Belmont and Beyond: Flower Shows plus...

Outside was a gorgeous blue sky day. As Gregg, Sarah, Ursula and I drove north we marveled at being able to see the high peaks of the Adirondacks across the border in NY. We were headed to the Vermont Flower Show, a 2 hour ride to see a touch of spring.

No show garden is complete without water...

That purple hoop is actually a spray of colored water...

More hoops of water. Where there is water there are (ceramic) fish...and a bridge...

There was even a working waterwheel. I was a bit disappointed in the show. The garden space was rather small for the crowd. We had to keep moving along the one path. That obviously was the plan since there were no benches within the garden area. I like to be able to sit down for a bit to enjoy the view.

We walked around the vendor area briefly and then headed home...only I took a small detour.

We stopped to see the snow sculptures on the village green in Woodstock. Ursula loved it!

This octopus had won the contest a few weeks earlier.

Not quite 2 weeks later Margery and I went on the Mr. Twitter's bus tour to the Boston Flower Show...

Note the waterfall above, near the table and chairs. It's actually part of a tumbling brook.

This must be the year for waterwheels. The tall rock in the middle of the pond had a carved face and rotated. I had no desire to take it home with me.

On the other hand, I'd love to have this hollow log (below) in my gardens. A kid couldn't resist crawling through and peeking out the hole in its side. The problem is that in a real garden it would be a magnet for bugs and spiders instead of kids.

Building this stone circle must have taken a good amount of time and effort, but it didn't entice anyone to walk through. I would have preferred a stone arch as an invitation to enter another space...

I liked the rhododendron bushes as the backdrop to a garden. Margery and I went to the lecture about rhododendrons. The speaker grows them in his woodland nursery in Maine where they have trails through the woods and by a lake, all with a vast variety of rhododendrons. It's now on my list of places I would like to visit.

We also stopped to chat with the vendor who makes these ceramic fish...

This was supposed to be a moonlit garden, complete with the full moon behind it.

There was also a small stream with mist rising from it to add to the effect.

Margery and I both commented on the number of gardens that included an outdoor fire pit of some sort.

In another area I had sat in one of these bamboo chairs where the bamboo is tied together with rope. It was quite comfortable, though I suspect the roping would rot outdoors.

I liked the metal dragonfly sculpture. I also liked the sets of 3 ceramic mushrooms. They were more affordable so I brought a set home with me. Mine are a deeper red and blue.

Below, a tribute to Stonehenge is always popular.

Then another garden with a more formal fire pit.