A Return to the Garden

I think “Return to the Garden” has a certain biblical tone, don’t you? Rest assured this is the last whiff of religion you’ll find in this post. Unless your theology involves cactus worship.

I believe I’ve posted photos from the Desert Botanical Garden once or twice before, so I’m not going to walk you through everything. Besides, when we visited this time it seemed like half the area was closed so that Dale Chihuly, purveyor of squiggly glass, could set up a temporary exhibit.

I can’t say enough about the Desert Botanical Garden. If you come in the Spring, you’ll see cacti flowering and butterflies flitting. In December, you can attend an evening event where all the pathways are illuminated by luminaria and live music is performed at eight or so different venues in the gardens. The rest of the year, it’s a great garden with interesting exhibits.

Having said that, this post is just going to show you things I hadn’t noticed before: some statues, unusual types of cactus, a few attractive pots, and some of the Chihuly pieces that will grace the garden in the coming weeks.

If you are a fan of Chihuly glass, savor this first one. All the rest are just the collections of squiggly glass tubes to which his art has devolved.

Butterflies found these flowers irresistible. I focused on one, but there were a dozen or so flying around.

Creating the magic. It seems that this will eventually be a squiggly sphere o’glass.

This awful photo should serve as an example of why you don’t shoot into the sun. I’ve included it because it’s also an example of Mary Anne’s sister Tara and husband Blake. They visited us for a few days while driving from their home on Vancouver Island to their house near Guadalajara, Mexico.