Tuesday 4 ~ Gardens

It's Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 once again and we are talking about gardens or house plants.  

1. Do you have a garden indoors or outdoors?   Houseplants count I think.  If not, why don't you have them?

I have both houseplants indoors, mainly snake plants but I also have a fiddle leaf fig and another tropical plant which I think is a Dracaena Janet Craig.

2. Have you visited Longwood Gardens or any of the large gardens and horticultural sites around the world or your state? Tell us about it.

I've never heard of Longwood Gardens but I have visited 2 gardens in my Province of British Columbia. One in Vancouver called Van Dusen Botanical Gardens and one in Victoria called The Butchart Gardens. Both of them are very beautiful and I think they are much like gardens elsewhere in the world. I last visited the Van Dusen Gardens in December 2022 for a spectacular display of Christmas lights.  Here is a link to the website for The Butchart Gardens which I haven't visited for a very long while. It's a beautiful garden that receives visitors from all around the world. While I'm thinking about it I remember I also visited the beautiful gardens at the Palace of Versailles during the winter of 2019.  I loved it and it was so large that you literally need a day to see all of it and probably several days to really have a good look all around.  I'm also fortunate to live in a city where there are actually gardens and flowers almost everywhere you go both public and private which you can enjoy up close or from afar.

3.  Most people really enjoy a little garden but I think we sometimes make too many excuses not to do things we really would enjoy.  Too busy, not enough space, etc.   But if we put our minds to it, anything is possible  Do you believe that?

If you have physical handicaps of any kind it affects your energy levels and ability to plant even a small garden. However, you could probably still plant a few house plants to enjoy even in a small space. The challenges indoors are really the temperature and lighting situations. Most of us like to have the natural sunlight come through our windows for the plants to thrive.  But I suppose if you don't have adequate light, you can also use a grow lamp which I do not currently have.  I've also found that even a constant source of a low wattage bulb above finicky plants also helps them to survive and grow.

 4. Ideally, what flowers, shrubs and trees do you want in your little garden real or imagined?

Anything and everything, lol. I do love colourful flowers of all kinds, especially ones that attract bees and birds. I also like ornamental grasses and various bushes.

Here is one photo of my patio garden from a 2022.

I didn't have a garden in 2023 because work was supposed to be started to redo all the patios in the building. Now here we are in September and the work hasn't even started. I'm not sure what will happen in the summer of 2024 on the balcony but we hope we will still have the community plot at a local park where we can plant vegetables or flowers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Note: My apologies for the margin issues with the blog. I recently changed back to a former template but it looks like I need to customize the margins too.

The Gardens of Versailles Palace

Hello everyone and welcome to 2020, the beginning of the new decade ahead. 

May it be a wonderful year (and decade) for us all.

It is always exciting to start a new year full of promise and our hopes and dreams.

I hope to make progress on some of my own modest goals toward living a better life.  I usually set a few goals at the beginning of each year.  It gives me a sense of satisfaction when I achieve them and when I see that I am using my time well and learning a few new things along the way.

 However big or small, may you also be able to make progress on your goals.  

Whether you set yearly goals or not, it's likely that you have some ideas about things you would like to do or see happen in the coming year.

 I will be taking a few weeks in this month to really consider how I want to approach the year and to set a few goals.
In the meantime I am in reflection and preparation mode. I spent a lot of time looking at planners and finally purchased one which should be arriving any day now.

This is the planner I've selected for 2020.

 With the first post of the decade I am resuming my travel posts for the travel I commenced almost one year ago..

I didn't blog as much in 2019 as I normally do, thus I didn't post about as many things as I was hoping to post.

This first post is about the gardens of Versailles in Versailles, France.

It is part of a travel series on my trip to Paris and Versailles in France and to Nairobi in Kenya, East Africa in January and February 2019.

(Please click on each photo to enlarge).

In 1662, Louis 14th, entrusted a man named André Le Nôtre to create and renovate the gardens of Versailles. The work on the gardens started at the same time as the work on the palace and lasted about 40 years. Le Nôtre collaborated with a few other men on different aspects of the project and I understand the King himself reviewed each project (and presumably approved) as he was keen on the details of the gardens.

Having walked some of the gardens and taken the on site train to other parts of the garden, it is clear to see just how massive the gardens are and to appreciate what a monumental task it was to create and renovate such splendid gardens. Soil had to be moved to create level places, parterres like the one above had to be created, fountains and canals had to be dug and built and trees brought in from various regions in France. The work occupied thousands of men, sometimes even entire regiments took part in the building of the gardens.

Once you step outside you have a pretty good idea of the massive grounds you are about to cover. I decided I could not walk that far as I was struggling even with my walking poles. Fortunately I found a small train that would transport me to the next major part of the grounds, Le Petit Trianon.

The train is a hop on and off train and costs 8 Euros. The train does not cover the entire gardens. Make sure you know where it goes before you use it as many tourists get upset when they discover the limitations. For me, the train was a God send and I thought it was worth the cost to save my knees especially as I had no idea how far I might have to walk. Besides I was already tired from the hours spent walking inside the palace.

The train runs approximately every 20 minutes and you catch it to the left or west of the center of the Palace.  You will see a small ticket booth and queue to help you know where it is. Here is a link to all the information in English about the train.

Below is a map of the Gardens of Versailles.  If you locate the center of the palace and let your eye wander straight down the middle you will see the majority of what I've been showing in this post and my last travel post here.

I was very much in awe of the expansiveness of the palace and the grounds on which it sits. 

The statuary and fountains are magnificent. 

It was also wonderful to see the bird life enjoying the fountains.

 These people are walking in the direction of Le Petit Trianon.

 Le Petit Trianon is where Marie Antoinette spent much of her time.

My next post will show you a bit of what I saw there.

Thank you for your visit.
I wish you an excellent week ahead.

The Palace Tour Continues Through the Hall of Mirrors and Out to the Gardens

There is so much to see at the Palace of Versailles, Versailles France that I doubt very much you can capture everything in photos or in sightseeing all in one day. The Palace and the grounds are the kind of place that requires you to return often to enjoy it in the different seasons. If you live close to Versailles or you happen to be visiting, you are lucky you can enter the gardens free of charge and spend the day if you like. It's a wonderful place to spend time.

As you can see by my photos, the weather was quite overcast. It was a Winter's day in January 2019 but I found the weather perfect. In fact, indoors with my coat on it was too warm but outside it was drizzling rain and I found myself dressed just right.

I left off in my last post here just as I was about to enter a very special place in the palace.

 

 The Hall of Mirrors is the central gallery of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France. As the principal and most remarkable feature of King Louis XIV of France's third building campaign of the Palace of Versailles, construction of the Hall of Mirrors began in 1678.

 

The Hall of Mirrors or La Grand Galerie in French, is a massive room.  It measures about 240 feet long and 34 feet wide and has a 40-foot ceiling. On one wall, 357 mirrors stretch from floor to ceiling. On the opposite wall, 17 large glass doors offer breathtaking views of  Versailles sprawling gardens.  I took care not to look outside as I wanted to have my first real view when I exited the palace.

 

 The decoration of the Hall of Mirrors was completed in 1686 by  Le Brun and is a tribute to the military victories which led to the peace treaties of Nijmegen

 The palace houses many fabulous paintings, statues and furnishings. Most of the paintings are of the various battles and wars in which France was involved.

The salons are very impressive.

I honestly didn't get to spend as much time in the palace as I would have liked. After a few hours I was getting hungry and also very tired. The crowds seemed to be growing. When I exited the palace to look for a place to eat, this was my view.

I found a small bistro in one of the adjacent buildings and there I had something to eat. I don't remember what but I do remember having a nice coffee.

When I got outside to the gardens it seemed they stretched on forever in front of me.