6-2-17  Atlanta Botanical Gardens-Curious Garden

  
Today Ken and I took Angie and Josh to the ATL airport.  They were escaping to S. Florida for a few days.  Lucky them---oh, yeah---we were just there, too!  Anyway, their flight was at 3:15, so we left Suwanee at 1pm.   Now that the highway is open again, it's faster to drive through the city then to bypass it on 285.  So that's what we did.

Sure wish people we heed this!!!!   Between all the anti-Trumpers and the international terrorist attacks that seem to be going on monthly now, people are crazy!

After dropping the kids off at the airport, I made Ken stop by the Atlanta Botanical Gardens on our way back since we were passing within a few miles of it.  
This little girl reminded me of myself at that age

There's a special exhibit going on now.  It was going on when Angie and I came for the book signing, but my computer decided to destroy all those pictures, so now I get to try again.

Interesting what they'll think to do with chopped down trees!

There were also a lot of flowers blooming.

More of the curious garden decor.

a regular fixture here.  But this is the first time I've seen her with flowers for hair.

continuing over the bridge.

must be peak season for hydrangeas, they were everywhere.

and many different colors.

under the bridge.

another odd feature to the Curious Garden

the sitting river

This part of the garden is mainly a tree canopy.

with interesting mosaics on the walkways and walls.

a green "flower"?

I thought these were really unique

All the times I've been to the gardens, I've never gone to the Children's Garden.  So I decided to check it out today.  This is the walkway leading to it.

The kids were sure enjoying this!  It was a good day to be playing in there!  I was tempted to join them!!!

lots of bird houses, but no birds

even a little amphitheater

Fun watching little kids being curious.

Lots of pretty flowers, too.

close up of a birdhouse.

and another.

bog of insect eating plants in the childrens garden. 

sometimes you just have to stop and scratch.

more pretty flowers.

An interesting tree house.

and a nice play ground---where are all the kids?

Magnolias were blooming, too.

For some reason this reminded me of Ken.  Maybe because he just dropped me off and parked in a nearby neighborhood and napped until I was done.

a snake on the path!

Even the man hole covers are cute.

heading back to the entrance of the childrens garden and the huge butterfly sculpture.

Heading back out of the childrens garden

The garden is looking quite lush these days!

a little koi pond

close up of the chihuly glass on the fountain

love all the flowers.

some more colorful trees.  Too bad they aren't like this naturally!

back to looking at flowers.

more curious objects.

the orchid building.

view from the near skyline garden

not much of a skyline---at least not this time of year.

some curious chandeliers.

on to the orchids

or whatever they are

I hung around in this part of the building for awhile---the high elevation garden.  It was pretty hot outside and this room was nice and cool.

more insect eating plants.

on to another part of the building---more curious pieces and a bunch of orchids.

curious as to who comes up with these ideas?

Out by the entrance to the building.

This is when I called Ken and told him I was heading back to the entrance and should be there in about 15 minutes.

looking back at the orchid house.

checking out the curious flowers by the curious trees.

another green flower!

REally like the pink tree.  Wonder if you can paint living trees?

heading to the entrance

passing by the chihuly fountain again.

Ken was there waiting for me and since he had left and parked in a neighborhood while I wandered around, we didn't have to pay for parking (first 30 minutes is free).  I didn't think I'd be there very long.  We have reciprocal garden memberships, so I didn't have to spend a long time there to get my money's worth (about $20 worth).  But I still ended up being there for about 1 1/2 hours.

We still managed to make it out of the city before any major delays.  It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and get some steps in.