunities. I held my tongue as I passed a guy in a tee shirt that said, stand for the flag, kneel for the veterans. Apologies to all of you across the pond who may not know what that means, but in my mind it is another distraction created to keep off our minds off all the truly awful things that are happening in the name of the people.  I suspect a growing number of us are embarrassed to even be associated with the name American.

Quarryhill is a beautiful old botanical garden dedicated to preserving an extraordinary number of Asian species of plants. In the middle of a vineyard filled valley at the foot of the mountains, it is  planted around an old quarry which is now filled with water and water lilies. Recent analyses by Botanic Gardens Conservation International ranked Quarryhill 9th in the world for their collection of magnolias, and third in the world for their exceptional collection of maples.

The nice woman in the gift shop gave us a ride up the hill in a golf cart since the temperature was topping 90 degrees. Despite that, the shaded gardens were a cool and pleasant place to wander on a hot day. The fire burned right up to the fence on their property line and there were bulldozers working on taking out the burned trees. A glimpse of them can be seen on the top right of the picture.

I think OilMan and Harold spent more time consulting the map than they did actually looking at the plants, but Anne and I found plenty to look at. We cooled off back in the air conditioned gift shop where I admired some little painted Tibetan chests and purchased a pair of earrings in the shape of dogwood blossoms and some Tibetan prayer flags.

Not much time for commenting...I'll catch up this weekend when Jim and Dana leave for Paris and Blake returns....