The Japanese Garden

When I was at the Gardens on Friday, I did not take very many photographs. It was one of those moments that does not feel like it can be captured in a photograph, when too many things felt or heard but not seen play a part in the totality, and when, for that matter, the moment and the things around you are so vividly there that to put a camera between you and it would be to lessen the experience. (The camera almost always enhances it for me, by helping me look deeper, or has no effect - but in this case, not so much so. It was one of those endless long moments when I was just there, wholly there, and didn't really care to step back enough to frame pictures.)

I took a few photographs, mostly when the mood broke or for a few other reasons. And I sat and wrote, on a bench by a little waterfall.

( What I wrote )

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After I wrote that I continued up to the Pavillion, where I did take some photos as they are remodelling it - new wood, mostly, but also replacing the stone stairs that faced toward the entrance gate with wooden ones. Inside was the doll exhibit, which I wandered through but took no photos of. It felt a little disrespectful to do so, which is why I put the camera away as I entered (though there was no sign saying not to), but also once I was inside, I did not find the dolls all that interesting or attractive, so I soon wandered back out.

The pictures I did take and upload:
Pond in the strolling pond garden - near the iris beds.
Waterfall pond in the strolling pond garden - other end of the iris beds, with a nice framing (my opinion!) of the lantern.
And the front and back (new steps) of the reworked pavillion.

A couple other bits of miscellany

Also a photograph from yesterday, taken along Dopp Road (not far from where we played dodge-em cow, but some while after, on a different trip down the road).

And from Monday, an amusing story. Monday I went in to get my allergy shots. One of the ladies who works there as a shot nurse is leaving to work at a clinic that is closer to her house (run by the same people) and much more convenient for her. I'll miss her - she's really nice and was one of only two shot nurses working there when I started shots. The other is already gone. Friday was to be her last day (and she was picking on her boss a little for picking Friday the 13th as her last day!), so since I only go in weekly now, I wasn't going to see her again. Her farewell to me had me laughing. (Good thing she said it after the shots and not during!) It was: "It's been fun stabbing you all these years."