Flower therapy: Jensen Botanical Gardens & Green Acres Nursery

It’s hard to remember the cold, rainy weather when the sun is shining and the temperature is in the low ’90 degrees (fahrenheit), but that’s where we were just last month. Given a nice day, Ray and I went to find the small tulip patch at Jensen Botanical Gardens. We didn’t realize just how small would be! But, the tulips were beautiful just the same.

After that, we went to my favorite floral place, Green Acres Nursery.

Flowers and macro are my therapy. I hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I had photographing them. As for the weather, we went from the high ’60s to low ’90s in one day. Fortunately our furnace broke a couple of days ago and the air conditioner still works. Stop to enjoy the flowers everyone!

A bright spot in April: Crystal Hermitage Garden, Ananda Villiage

The tulips bloom only in April at the Crystal Hermitage Garden in Ananda Village in Nevada County. So, we waited for sunshine and no rain. We finally decided to go when there would be a possibility of sunshine, meaning partly cloudy with some sun. This resulted with some tulips open, but most shut.

But it was worth the trip. Planted each year, the gardens are always beautiful and attract visitors from all over to see the more than 17,000 plants. This quote was taken from one of their sites.
“We planted over 111 varieties of mid and late season Dutch bulbs this year,” said lead Gardener, Nancy Mair. “We blend tulips with a rainbow of complementary pansies, wisteria, rhododendrons, azaleas, peonies, dogwood trees and the fabulous cherry tree, so that guests enjoy a different garden in each terrace.”

I’ll admit that I was upset that after waiting, we still were under dark skys for most of our time there. But, as usual, it was a great experience. Until next April here are some of the images I took.

Someone’s in the kitchen:Crystal Hermitage Gardens

Right now there’s 35 matzo balls boiling on the stove, a turkey roasting in the roaster and chicken soup cooling on the counter. I’m in the kitchen to make sure there’s enough water in the stock pots so the matzo balls don’t burn. They can when the water gets low; I’ve done it before!

Happy Passover to all of you who celebrate the holiday also. It’s late this year. I look back at this holiday with fondness. I remember my entire maternal family gathered around my grandparents long table, my grandfather reading the entire hagadah (story) in Hebrew, and the rest of us reading from mismatched hagadahs just to keep busy. It seemed like agony then, but now, if I could only go back. After my grandparents passed, Passover was never the same.

I have tried to create my own holiday tradition for my children and grandchildren. I hope that my older grandchildren will create a tradition for their families when that occurs.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the Crystal Hermitage Gardens which are located in Ananda Village located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Grass Valley, California.

The Exploring Photography Meetup group organized a visit to these beautiful gardens to photograph the amazing variety of tulips planted. I can’t imagine the effort it took to create this beauty for residents and garden visitors. This will be a two-part post because I have many images to show you. Today, I’ll show you the flowers. Most are tulips and there are some others.

No captions again. I’m way too busy in the kitchen preparing my portion for a pot-luck Seder with friends!