Butchart Gardens, Victoria B.C.

My wonderful husband took me to Victoria BC for our anniversary. We had a great trip and a wonderful time together. Our first stop was Butchart Gardens.

You might think that spring and summer are the best times to visit botanical gardens, but the fall foliage was absolutely stunning!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Butchart Gardens.

 

We were amused by a sign in the gardens reading ‘No Unauthorized Singing.’ It seemed kind of funny, but if I started singing Jon would quickly shush me. Uh uh uh, No singing. Those of you who know me or my family will believe that he stopped me from singing at least three times. THAT’S how beautiful these gardens were.

-Lynnae

The Jane Austen House.

Today I was in Chawton for the Jane Austen Society Annual General Meeting. (More on that in the next post). The highlight of the visit was touring the Jane Austen House Museum, also known as Chawton Cottage. This is Chawton Cottage from the back. from the road it looks like a large square building but I had always wondered what the back was like. Here you can see it is more ‘L’ shaped. The upstairs window on the far left is Jane’s room.

I can’t tell you how it feels to take a curve in the road and suddenly be looking at a place that I have longed to see for years. Chawton Cottage is where Jane wrote or revised all of her novels.

The quilt on display was made by Jane, Cassandra, and their mother, from clothing pieces. This was Jane’s bedroom up until the last few weeks of her life when they stayed in Winchester to seek better medical help for her.

This is the view from Jane Austen’s bedroom window out the back of the house toward the bakehouse.

That precious little table is where she sat composing some of the greatest writings in the English language.

The stairs she walked up, the doorframes she passed through, the window sill she leaned against, all touched me with her spirit.

The surrounding countryside is beautiful. The land here is more heavily wooded than I supposed, with meadows and farmland. The area around her home is a lovely low walled garden, serene and beautiful. It is not hard to imagine what it would have looked like then.

200 years ago Jane would have been composing the ending chapters of Mansfield Park, my favorite of her six novels. Was she already feeling weary from the illness that would claim her? As tragic as her destiny was, I can see that she must have found peace in the lovely garden and the ever changing verdure of the countryside she loved.

In some respects this was a pilgrimage for me. After reading her novels, juvenalia, letters, and several biographies, the people in them begin to seem like friends and neighbors. I know they say everyone who loves Jane Austen thinks they know Jane Austen. I feel I know her more closely now after visiting this place that was so important to her.

It was a lovely day.

-Lynnae

P.S. I must say something about my dear husband today. As some of you know he is deployed oversees. Today was his birthday and he didn’t have the best day. And here I am having the time of my life traveling etc. I just want him to know I was thinking of him often…….. Jon, I love you with all my heart and I can’t wait until we are together again. So many times I wish you would have been with me to smile, make me laugh, give me a little hug, or just share in the moment.

Love always, Lynnae

New Orleans Day One

We stumbled off the airplane not long before midnight, but technically it was Saturday, so I’m, including it with our first day.

My daughter’s fiancé is a great young man, so I was eager to meet his parents. They were very nice and we had a great time. After checking in to our hotel we headed down to Cafe Du Monde to get acquainted over beignets. My daughter’s future in-laws.

Posing with my two older daughters. Yes, there are beignets under all that powdered sugar!

My daughter was very excited to be with her fiancé again after not seeing him for over a month.

My second daughter also came a long on the trip. Here we are stopping for a photo break.

My new friend buying us a blackened catfish po-boy sandwich to split.  The food was HEAVEN! Our new family friends threw a couple great bridal showers for my daughter while we were there. Between their excellent Italian cooking and the New Orleans flavors all around it was a foodie dream come true. ( I know, calories! But I figured I compensated by walking in the heat for hours. I earned every bite).

And then………. according to my children I proceeded to take enough pictures of New Orleans to furnish Google maps with their street view feature. But I couldn’t resist all the lovely architecture and overflowing balconies.

 

 

On a side note, I did have to come home and buy some flower boxes for my porch. It seemed a little bare after seeing these beauties!

-Lynnae

Wedding Plans: Bridals

Yesterday was a big day in the wedding preparations world, which is pretty much the world I exist in right now. We met with the woman making the wedding cake, and she also brought some yummy cake with her.

Library at University of Washington

  It was also the day for my daughter’s bridal photos. So her hair was done and the trip to Seattle was planned despite it raining cats and dogs. I bought a huge umbrella and prayed for a sun break. It cleared up in time for her late afternoon photo shoot. I took a few photos for the scrapbook of her and the photographer. Joshua from Joshua Gene Photography was great and really fun to work with. Unfortunately for you, all photos of the bride in the dress are under wraps until the wedding day. But I did snap a few pictures of the lovely locations we visited.

Lovely garden that will remain nameless for the time being because upon leaving we saw a sign that said no commercial photography was allowed. Whoops!

As enchanting as all this looked, it involved rushing around all day, eating nothing except cake samples, and neglecting my other daughters. I’m grateful to my second daughter who stepped in when daughter number 3 was having a bit of a meltdown about her 8th grade project being more lame than anyone else's.  That’s life in the real world. We got home from the bridal shoot at 10 pm, I ate more cake, and then stayed up until 1 am cutting new holes in the album filler sheets for said project because I bought the wrong type of pages and my hole punch was lost.

It’s good that there’s always a little something to keep me grounded.

Tomorrow my good friend down the street is hosting a bridal shower for my daughter, and then the next day we’re off to more showers and parties in ..…….

New Orleans!

Stay tuned,

-Lynnae

P.S. The 8th grade project turned out more awesome than anyone else’s.

Bloom Where You Are Planted…I Beg You!

I am not a very good gardener. I wish I were. I want that kind of lovely yard that is earned by love and toil, but it seems I just don’t have the discipline to make it that way.

Well, I take that back. I have discipline that I exercise in many areas of my life. I guess my garden is just lower on the list of priorities. Laundry, food, cleaning and general nurturing of my family are up near the top, and taking time to run and exercise is a high priority and a large part of my day. And then there’s my computer time, hopefully a little art time, journal and scripture study…You get the drift.

When the rain finally lets up…(say, June some time…) and my allergies ease off, then my yard battles consist of 1-Weeding enough to keep the HOA off my back, and 2- Trying to keep the neighborhood cats from using my flowerbed as a litter box.

But the dream still lives. And last year part of that dream was to plant three bare root, hardy Hibiscus plants in the flowerbed. They took hold, each grew a couple leaves, and then dried up.

Over the winter I wondered if that was it.

All spring I looked for signs of life.

And now, this week, when I was lamenting the weeds and giving the flowers up for gone, a saw a slightly different leaf.

And sure enough, in the center of a little stone circle was one of my plants. And it looked like a second one might be making a valiant effort.

Today I weeded the area. Thank heavens I had put the little stones around the plants or I might have missed them altogether.

As I weeded I saw even the third little guy struggling to reach the sun.

Maybe our Seattle springs come too late for these guys after all. But for now they are getting my full attention.

You Can Do It!!!!!

Spring Pictures

The other day I decided to ring in Spring by taking some pictures of early blooms. While I was out it actually started to snow! Ugh!

Anyway, this first set is at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.

  

 

  The next pictures come from Meydenbauer Beach Park (the blue skies became white….)

   And it began to grow a little colder……..

It started to snow. I took this last picture as I walked quickly back to my car. The snow didn’t stick on the ground, but it was still too cold for me!

-Lynnae

I Heart Spring!

Look at the gorgeous view from my porch when I sent my daughter out to the bus stop Friday Morning.

From Victory Garden to Felony Garden???

Just a little aside, if you are a gardener, like organic food, or just want the government to let you control your own life, please read Jan's blog and sign the petition.

http://crazyladyonroad80.blogspot.com/2009/03/do-you-like-organic-or-like-to-garden.html

I don't often blog about politics even though I'm a definite conservative and freedom loving Reaganite...The erosions of our freedom get my blood boiling, and since this blog is my happy place, I focus more on art and projects and other things. But please follow the link and read.
-Lynnae aka: Fit To See Jane

Artist Date

I went on my first Artist Date today. As described in Julia Cameron's book, "The Artists Way", I had to go by myself and do something creative that would feed my "little artist" soul for an hour or two. I went to the nearby Bellevue Botanical Garden. It was lovely. I've been there twice before, the first time just checking it out after Aerobics one day, and once with my family. It was fun to go at my own pace, (meandering) and sit down every now and then when the view was just too good to walk away from. Every time I would sit, I would think "I could sit here for an hour" but soon I would be too anxious to see the rest of the garden, so up I'd jump, and wander off only to sit down a moment later. My five favorite spots in the garden:Sitting on the rocks of the Alpine Garden looking across at the weeping willow.The benches at the japanese viewing pavillion.Just past the pavillion in between the waterfalls. The sound is wonderful.The whole Yao Japanese garden enclosure.The fab 50's house in the middle of it all, that houses the gift shop, restrooms and offices. Complete with fully surrounded courtyard and sliding shoji screens. (Don't ever change a thing!!)
Our weather was unseasonably warm today. I left my jacket in the car. I took my camera too post a pic or two, but the battery was dead when I got it out, so I returned it to the car so I could walk around unencumbered.There was construction work there, and it was loud. I tried not to let that distact me. The whole walk was restful to the eyes, if not the ears.I will definitely go back soon, probably once the fall colors start to come out a bit more.