Visit to Shinzen Garden

Today I went to the Shinzen Japanese Garden. It's one of my favorite places on our planet. Although the day was gray and cold, the blossoms were well on their way.

I like going to the garden, it's my sanctuary, my church. The garden has sections that represent all four season. Obviously the spring is the best time to visit the Haru section, when the sakura (cherry blossoms) are dazzling.

Spring has come early to the Shinzen, blossoms have begun to make an appearance. I hope the next rain doesn't blow the blossoms off the trees. I want to be able to return to the garden and take some pictures of the blossoms under the sun. Until then, these will do for now. (^ ^)

A wonderful bonus, as well as a small fear, of visiting the garden are the beautiful non-human visitors. Peacocks. I love them but they scare me a bit. Once, when I was a young girl, I was chased across this park by one of these mean fellows. I have since become very apprehensive around them, and boy can they smell it. I try to keep a safe distance (and thank God for optical zoom) but when they catch a glimpse of me, they start walking straight for me. I slowly walk away, and they stay right with me. Today was a five peacock day. There were five peacocks inside the garden, just minding their own business. That was very good for me. Only one of them decided to pay me some attention, but lucky for me it was closing time and I was rescued by a security guard.

I have more pictures from today's visit, I'll have to post another entry on this visit tomorrow. At some point this week I'm going to work on my flickr account to get all of the usable pictures posted. I took over one hundred pictures today--koi fish, peacocks, the waterfall, and Japanese lanterns. I even have older pictures of the garden that I eventually want to post too, just for interest sake. I need to dig them up first.

http://www.shinzenjapanesegarden.org/

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