We did make it out, late in the day, to the Botanic Garden. It wasn’t cold, and there weren’t many people there because there was nothing “pretty” in bloom yet. Still, it has a spare beauty in the winter and is always worth a visit in reasonable weather.

So we took a lot of photos. I don’t know how David’s came out with the new camera, but mine aren’t so bad…

A massive sculpture of Linnaeus gathering a plant specimen

We listened to the news on :NPR on the way over – we tend to listen to a lot more radio on the weekend, if we happen to be driving somewhere. It makes for very relaxing Saturdays and Sundays.

The light was still good when we finally got started – delayed not so much by my dinking on the computer, as David deciding that yes, indeed, today’s the day to buy the Canon EOS Digital Rebel camera he’s been hankering for. And then, of course, we needed to charge up the batteries. I took the “old” digital camera that I used in England. We strolled through the “English Walled Garden” but took no pictures there – from the looks of it, they’ll have a lot of spring cleanup.

We didn’t go over the bridge to the Japanese Garden this time, just took some pictures and went on.

I don’t think there’s actually a way over to this island, except for staff. It’s just pretty from the shore.

A little piece of Japan in Chicagoland (there’s even a teahouse)

Persimmon detail on Japanese bridge

We spent most of our time and photographic effort walking on Evening Island, which was new to David.

Later in the spring, all the spring flowers will be in bloom (and there will be huge crowds of people tromping around looking at them). Today it was quiet, with an air of wintry introspection. There are a lot of massed plantings of “winter interest” grasses, and also Russian sage and other plants that look interesting even when dead. The palette seems pretty subtle, but it is possible to have interesting colors and shapes in a garden in the dead of winter.

In about 5 weeks, this entire hillside will be solid daffodils…

It’s an ornamental grass, but just try explaining that to the village.
“You’re supposed to cut grass in the suburbs… it’s the Suburban Way.”

David had never seen the Carillon close up – here it is with some hopeful buds on the tree branch in front of it…

… and you can see the mechanisms for ringing the bells: cables come up through the roof of the playing chamber. The chamber is a glass box, and almost certainly air-conditioned. The carillon is on auto-pilot most days, and we heard it ringing 4 o’clock after we left the island and went back over to the “mainland.”

We stopped for a while at the “council ring” area. They use a lot of interesting stone in the landscaping and this one caught my eye:

It almost looks like animal tracks (like a horseshoe crab slowly bumbling along in the shallows of a primordial sea). There are other places at the Botanic Garden where they’ve used ripple sandstone and other interesting rocks and stones – there’s a lot of thought that goes into the design, apparently (not like my yard).

This was one reason it was nice we were there in late winter:

If you’re trying for a lonely, chilly mood, there are no people to mess up the shot.

And finally, a couple of odd sculptures that seem to double as garden seats. They’re tucked away on a hillside between the Japanese bridge and the junction between the way to the Evening Island bridge and the path along the back of the tropical plant greenhouses. There’s a nice view from up there, and the seats are appreciated. But they look hellish uncomfortable…

… and disturbingly phallic.