Back to Brookgreen

Today, we went back to Brookgreen Gardens.  Our tickets were good for seven consecutive days, and we thought we'd take advantage of the sunny, warm weather to walk around and see more of the grounds.  Walked among the gardens and sculptures for 2 1/2 hours.  What a difference from last week.  Then, I was bundled up, and so cold, that I bought a jacket with a fleece lining to keep me warm.  Today, I was walking around in shirt sleeves.  It was a great opportunity to play with the settings on my camera.  I haven't mastered it yet, and some of my shots were pretty funny (that's a euphanism for just plain bad).  I had fun, though, and that's the main thing.  Here are a few pics - the ones I liked the best.

  This is a bit of a straw-like plant, very delicate, growing among the flowers.  I don't know what it is, but I liked the delicate curves swaying in the breeze.

 

  Loved this sculpture.  Mother bird and her babies.

 

 One of the many bronzes. 

 

 My favourite man. 

 

 I didn't even know I had caught this southern cousin of our northern cardinals until I played back my pictures.  I was trying to get a shot of a titmouse, and focussed on what I thought was the right tree.  Imagine my surprise when I realized I had missed entirely, and caught this little fellow by chance.  The big difference between this one and the ones farther north?  His beak is red - the ones at home have black beaks.

 

 Lots of bees buzzing around - busy collecting pollen.

 

 This was one of my favourite sculptures.  It's so life like, I expected the cats to move and growl.

 

 Gorgeous hyacinths - not many but what there were, were beautiful.

 

 

 Various types of daffodils were in bloom.  Beautiful large yellow ones, and delicate smaller paperwhites.  The tune 'the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la, bring promise of merry sunshine' popped into my head. (All those years of listening to Gilbert and Sullivan - the music is stuck in my head.)

 

Captured my shadow.  Shades of Peter Pan!

 The sun dial with the cherub and the lamb - another favourite.

 

 An interesting fungus-type plant that grows on some of the palm trees.  I don't know what it is, but it has intricate leaves that remind me of spiralled wagon wheels.

 

We still haven't seen all of the gardens, and I don't know if we'll go back again while we're here.  If it hadn't been for watching an episode of the Antiques Roadshow (the US one), we wouldn't even have known it existed.  It was mentioned on an episode about a month ago, and we made a note to ourselves to check it out when we got here.  Definitely a hidden gem.