Fairchild Gardens Water Lily Picture

I am normally disappointed with the concept of a Botanical Garden. 

Oh grant you, the beauty is amazing, the education opportunities are many, and they serve an incredible purpose. 

I always find myself wondering "Where can I get THAT?" when I leave.   It is like window shopping when you are in another city and you've left your wallet at the hotel.

I had been resisting going to Fairchild Botanical Gardens for quite a while.  Finally with my cousin in town, I had no excuse to not go so I went along. 

The place is simply put, breathtaking.   Absolutely worth a visit.  We walked into the front gate after being asked why we weren't members.  Cousin Bill found that they were not in a Reciprocal Agreement with the botanical gardens in Omaha, Nebraska. 

After we managed to get past the volunteers, we entered a little court yard.  The building was being guarded by a hand sized lizard with a red head, grey body, and white rings that I had never seen before.  It wasn't too happy with my trying to get a good view and focus on it with that little camera of mine.   I really do need to get a proper digital SLR one of these days.

Stepping under the breezeway, we saw the water feature.   In the feature were these water lilies.  If you have the plant in bloom, and you get the right angle and light, it is next to impossible to get at least a "good" picture of a water lily.  Playing with the angle with my digital camera and zooming in, the sky reflected back as an inky darkness into which the pinks and yellows of the blossom of this plant shown.

Looking at the Lily Pads I realized where they got camouflage patterns from.   It looked like we borrowed this right from the leaves of the plant in order to be able to hide in plain sight.  The inky dark of the water looking like motor oil that is just about ready to be changed, and the natural purples and greens of the plant showing off against the reflections of the palm trees and the clouds made for a view that had me stop and ponder the scene.

Sometimes it's a good idea to sniff the roses.  Even if they are water lilies.