Koi, The Living Art

Koi, The Living Art  The Marie Selby Botanical Garden is located in Sarasota.  The Selby fortune was made in oil, and became part of Texaco.  This garden is located overlooking the water, so has extensive water views and is a wonderful walking garden.  It is well-known for its significant collections of gesnariads, cycads, and orchids.  It is a research facility and has preserved plants in its collections as well. My interest during this trip is to gather as many Koi images as I can. I've been to the garden each day, and am lucky to be able to sit on a bench at the water pond and pool to take pictures.  This is a large collection of Koi and they are large in size - about a foot long each of them.  There is a waterfall that flows into the pool.  The Chinese tradition says that if a Koi can make the final leap up the waterfall, it will be transformed into a Dragon. It is likely that you can see the fascination with Koi.  Their movements in the water make beautiful displays of their tails and fins and are ever-changing.

Escape the Cold of February

Escape the Cold

Canadian Winter Escape Thank you for the Birthday Wishes for Gerry!  We go to Florida on the weekend and will escape the Canadian winter cold for two weeks. How many Canadians take a winter trip to the sun?  I saw an article that said 45% expected to take a winter vacation in the sun (the article was in 2000).  That seemed high, so 'expecting'  might be based on the desire, rather than what people do. I take mini-breaks in the winter by going into the conservatories in the GTA and surrounding area.  I can go to the Niagara Falls Floral Showcase, the Royal Botanical Gardens Mediterranean Greenhouse, Toronto's west-end Centennial Greenhouse, and Allan Gardens in downtown Toronto.  And for pure delight, consider the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory. You'll see scenes like these - little versions of Florida botanical gardens. You'll get the benefit of the smells of the tropics too. It is such a contrast with our austere winter landscape and lack of scents in the cold air. So consider a trip to a conservatory - there are two tropical beauties in these pictures - the first is Dutch Man's Pipe - a climbing vine that has these big brim flower at the front and a 'pipe' shape at the back.  And the next flower is an orchid cactus like the Night-blooming Cereus - high white flowers with a lush tropical scent.