Bellingrath Gardens

Diana and I drove to Mobile, AL, this morning to meet my friends Fonda and Denny for lunch.  Afterwards, the ladies in the group went to visit the Bellingrath Gardens.  What an afternoon it turned out to be.

Because of the mild winter, the azalea blooms are peaking about two weeks or so ahead of normal.  All of the vibrant blooms along the paths were almost overwhelming to take in.

I took so many pictures that I’ll be using them in more than one post.  What luck we had in choosing to visit the gardens this week.

There were also some lingering camellia blossoms left to enjoy as well.  Having spent most of my life living in the north, seeing all of these blooms in the first week of March was hard for me to comprehend.

This, of course, is not an azalea, and when I saw it this afternoon I knew exactly what flower it was.  However, I’m getting tired and having a senior moment right now, so you’ll either know what it is or not. 

When we bought our $12 tickets to tour the gardens, the young lady said it would take us about an hour to walk all of the paths.  Perhaps that is true for someone that comes here when nothing is blooming, but we all had cameras and oohed and aahed our way around the paths for well over two hours.  There were plenty of benches along the way to sit and just let the beauty of the blooms sink in.  These three chairs were placed  in an area surrounded by white azaleas. 

Fonda also rested her feet and took a ride on this lion along the way.  It didn’t seem to matter where you paused today.  You were always surrounded by blooms.

I think I’ll save the history of these gardens for tomorrow’s post.  It’s getting a little late, and as I said, I’m getting tired.  It’s back to work for the next three days, so I had better rest up.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy