Out in the garden

During Thursday's book club meeting Zoom hour, David had mentioned the Governor's Palace Garden was open to all public, and he and Peg had been there. J and I decided to give it a try on Saturday when the temperature was rising significantly though it's been dragging below average lately.

We had our brunch pretty early in the morning and arrived around 11am. We parked the car in the usually full but now plenty available lot. There was even one under the shade... Had our masks on, we walked through Duke of Gloucester and then crossed the mall. There were much fewer people walking and biking along the street than a typical spring weekend. And as expected, not all of them headed to the direction of the garden.

The sun was already high up and radiating a lot of heat to the earth. The garden under the heated sun was like jumping to the summer with just one step through the service gate. The whole domain of the Governor's Palace was quiet and deserted, with one or two watch persons with uniform roaming around.

I took several pictures while inside the canopied tree tunnel. I've always loved taking photos of tree branches and leaves from shadows toward sky or light. With human eyes you can see the layers, the light and shadow, the different shades of green. Yet it's a difficult task to convey the beauty using a camera, sometimes you succeed sometimes you fail.

There was a family laughing and yelling in the maze. A nicely figured woman had on a long sun dress and a wide hat. None of them was wearing any face masks. So we turned our way to the little canal.

There's one small tree of 丁香 blooming just at the edge of the water. The sweet smell of the blooms came and went while the sound of the water flowing under the little bridge never stopped. A metal canoe was hidden on a slope in the woods. I saw a dark red wooden gate at the end of the slope. Where did it leads to? Some voice said: nowhere.

Back from the canal, we climbed the steps from the bottom of the maze. There was a look out spot on top of stairs. Very tall trees and long shadows surround us at the lookout. One or two maze pictures from the above were irresistible. The family without masks was still playing around the maze.

On our way back to the big garden, two old ladies sitting almost 6 feet apart on the bench at the narrow way along side the water. They had their handmade cotton masks on. Through the trees I could see them talking to each other.

The big garden was bright and heated. Midday light was too harsh for shooting flowers. Besides I couldn't name those except for some irises.

At the exit gate, the sun-dressed woman was standing under a big tree waiting for her family. We walked out of the gate, someone walking their dogs just crossed in front of me. People started coming outside enjoy the weather. Families spread their picnics on the mall grass, with children running around.

We were heading straight back to the car.

(Originally written on 05-18)