The Secret Garden

I live a few minutes away from a beautiful oasis called Thanksgiving Point.  It is 350 acres of museums, golf course, shops, children's discovery park, and my favorite, 55 acres of beautiful themed gardens.  Often I go for an early morning walk through these beautiful gardens.  I'm there with the gardeners before the gardens are officially open.  I smell the freshly cut grass, I hear the birds sing, I say hello to the bunny rabbits who scamper across my path.   I cross beautiful streams and amazing waterfalls and observe a friendly owl who has made his home on a rock ledge.  There is a beautiful rose garden, Roman pillars, fountains, even a flower covered carousel.  I am bombarded with flower eye candy and a thousand fragrances.  I often end my walk in a smaller, walled 'Secret Garden'.  I sit by a fountain and listen to the peaceful sounds and look at the beauty of the place.  Beautiful summer gardens are God's way of reassuring me that He is near, He is in control, and all is well!  I hope you have a delightful Sunday filled with rest, renewal and worship!  (Following are a few pictures from yesterday's early morning visit.)

This is the view from where I was sitting.  I sat back and took several shots, hand held.  I practiced changing the aperture so some of my shots showed everything in focus and some with the background out of focus.  I prefer the out of focus background which made this lovely place look soft and peaceful, a bit drowsy and a bit mysterious.  This is how I felt at the moment.

Simple flowers glowing from behind with morning light.

I was sitting under a huge arch covered with honeysuckle and the bees and bumblebees were buzzing busily with their morning work.  (This is my first real photo with my new macro lens.  And I found out that taking a hand held picture of a quickly moving bee was not easy.  I ended up with about 2 shots in focus out of about 35 attempts!!)