Bring on the Flowers

The Atlantic Maritimes are a flower lover's dream land.  There are several cultivated Botanical Gardens.  The one that won my heart was a small, lovely garden beside St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Cow Head, Newfoundland.

The main cultivated area of the garden was the size of a Hurst, Texas front yard, and it was utterly charming. This little gem was so obviously the pride and joy of some lovely ladies with green thumbs.  I especially liked the names of the flowers were hand painted on multi-million year old cobbles.  And, as an added touch, they had a peace and meditation area which just happened to overlook the ocean!

There was the Public Gardens of Halifax - very much a gathering space for the City akin to the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth complete with a band stand and summer concerts. Then, there was the MUN (Memorial University of Newfoundland) Botanical Garden - a destination almost never found by tourists.  It was a big place, but only a small patch was 'cultivated', and the rest was natural covered in a network of hiking trails - again, so accessible to the public.

Today I was on a Canadian Public Broadcasting radio program - live.  Me, the possessor of the 'Black Thumb', who planted a garden in silk flowers, was interviewed on a Garden Show this morning.  I think I was a novelty.  I was snapping pictures at the MUN as usual, and this woman approached me.  It turns out she was producing this garden show program which was being broadcast at the MUN today.  She ignored Drake totally, and zeroed right in on me asking if I would do an interview and ask a gardening question.  Well... who could resist?  Not me, the complete extrovert!  I was very charming and introduced myself, where I was from, etc.  He brightened right up when I pronounced 'Newfoundland' correctly.  (Here's how I learned:  "I UNDERSTAND NEWFUNLAND" - see, it rhymes with 'understand'.)  Ok, so then I asked him a softball question:  "Why are there no roses here?"  (Answer:  Too wet, too short of a season.)  He told me they get 60" of rain each year in St. John's, and I quipped back,  "Now, I realize why there are no cactus."  It was fun.  I think they should have given me a prize, though.

There's one more Atlantic Martime flower treat before we leave the region - the New Brunswick lupines.  When we get off the ferry on Friday morning, I'm expecting expecting the areas around Moncton to be covered in them similar to how the bluebonnnets blanket the Metroplex in Texas.  I've seen a few, so far, but there are supposed to be fields and fields.  Keep those fingers crossed.

So, I've been snapping flower, flowers, flowers everywhere, and I love this new camera.  You can see the improvement over my last camera.  So, here are the flowers.
I'm showing two links, the same pictures, so hopefully, one will work

https://plus.google.com/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/6166344978335473857?authkey=CMzqkfnDop-5kwE

or

https://goo.gl/photos/RnwqfYfTGiUHWLHv7

      

Who Doesn't Like Puffins?

I like birds.

I like bird colorations.

I like the challenge of taking pictures of birds with a camera which will fit in my pocket.

I'm even willing to get on a boat* to go look at birds.

*(Willingly boating by the Seasick Queen is the mark of exactly how serious I am about wanting to see birds. )

I don't like being thwarted* in my quest to see birds.
(Thus, I have held a fifteen year grudge against Drake and Sarah who outvoted me on our last visit to the Atlantic Maritimes when the question was whales or puffins?)

I finally got my puffins, and some other unlooked for birding benefits in our last boat outing* in Newfoundland.
(Well, last boat outing except for the upcoming 15 hour ferry ride back to the mainland.  Shudder.)

Click on the below link to see real, live puffins and murres with a few other birds thrown in.

https://goo.gl/photos/mtg1B2zAQAyoujZc6