brookside gardens

i'll be the first to admit it: with the impending taiwan trip and the renewal of our violin lease (chinese and music being two of our homemade preschool categories), our nature activities have been rather neglected of late.  we did see a reptile show last month featuring a blue-tongued skink, a tegu, a python and a baby crocodile, so that was pretty nifty, but the last few weeks have been covered by issues of Zoobooks and another animal reference collection resurrected from my childhood.  granted, i can now tell you that there are five species of rhinos, of which three have two horns and two have one, but it's not exactly hands-on ;-)

i've had the brookside nature center in the back of my head for a few months, and with a fine day on tap and the girls awake early today, we decided to try it.  unfortunately, when i looked up the directions, i neglected to notice that they are closed on mondays, so that was that =p  fortunately, it's right next door to the brookside gardens, and we unwittingly stumbled on to a treasure that reminded me of the missouri botanical gardens.

after making our way across the boardwalks from the nature center to the gardens, we were met by the conservatory.  the morning was still chilly, so the greenhouse looked extra inviting, and it didn't disappoint.   oodles of flowers, tropical plants, waterfalls, fruit trees basked in the warm sunlight, and so did we.

an aptly named firecracker flower

that tickles!

the girls were delighted by the banana trees

this one's for grandma: a polkadotty plant!

lu declared this one of her favorites, and it seems fitting somehow

after warming up nicely, we headed out to the outdoor gardens, where my battery ran out.  humph.  nothing could have really captured the frolic of climbing every wall, racing down the paths, and gathering imaginary vegetables to serve in the treehouse of the children's garden anyways.  not that i wouldn't have tried ;-)  but here were my last few, and for sure, we will be back!

first they were lizards, now they've progressed to some kind of vertebrate ;-)