Friday, June 13, 2014

Friday, June 13, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2003. We took Mattie to the Wright Brothers National Memorial, commemorating the site where the first flight took place in this Country. Thanks to the ingenuity of Wilbur and Orville Wright. After four years of experimentation, they achieved the first successful airplane flights in 1903. In Kitty Hawk, NC, at the site where this museum is located. I had Mattie pose by a space suit and given that he was in a carrier on Peter's back, some how this photo worked out height wise!


Quote of the day: Sometimes I guess it just feels better to know that you have someone to help you when you can’t even help yourself. ~ Rebecca Gober

Today we journeyed back to Roanoke Island and visited the Elizabethan Gardens. We had taken Mattie to these Gardens many times before. But a lot seemed to have changed in a decade! We are so happy we returned, it was such a glorious and peaceful a place to visit. This is the entrance to Elizabethan Gardens, which is comprised of 10 acres and over 500 species of plants. Construction actually began for the Gardens on the historic date of June 2, 1953, the date Queen Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England. The Gardens were formally opened August 18, 1960, on the 373rd anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare, the first child born in America of English parentage. 

The Garden is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I. Though we visited the Garden previously, this bronze statue is a relatively new addition! It is huge and a very impressive structure which captures your attention almost as soon as you enter the Gardens. 

This is the first sight you see as you enter into the Gardens! It looks like a true English garden.

There were signs by many of the flowers indicating what we were looking at and the signs had a phone number that can be dialed. I decided to dial into many of these signs and got some additional information that was not posted on the signs. It was an interesting way to get some facts and to tour the gardens. 

The lushness of the gardens!!!

On the property are also several greenhouses. While in this location, we bumped into the assistant property manager working on one of the flower beds. He had arranged a fascinating bed of flowers in the shape of an eye lid. But we did not recognize the flowers he planted. He told us about them, they are called ginger lilies and apparently when they bloom in the late summer they are incredibly fragrant. So before we left the gardens, in the gift shop, we bought our own ginger lily to take home. Now we shall see if we can grow and cultivate it. It is a bulb so in theory we should be able to take it inside in the winter, just like we do with our amaryllis. In any case, as I continued to chat with this fellow, I learned that he lost his grandmother and he was very close to her. Working in this Garden makes him feel a spiritual connection to her. He thought that this probably sounded strange to me, but of course to me this sounded absolutely NORMAL!

The pathways along the Garden were just incredible. Easy to walk along and something to see at every turn. 

Another pathway!

This was the hydrangea pathway! The Gardens literally had hydrangeas in every shape and color. 

These are lace cap hydrangeas. Not your usual snowball type hydrangea.

In the middle of the Gardens stands a 430 year old oak tree! 

Peter was standing in the middle of the boxwood garden! Not everyone can smell the incredible peachy fragrance of boxwoods. But they are intoxicating!

In the middle of all of this is also the Atlantic Ocean!

My favorite part of the Gardens however is the Sunken Garden! This garden was literally taken from an estate in Georgia and transported to North Carolina.... including the statues and the fountain, which were originally from Italy! 

This was an amazing sight to see. You just wanted to sit here for hours. It was that beautiful and peaceful. 

The fountain was glorious and was surrounded by statues featuring roman gods such as Venus, Apollo, and Diana. 

A close up of the statues.

As we ended our tour of the Gardens, we were greeted by several black swallowtail butterflies. It could be coincidence, but I instead took it as a sign. Mattie was with us on this trip fluttering with us, by us, and around us. I rather him be with us just like I see the countless other intact families traveling around us. But of course that isn't what our life looks like now. A reality which continues to be hard to explain to people who are not on our journey. This evening Peter and I are going out to dinner and then will return to pack up our condo to make our return trip home to Washington, DC tomorrow. Amazing how fast a week goes by.