Tower Hill Botanical Garden

Recently, I stumbled across a reference to the Tower Hill Botanical Garden in Boylston, MA. I had never heard of it, but after checking the website, it looked like a great place to go for an end of the summer photo roadtrip. Absolutely worth it, and on an absolutely gorgeous day, too!! It only costs $10 and is easily reached from Rt. 290. IF you love flowers and enjoy walking around a well-kept garden with many different displays, then I highly recommend this one. This first shot is in the area called the "Systematic Garden".This is one view of the Vegetable Garden area.

This vista is from a lookout where you get a great view of Mt. Wachusett and the Wachusett Reservoir. There is a small shelter with a few seats. There are benches all around the gardens so that you can sit and rest or just enjoy looking at the flowers.

There are sculptures and decorative details all around the area.

These wooden houses (bird houses?) on tall poles are placed near the Vegetable Garden. There are several small tubes inside two of the houses. Maybe they are for bees?

Near the farmhouse, some bright red chairs looked so pretty on the patio in the dappled sunlight. Very inviting!

The next blog post shows Tower Hill Botanical Garden - Water!

Tower Hill Botanical Garden - Water

There are several water features at the garden. The first three pictures show the Wildlife Refuge Pond. While there wasn't a lot of action at the time I was there, other visitors pointed out several tadpoles hanging on to rocks and dead reeds in the water. While the pictures aren't clear, you can see several of the tadpoles.

This fountain is in the center of the Systematic Garden - very peaceful!

There is another fountain, a bubbling fountain, on the walk out to the overlook toward Mt. Watchusett. It is set within a large stone circle set low to the ground. The bubbling action is very inconsistent. Took several pictures, but I liked this one the best.

The next blog post is for Tower Hill Botanical Garden - Texture!

Tower Hill Botanical Garden - Textures

With so many different plants, there were an amazing number of different textures. Leaves, grasses and vegetables are sometimes smooth, sometimes grooved and sometimes spiked. The variety is lovely.

One more Tower Hill Botanical Garden post left - FLOWERS!

Tower Hill Botanical Garden - Flowers!

This post shows several of the flowers found all around the site. Most were in the "Systematic Garden", though some were in the "Cottage Garden". I will admit, I enjoyed taking the pictures but I didn't list the names of most of the flowers, so we'll just have to enjoy looking at them in a state of mysterious beauty~

What if?

Here's an experiment. What if I use a picture that's original, straight out of camera (SOOC) size? Will it be too big? Let's see.....

OK - it is much bigger than usual if you click on it. And it took longer to download, too. So, I'll make 'em smaller before they appear here.

Where Does the Time Go?

I'll admit it - apparently I'm not much of a blogger. Where does the time go? As summer flies by, I've been taking plenty of pictures, but I haven't been "blogging" them. Maybe as the cooler weather arrives I'll be better. For now, the swans are happy in the pond and I am busy taking pictures. What more could anyone want?

Cardinals in the Back Yard

Another hot day today, but had a pair of cardinals visit the bird bath this morning! For once, the right lens was on the camera, the dogs didn't bark and there was enough water to keep them in the yard for a few minutes. Even though the female is not a striking as the male, she is very pretty in her own subtle way!

It's hard to miss this guy flying around in the yard. We've had cardinals nesting in the yard in the past, but they must have been somewhere else this spring. It's great to see them (and hear them) in the yard again.

Summer has arrived...

Sometimes even the flowers in your own yard can be pretty amazing. I'll admit, my "garden" is pretty out of control, but the colors look lovely when you aren't getting close enough to see all the weeds! I especially love the orange of the daylilies and the red of the (can't remember the name) when you look over the corner of the fence.
Looking up from the street, with the neighbor's garden on one side of the fence and our flowers on the other, it looks very peaceful. So long as the fence continues to stand, this will be welcoming view between our yards!

Soon after we moved into our house, my father in law offered some daylilies from his garden. They drove him crazy - too invasive! Well, that's true, but I've enjoyed having the color each spring/early summer.

Looks like it might be a good year for the hydrangea, though it seems to have lots of long stalks and isn't filling in that well. More buds than I've seen in years, however. Caught this little bug hanging out on one of them.

Another pretty sight is the hosta buds. I like the buds much more than I like the actual flowers! This one, with the yellow in the background, gives just a hint of the purple that will appear soon.

We also have a bold red daylily behind the fence. The flowers aren't shiny, but the color and texture are so intense. There are only a few flowers each year, but they are always beautiful!

Swan News

As of June 8th, things look good for the swan family. The cygnets look as if they are growing, though it is interesting that one is white and one is still grey.



There seems to be plenty of algae starting to grow all around the pond, and they spend a lot of time with their beaks and heads down in the water. Wonder what they're eating down there?



As they head back to the other side of the pond they look like a happy swan family....