Monet's Giverny Garden: The Japanese Water Garden

It has been several months since my last post.  A big reason for that was because I was away, traveling around France for a couple of weeks in September.  Once I returned home, and the weather finally started getting cooler in Texas, I was busy tidying up the fall garden.  Now that we have a rainy weekend, thanks to tropical cyclone Patricia, I'm finally able to sit down and start blogging again.

During my travels around France, I was fortunate enough to see some spectacular gardens.  My most favorite garden was that of the great French impressionist, Claude Monet, at his home in Giverny.  My husband and I took a half day trip tour out of Paris to see the garden, which I found to be not nearly enough time to enjoy the expansive garden.  If...no, WHEN I get to go back to France, I will definitely make it a full day trip out there to see the gardens.

There are two main gardens at Giverny, one of which is the Japanese-inspired water garden.  It is also the garden that inspired many of Monet's later works in life, focused on the water lilies.  It is no wonder Monet has so many water lily paintings.  I, too, would be inspired to sit for hours in this serene garden and even pick up a paint brush, despite my complete lack of artistic abilities.

Those weeping willow trees look very familiar...they seem to make quite a few appearances in Monet's works.

I'm definitely a sucker for hydrangeas.  I wish I could grow them in my Texas garden, but it is just too hot and dry for their liking.  Northern France gardens, on the other hand, are a hydrangea's best friend, or so it seems.

I fell in love with these spindly stick plants with little red jewel-like buds on them.

There were some very Japanese-looking structural elements incorporate into the landscape, including these shrubs...

...as well as the bamboo.  

The dahlias were in full bloom, and absolutely stunning.  I definitely need to add more of these to my Texas garden.

There were numerous other bright and exotic plants that filled every nook and cranny of the garden:

But the most iconic element of the garden was, of course, the infamous water lilies:

We were also able to view Monet's large wall-length water lily paintings in the l'Orangerie museum during our stay in Paris.  It was truly amazing to get to see this very special garden, which inspired so many gorgeous works of art.

And to leave you with some quotes from the famous painter...

"My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece." - Claude Monet

"The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration." - Claude Monet

I couldn't agree more.

Thanksgiving in New York City

Yikes!  It has been almost 6 1/2 weeks since my last post!  The last several weeks have been busy with work travel, holiday travel, job transitions, and visitors, so there hasn't been any time for gardening.  I mean to remedy that in the coming weeks, primarily after Christmas.  Until then, let me play some catch up.

I spent the week of Thanksgiving up in New York City because my husband was in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  He performed with the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corp's - a musical group made up of current members and alumni from the drum corps.  He was one of 425 men that marched the two mile parade, ushering out Santa Claus.  It was pretty awesome to not only see him, as well as two of his brothers perform in the famous parade, but also to see guys who were 75 years old marching and playing in the alumni performance.

My hubby is the third one in, playing the mellophone (marching French horn).

Other than the parade, we got to spend time with family we hadn't seen in many years.  We went to several Broadway shows, including Phantom of the Opera and Lez Miz (Les Miz was definitely my favorite!  We also went to several comedy shows and even got to see our favorite comedian, Louis C.K., as the surprise headliner at the Comedy Cellar while we were in the front row!  There was some standard sight-seeing, including the World Trade Center Memorial and 9/11 Museum, Top of the Rock, the Metropolitan Museum, and Central Park.  Here are some pictures from our amazing trip:

Inside the 9/11 Museum - looking at some support beams from the World Trade Center towers.

Freedom Tower

9/11 Memorial - South Tower Reflection Pool...a very sobering place to be.

Some of my favorite paintings of the day while at the Met:  Van Gogh's "Wheat Field with Cypresses" and Monet's "Water Lilies - Reflections of Weeping Willows,"

We took several walks in Central Park during our visit.  It was a nice way to connect back to nature for a few minutes while in the middle of the bustling city.  There were plenty of mallard ducks and cattails lining the ponds.

My favorite Central Park creature was this vibrant wood duck.  The colors and white lines on him are so stunning!

In front of the Rockefeller Center - before the tree lighting took place.

Top of the Rock - the best views in the city.

What a fabulous trip and fantastic city!

Travels Abroad: South African Safari

No trip to Africa would be complete without a true African safari.  My husband, Jon, and I celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary by going on a 3-day, 2-night safari at the end of my work trip in South Africa.  We stayed at the Tanda Tula Safari Camp on the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve in the Greater Kruger National Park.  It was an absolutely spectacular life experience.

We stayed in a luxury tent, which I thought was perfect, because you feel somewhat like you are camping out in the bush, but have modern conveniences like running water and electricity.  It did get down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit at night and there was no heat in the tent, but at least we had a heating blanket to keep us toasty.

Our tent

View from our deck - looking out on the dry river bed (we were there during the dry winter season)

Before we even went on our first game drive, we got to experience wildlife.  All animals, except for elephants, are allowed to roam freely on the camp grounds.  That means lions could be lurking outside your tent at night...so we were required to have an escort (with a rifle) walk us back to our tent every night.

Warthog munching on grass on the camp grounds.

Vervet monkey being mischievous in camp.

During our very short safari, we were still able to go on four game drives, two in the morning and two at night.  Each drive lasted about 3.5 hours.  During our stay, we managed to see all "Big 5" animals:  buffalo, lions, elephants, rhino, and leopards.

The Big 5

Buffalo

Lions

Elephants

White Rhinos

Leopards - the most amazing experience of the entire trip.

This baby was digging into the fresh kill his momma caught him that morning.

Baby and momma leopard

Momma leopard in the tree

The most amazing part of watching the leopards was when the momma leopard decided to bring the impala down out of the tree.  I guess she decided she rather take her chances with the hyenas on the ground rather than the vultures in the air.  But during the process of bringing the impala down from the tree, the impala got wedged in the tree and the momma leopard did nothing but hang from impala, hanging on by her tight grip of her jaw.  It was a pretty amazing thing to witness, and I even got it all on video here.

Other than the Big 5, we got to see many other types of wildlife around the park.  We even followed a pack of wild dogs as they were on the move to a different den with their pups.  Apparently, the wild dogs are very rare to see, since they are endangered and very elusive animals.

Soooo cute!  Unfortunately, the little guy at the back had a bum leg.  He was having troubles keeping up, and the whole pack would stop and let him rest a minute.  I'm afraid he probably didn't make it too much longer after we left.  But, that's nature.

The first couple of days we saw absolutely no giraffe.  Then, on the third day, we saw about 40 giraffe.  This tower of giraffes was the cutest, since they had a baby.

And a safari in South Africa wouldn't be complete with a kudu.  Their twisted horns are so interesting.

Overall, it was such an amazing experience and a wonderful way to celebrate 5 wedded years with my wonderful husband.  Here's to another 70 years!

Until next time, Africa.