Thanksgiving Point: part 3

Next we came along side a meandering stream.

I continued to be distracted by color and shading upon the tulip petals.

I can almost feel a brush in my hand tracing the watercolor like shading.

Of course if my daughter had been with me (at any age...at any time...) she would be wading in the stream just like this little girl planning to.

The Salt Lake area has such wonderful sculptures of children engaging in happy childlike behaviors.

(Distracted by a full blown blossom for a moment...)

Any second now that foot is going to touch the cold water and we will hear her squeal...

The stream led on...winding under several small bridges and into various pools before ending up in a small pond with this detailed sculpture of egrets.

At least I think they are egrets.

(And my children begin to sing along with me that famous Frank Sinatra hit: Egrets...I've had a few, but then too few to mention..)

All around the pond a swath of tulip blooms were following the sun.

Nice waterside landscaping. Wonder what will be planted there after the tulips are done?

Oh...I forgot to mention: there were HUGE koi fish in the pond!

(That's Bernie in the orange visor with the rest of the kids.)

Fish of all sorts of colors and patterns were swimming about, and poking their heads up to gape and beg for treats.

As we turned to walk past the pond area we saw this curious structure.

(I got distracted by a robin in a tree for a moment....)

It was a stairway/waterfall with tulips and pink blossomed trees and lots and lots of people!

(My ADD really kicked in...ohhh look...a yellow and red tulip!)

Oh wait...we gotta see that thing too.

Wow...it looks like a bouquet on the ground.

When I stand in the middle of that thing and look up....wow, sky lace!

Back to the tulips...

Yes I did tiptoe....

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the stairs and fountain thing.

(A white tulip! I love white tulips!)

Apparently (we learned later...) this feature is known as The Italian Fountain.

Mesmerizing; the water falls over 25+ times.

I didn't catch who the sculpture was of at the top.

The whole area swarmed with kids sticking their hands in the water, splashing their siblings with the water, parents corralling their brood for stairstep pictures, by age of course.

I wonder if the water is lit up at night....that would be gorgeous.

Back on the path....

I'm always looking for ideas for plants to use under bulbs, to cover the ground before and after the bloom. Blue pansies sure look good, like water or shadows, and seem to make the flowers glow brighter by comparison.

The other question of how to cluster the bulbs: Yes, cluster by color masses.

The blue pansy portion of the path spilled out to the Meadow Garden. Serpentine grass paths were perfect for strolling, and children enjoyed rolling down the lawn as well. Every time there was the slightest grass covered hill, there were children rolling and somersaulting like mad.

Apparently the park's electrical energy needs are supplied by wind.

I kept thinking I would get tired of taking tulip pictures.

I never did.

Golf carts with drivers were available to anyone who wanted one. The drivers were quite willing to stop and start as directed by their passengers, and would go where ever the passengers wanted to go. I was especially amused to see Indian ladies in bright colored sari riding along backwards. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of them standing so colorfully garbed next to the flowers.

A great hill to zig-zag down in a golf cart...

Shutter bugs are the same everywhere: You hear a squeal, and exclamation, and then whatever posture is needed is assumed until the desired shot is obtained.

The Tulip Festival lasts until May 1st, I suspect that with the snow that we are getting today there will still be blooms to see for awhile longer.

Go ahead...you decide which of those last three pictures I shouldn't have bothered posting.

I'm not sure if these folks brought their own Segways or if there are Segways available to the visitors. I must find out; if they are there for the visitors I want to try one next visit. It will be a total waste of Segway power as I hate to go faster than a snail's pace when there are flowers about to be photographed.

And yes...tomorrow there will be more sights to see!

Thanksgiving Point: Part 2

Pulling ourselves away from Noah & Friends, I started getting up close and personal with the flowers.

Strawberry blossoms...

Daffodils with '50 style poofy skirts.

We were just walking along concrete pathways, enjoying the flowers planted along the edge...

Then this scene came into view.

Wow!

(To get the full effect, it is worth taking a moment to enlarge this shot by clicking on it.)

The five waterfalls roared behind the sound of a bluegrass band playing in a bowl-like setting.
We lingered for a bit to enjoy the music, then tried to decide what way to go next.

A path wound up and over the falls; I took frequent stops to capture solitary tulips along the way.

And enjoyed watching smitten parents taking memory pictures of their tykes.

Off the path were lawn areas with borders of tulips.

The colorful flowers snaked endlessly up the hillsides.

Mostly I was looking at the flowers up close; occasionally I would remember to lift up my eyes to the horizon where blooming pink trees and snow capped peaks presented a wider beauty.

(About this point Bernie asked if I was keeping track of the flower count or if I had already lost count.

I told him this time I wasn't even going to try counting the flowers this time.)

I was too busy trying to decide which way to photograph the wave of tulips.

Back on the pathway the colors keep changing...

and I keep deciding that the next flora mix was my favorites so far.

(I definitely do like tulips that point out on the tips and have subtle shading.)

B. and I agreed that it would be fun to just sit by this scene until a bird dropped by to explore the housing.

Kept on going...

Some of the tulips were a bit worse for wear from the rain and hail earlier in the week.

Fresh snowfall from those storms had touched up the white on the mountain peaks.

I was so glad I was seeing this garden with my guy.

Close ups...so close speckles of black pollen from the bi-colored stamin can be seen dusting the yellow petals.

I had missed that detail until I saw the picture enlarged at home!

The white/green/pink mix with variegated leaves: bliss!

I'm a huge fan of variegated leaves, if you haven't noticed.

Such delicate brushstroke like colors.

A photography rhythm was found:

I would take a close-up, mid range, full scene then distant shot at each spot.

You know how much I love orange.

Bernie shot this shot.

The ground was wet, but who cared?

Oohhh...deep pink and white and green is another great combo!

Such artistry!

I didn't see any solid deep purple blooms, but then again not all the tulips were in bloom yet.

Pretty flowers are improved with a baby parked before them.

Both mom and dad were snapping away.

I was kind of surprised they didn't put the little ones into the flower bed actually.

(Am I the only one who thinks "circus" whenever I see red and yellow colors together?)

These pictures were taken in the outskirts of the garden...there were SO many interesting and unexpected things that came into view next.

Come back tomorrow for more of the tour.

It just gets better and better!

Exploring Thanksgiving Point

Thanksgiving Point: A privately funded garden planted with guess how many tulips?

Give up?

Apparently there is a run on the number 250,000; yes while Red Butte was digging in that many daffodils, Thanksgiving Point was planting the same number of tulips.

What do I know about Thanksgiving Point?

Not much before we went there on Saturday late in the afternoon.

It was the same place that we went to at Christmas time to drive through a light sculpture event.

We hadn't ever seen the place in the daylight hours.

When I saw ads in the newspaper hawking the tulip celebration there I made space on my calendar for a trip. After we wrapped up our yard sale, B. and Jeff did a little chipping on the golf course while I got my weekly facial.

We re-grouped at 3:30 and pointing the car south, we traveled 23 miles down the road to see what we could see.

Lines of cars were coming up the Thanksgiving Point exit; we hoped that the crowds would be thinned out by the time we arrived.

It took a few moments to find parking, and then we hoofed it toward the ticket office, pausing only to shoot a close up of one of the many blooming trees shading the parking lot.

It didn't take much to figure out the way to the garden's entry point; the tulips led the way!

We each paid ten dollars for one of these stickers.

Worth every penny as having one on our shirt allowed us to visit the garden.

Let the ooohhh ahhhs begin!

We followed child size footprints in the concrete around the corner where these tulips were glowing in the sunshine.

But wait!!!

Not only were there tulips around the corner, there was also this amazing sculpture!

Noah's Ark!

How cool is this? Noah with the dove with a bit of olive branch in it's beak.

Best yet, the sculpture shows the animals EXITING the Ark!

It took a moment to register in my brain that I don't think I have ever seen the Ark
shown with the animals exiting.

How odd is that; isn't that moment the high point of the whole story?

I'm loving the whimsy...

People were there to greet and photograph the animals as they left the ark.

(I wonder why that part wasn't mentioned in the Bible...)

A wee lass considers her great, great, great, great, great (add a couple dozen more greats here) grandmother.
If you believe the story of the Ark, then this lady is related to you too.

(You may want to consider this post to be a virtual family reunion of sorts!)

Even those who believe their distance fore bearer were apes had their reunion...

Or maybe this is just another example of the old saying "boys will be boys"...

Little boys, one after another, took the opportunity to climb up the exiting monkey arms.

Well, I can honestly say that if all I saw was the Ark sculpture and the tulips leading up the garden and around the sculpture I would have considered our ticket money well spent.

But that was only the beginning of what wonders would be revealed as we continued on our garden visit.

Come back tomorrow to see more of the tulip show! I've got a lot of great pictures to show!