My Garden, Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden and Cooking

Yesterday John and I woke up late (which is a rare occurrence in our home! Teddy slept in too-that was why we got to sleep in! We decided after our breakfast of French Toast that it would be the perfect day to visit the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. The weather fibbers kept saying the rain was coming, then it wasn't, then it was.... We decided to take our huge umbrella and chance it and I'm so glad we did! It was slightly overcast, which made for a great visit! I got some great shots with my camera, we spent some time sitting on various benches (they have a special event called Come Sit a Spell), there were 3 weddings going on, the orchid conservatory was just beautiful and we had a spectacular time! We then came home where John proceeded to take a nap, I caught up on my catalog and magazine browsing and then proceeded to fall asleep also. When I woke up John had just put the steaks on the grill. I had made potato salad and deviled eggs earlier so all I had to do was make the tomato, mozarella, basil salad. We had a wonderful meal and then we chilled out the rest of the evening. We read our books for a little while, finished watching the movie Young Victoria and then we watched a few shows on HGTV. Life doesn't get any better than a day like we had!!

Here are some pics of our day:

My Asiatic Lily opened the other day-it is so beautiful!


My tomatoes are starting to get bigger. I planted one plant in a container in April and I have about 8 tomatoes on there!


Last year I had bought a miniature Gardenia bush and it has started to bloom. The fragrance from this one little bush is amazing!


Off to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden! Megan and Ken had given us a Mother's/Father's Day gift of a year membership there. We decided we had never been this time of year so we decided to spend some time there yesterday. It was really lovely. Here is one of the main fountains.



DSBG is having an event called Come Sit a Spell. They have all different kinds of benches and seats for people to sit on and enjoy all the gardens. Some are made from wood, tires, recycles stumps, metal, etc. John decided he was tired and wanted to sit in the oversized rocking chair. The chair was made from wood and rope was strung back and forth on it.


Here is a handpainted Adirondack Chair at the garden which will be auctioned off at a later date.


There were many butterflies and bees at the gardens yesterday. There legs were so full of pollen I don't know how they could fly! Here is some butterfly bush with a beautiful butterfly on it and some bees.


There were some beautiful Japanese Iris blooming along the walkways. Here is one that I just loved.



I love the orchid conservatory at the gardens. There are so many interested orchids, air plants, elephant ear plants, etc. there. Here is an orchid I snapped a shot of.


We left the Botanical Garden and headed home. I had made potato salad and deviled eggs earlier in the day so all I had to do was make the tomato, basil, mozarella salad and grill the steaks. John took care of the grilling. Here is the salad right before I served it. The basil is from my garden and the mozarella is from Trader Joe's as well as the tomatoes. It was so good!


Hope you enjoyed our Saturday! Today we are just chilling out at home. Getting some household chores done and then relaxing together! Everyone enjoy your day!