Fair Weather Friday

I'm surprised that I haven't taken the photo above more often. This is a view looking east (slight angle) from the south entrance structure of the Japanese garden out on the zig-zag bridge and fountain in the distance. This circular opening is created with a wooden cheese mold set in a fence and offers a beautiful view year round! Today was another nice one and some heat finally arrived with a high near 80 degrees F today. Watering has become a priority as we continue to lack significant precipitation over the last two weeks. The entire grounds staff had watering duties and we had another productive group of gardening volunteers out in the gardens to help out. Below are additional images from this morning.

the view to the arched bridge through the gazebo continues to be striking

the red border continues to look nice after being tidied up yesterday

'Miyazaki' toadlily (Tricyrtis hirta) continues to bloom strongly - perennial

rattlesnake master (Eryingium yuccifolium) continues to impress - perennial

Above are Kathy (left) and Mary who continue to work wonders in their area at the east end of the gardens. Mary has been a volunteer at the gardens for over 20 years and daughter Kathy sure has her mom's work ethic! Below is Eva who worked with Kathy P. on more primping, purging and tidying in many areas including one of the wedding sites for the weekend (five weddings!). Jenny and Dave E. worked in their two assigned areas (great job as usual!) and Shirley (second photo down) did a top notch job collecting leaves in many different areas. Chuck S. stopped by for some recycling efforts and we also saw Dr. Yahr, Bev W. and many others.

The grounds staff had their share of watering today and tidying for the weekend. However, today also marked the earliest date in the year that we've ever started putting out lights for the Holiday Lights Show (HLS). Both Big John and Terry had sprinkler duties, container watering and other tasks but were also involved in working together on putting out the first of our lights! This is earlier than usual as we have a tighter deadline for set-up with the Taste of Chocolate event on November 22nd which also includes the premiere lighting of the HLS. Janice also had a multitude of watering and tidying duties throughout the gardens. I did a brief tour but continue to become one with my desk chair. Below are additional images from this morning.