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| 2025-03-20_13.50.00.jpg |
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New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill
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| 2025-03-20_13.50.10.jpg |
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Cool place to wander around.
We did pretty much ALL the trails.
Good food at the "Farmer and the Fork" too.
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| 2025-03-20_13.51.13.jpg |
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Crocuses just starting to emerge.
Glorious weather today -- nearly 50 degrees, and 64 just a couple days ago.
Ground is warming up...
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| 2025-03-20_13.51.20.jpg |
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Crocuses aren't the only things coming up
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| 2025-03-20_13.51.40.jpg |
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These crocuses are in a sunnier patch
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| 2025-03-20_13.57.26.jpg |
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Nice courtyard.
Love the flame bowls!
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| 2025-03-20_13.58.00_DSC02917.jpg |
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John's a much better photographer than I am, with a much better camera.
Know about things like "depth of field", which I always thought was a
football term.
From here on, assume all the good pictures, especially the closeups,
are his.
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| 2025-03-20_13.58.10_DSC02918.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_13.58.20_DSC02919.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_13.58.30_DSC02920.jpg |
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Starfish with a loincloth, per Karen
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| 2025-03-20_13.58.40_DSC02921.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.00.18.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.01.11.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.05.06.jpg |
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Temple
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| 2025-03-20_14.05.24.jpg |
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Ruins
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| 2025-03-20_14.05.33.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.08.13.jpg |
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The Kim Trail
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| 2025-03-20_14.16.52.jpg |
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Red-blazed trail
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| 2025-03-20_14.20.19.jpg |
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Uh, oh!
We're not back at the
Rock Circuit Trail
are we?
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| 2025-03-20_14.26.30.jpg |
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Nice view
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| 2025-03-20_14.26.42_DSC02927.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.26.45_DSC02926.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.26.47.jpg |
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Suspension bridge in the distance?
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| 2025-03-20_14.26.50_DSC02928.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.26.53.jpg |
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No, it's power lines lined up with a causeway
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| 2025-03-20_14.30.07.jpg |
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John and Karen
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| 2025-03-20_14.31.09.jpg |
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Well it IS called Tower HILL.
Should have expected to climb some.
One of the triangulation points for flooding the Wachusett Reservoir in
1905.
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| 2025-03-20_14.34.31.jpg |
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We all agreed these should be called the "Frank Lloyd Wright" restrooms
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| 2025-03-20_14.34.34.jpg |
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Karen striding right along in her stylish green jacket
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| 2025-03-20_14.35.19.jpg |
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Small pavilion.
Nice place to hang out and chat for a bit.
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| 2025-03-20_14.35.46.jpg |
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Wachusett Reservoir and Wachusett Mountain in the distance
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| 2025-03-20_14.35.50_DSC02929.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.35.53.jpg |
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Wachusett Reservoir and Wachusett Mountain
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| 2025-03-20_14.36.00_DSC02930.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_14.37.00_DSC02931.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_15.04.18.jpg |
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Mini-Stonehenge
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| 2025-03-20_15.04.30_DSC02932.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_15.04.44.jpg |
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Fringe tree
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| 2025-03-20_15.05.05.jpg |
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Safety grid and fence so no one falls through the ice
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| 2025-03-20_15.05.39.jpg |
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Cool children's house made of sticks.
John's twice as tall as the doorway.
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| 2025-03-20_15.05.46.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_15.06.33.jpg |
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Sculpture tunnel
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| 2025-03-20_15.07.03.jpg |
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Upside down trees
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Stone arch
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| 2025-03-20_15.08.00_DSC02933.jpg |
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Stacked stones
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| 2025-03-20_15.08.30.jpg |
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Low shelf for kids to stack stones
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| 2025-03-20_15.09.09.jpg |
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Red and yellow Witch Hazel
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| 2025-03-20_15.11.16.jpg |
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Tree stump sculpture
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| 2025-03-20_15.11.30_DSC02934.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_15.12.01.jpg |
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The Ramble -- an unpaved loop of trail away from the gardens and through the woods
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| 2025-03-20_15.12.30.jpg |
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Dwarf Mountain Laurel
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| 2025-03-20_15.14.16.jpg |
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Cool curvy log.
Why so many curves?
Must have been reaching for the light under other trees.
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| 2025-03-20_15.32.59.jpg |
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Approaching the spiral path, wondering what we're looking at
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| 2025-03-20_15.33.18.jpg |
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Spiral path
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| 2025-03-20_15.33.26.jpg |
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Around and around to the teepee in the center
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| 2025-03-20_15.34.07.jpg |
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Walking the spiral path
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| 2025-03-20_15.35.11.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_15.35.28.jpg |
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All different kinds of twigs in the path borders
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| 2025-03-20_15.36.18.jpg |
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Root growing up and over a rock
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| 2025-03-20_15.41.31.jpg |
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Mossy stump
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| 2025-03-20_15.46.12.jpg |
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Massive car-size slabs incorporated into stone wall
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| 2025-03-20_15.46.26.jpg |
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Opening from one farm field to the next
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| 2025-03-20_15.47.02.jpg |
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Wall continues around the corner
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| 2025-03-20_15.47.43.jpg |
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Lots of stone walls everywhere
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| 2025-03-20_15.48.00_DSC02935.jpg |
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LOUD squawking of MANY birds in the distance?
Very continuous for a long time.
John walked over.
Frogs in a pond.
They went quiet as we approached.
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| 2025-03-20_15.50.29.jpg |
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Lots of rock formations everywhere.
I guess they're what makes up Tower Hill.
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| 2025-03-20_15.51.51.jpg |
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And more stone walls...
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| 2025-03-20_15.53.18.jpg |
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Blue bag of dog poop displayed for all to see.
Karen says that's a thing people in New England do.
OK.
Weird!
But if you say so...
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| 2025-03-20_15.58.00.jpg |
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What are all these regularly spaced small trees?
Bark looks like apple or cherry.
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| 2025-03-20_15.58.36.jpg |
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Check the tag.
OK.
Malus is apple.
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| 2025-03-20_15.59.48.jpg |
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Ah, it IS an orchard.
Now they tell us!
Guess we're walking the loop in reverse.
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| 2025-03-20_16.00.15.jpg |
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Bee hive to pollinate the apple trees
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| 2025-03-20_16.01.14.jpg |
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Bluebird houses, and insect traps to do insect counts
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| 2025-03-20_16.02.00.jpg |
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Cool star-shaped pattern in cut logs.
Karen was just pointing out how white pines have rings of branches
sticking out in all directions, every few feet up the tree.
This is what it looks like when you slice the trunk at that exact spot.
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| 2025-03-20_16.02.30_DSC02936.jpg |
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Lots of logs, several with the same star-shaped patterns
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Rhododendron in the shade of a big tree didn't get the memo that it's
50 degrees today.
Leaves still curled up and drooping.
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| 2025-03-20_16.03.20.jpg |
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Orange flowering moss
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| 2025-03-20_16.03.45.jpg |
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Big stone urn
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| 2025-03-20_16.05.27.jpg |
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What are those knobbly things on that one arch?
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| 2025-03-20_16.05.43.jpg |
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Electrical connectors?
Ah...
Power for horizontal strips of lights going from arch to arch.
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| 2025-03-20_16.06.06.jpg |
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A long arched walkway that lights up.
Must be nice for weddings, etc.
I like the graceful, wandering crossbar at the top.
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| 2025-03-20_16.06.37.jpg |
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I want this garden shed for the end of my driveway!
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| 2025-03-20_16.07.34.jpg |
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Lots of crocuses here on the south facing slope.
John, can you get a close-up of this one?
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| 2025-03-20_16.08.00_DSC02937.jpg |
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Graceful meandering, splitting and merging set of stone walls.
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| 2025-03-20_16.08.34.jpg |
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Hey!
It's a long graceful river-shaped artwork, with waterfalls from
level to level.
Have to come back and see that when winter's gone for sure and
the water's back on.
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| 2025-03-20_16.08.50.jpg |
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Rusted steel latticework
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| 2025-03-20_16.09.35.jpg |
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And there's an inside!
The Limonaia is a lemon garden.
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| 2025-03-20_16.09.41.jpg |
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Looking out the window at the courtyard under construction.
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Dueling turtle fountains spit water at each other when the fountains
are running
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| 2025-03-20_16.15.00_DSC02938.jpg |
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That's probably why this one has his head so high
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| 2025-03-20_16.15.10_P7155436_ON1.jpg |
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Yes, dueling turtle fountains spit water at each other.
Thanks to Geoff Wilson for the picture from a warmer day in 2017!
He used a bunch of filters to get away with a 4-second exposure in
bright sunlight.
Cool water effects!
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| 2025-03-20_16.15.14.jpg |
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A living plant?
A sculpture?
The top of Alfred Einstein's head?
Only his hairdresser knows for sure...
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| 2025-03-20_16.15.41.jpg |
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Aha!
We found the lemon tree!
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| 2025-03-20_16.16.15.jpg |
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Very colorful!
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Bird of paradise
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| 2025-03-20_16.16.35_DSC02940.jpg |
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Easy to miss the succulents nestled among all the bright squares...
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| 2025-03-20_16.16.56.jpg |
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... Until you zoom in.
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| 2025-03-20_16.17.00_DSC02941.jpg |
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| 2025-03-20_16.24.27.jpg |
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Magnetic squares stuck to steel wall plate.
Kids can build things.
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| 2025-03-20_16.24.48.jpg |
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Now, on to the Orangery...
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| 2025-03-20_16.25.00_DSC02942.jpg |
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The orange tree has no fuit.
But the lemon tree did.
Mystery never solved...
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| 2025-03-20_16.26.22.jpg |
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Orchids
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| 2025-03-20_16.26.41.jpg |
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Orchid closeup
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| 2025-03-20_16.26.43_DSC02946.jpg |
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John says it looks like a sad dog...
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| 2025-03-20_16.26.45_DSC02947.jpg |
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Especially from this angle!
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| 2025-03-20_16.26.47.jpg |
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Agave Americana Century Plant
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| 2025-03-20_16.27.00_DSC02948.jpg |
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Clownfish orchid?
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| 2025-03-20_16.27.15.jpg |
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Variegated leaves and more orchids
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| 2025-03-20_16.27.41.jpg |
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Ferns
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| 2025-03-20_16.27.56.jpg |
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Nice dining area overlooking the courtyard
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| 2025-03-20_16.56.01.jpg |
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Gazebo?
When did they put that there?
We must have walked all the way around it a few hours ago.
Peered intently at the snow drops and crocuses popping up along
the left side of the path.
Never noticed it to our right.
Doh!
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