April 10th, 2026

Tim has been on vacation this week, yahoo!  A staycation-vacation and there ain't nothin' wrong with that!  We've done some day trips (as you read earlier this week) and some home projects and even had some good Total Blob time too.  Perfect Balance!

Yesterday was another day trip which was awesome.  We didn't go far, just up to Sarasota which is only about a half hour away. We went specifically to visit the Botanic Gardens.  We've visited before, of course, but it has literally been years!  And since we last were there, they have done a lot of renovating. A Lot!  A lotta lot!   And they aren't done yet either.  There is one whole area fenced off that has big Phase II signs on it.  (That sounds like future fun!)

On the drive up we talked about what we supposed might be new and different and what might be familiar from before.   Speculation conversation :)

The first thing that was very new was the parking garage.  Prior to this  was a series of tiny very crowded, parking lots tucked in here and there between other buildings in the area necessitating winding wandering wondering walks before ever reaching the start!  The entire walk would be wandering around wondering if we were going the right way as we wound around trees and shrubs!  This time was much easier. Enter Parking garage. Find an empty spot, take elevator (or stairs) to the first floor and follow the signs.  Easy Peasy.  The view from the top floor (where we finally found a spot) was pretty amazing by the way.

That's Sarasota Bay that you see in the photo by the way.  This particular Botanic Garden sits right next to the water and they have cleverly incorporated that fact into their garden plan, including a Mangrove Boardwalk.  As we strolled along that part of the garden we not only saw the mangroves, of course, and the bay but also had a lovely view of downtown Sarasota.

This particular Botanic Garden ( as do many others) always features a particular artist along with the gardens.  This season was  Alexander Calder and it was called, "The Nature of Movement".  Apparently he was one of the first artists to work toward the development of kinetic (or moving) art! Very cool.  A lot of his work was on display in one of the old houses and I did not take any photos inside, but I think I got a few from outside. Let's see:

Ok it appears that I only took one.  But there it is folks.  He had quite an amusing sense of humour that really appealed to me in his pen and ink drawings. The sculptures?  Well, I appreciated the concept a least, so that must count for something.  

There was a lot of "art" throughout the gardens and most of that I truly enjoyed.  Here is some of that:

One of the things I truly loved were all of the archways, some man made and some natural. Partly I like that it's a visual separation from one area to another and the other is the childlike open eyed wonder of wondering what magic exists through each new portal:

It makes perfect sense to me that any botanic garden would have an number of water features of one sort or another. This one is no different on that theme.  Loved them all.

Even saw a wee bit of wildlife. Heard far more, manage to capture these.  In one you can see an orange blobby.  That particular orange blobby is a butterfly that photo bombed. I had NO idea it was there until after I saw the picture. I was trying to capture the bird at the far end of the shot. heh

At this point you may be asking, were there any actual flowers at this botanic garden?  Heh.  Were there any flowers?  Of course there were flowers. I was just saving the best 'til last.  Hold on to your botanic seats coz here we go. (obviously this isn't all of the flowers, just a sampling)

What a great afternoon!  We capped off the day by having an early dinner at our favourite BBQ place which we haven't visited in over a year (not sure why since it's our favourite, just how it worked out, I suppose). Miraculously, I managed to get Zero BBQ sauce on my clothes! Shocking but awesome.

Hope you enjoyed our visit to the Botanic Garden!  Have a wonderful weekend and we can catch up next week!

​Hugs all 'round