A Visit to the Huntsville Botanical Garden

Preface

It's been busy the past few weeks.  My brother's kids have been in school, I've been working on projects, studying, taking naps, etc.

Yesterday, though, just as I was about to ask to take the car to go do some sight-seeing, my sister-in-law suggested that very thing.

I was soon given the key of power and this is my excited face:

The Huntsville Botanical Gardens.

Now, I think that making multiple visits to Kew Gardens as a child may have permanently ruined me for lesser botanical gardens.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed my visit and, as you will see towards the end of my post, can appreciate nature wherever I find it.

After driving Jonathan, my red, stick-shift traveling companion, the twenty-five-minute drive to the gardens, paying my dues, and promising a couple of joking ladies at the front desk not to take any snakes home in my pocket, I was off.  The first site to greet me was this little hobbit house:

Charming, right?  This was going to be a good day.

My first move was making a beeline for the "Purdy Butterfly House" (I thought this name rather funny because at first I wasn't sure if Purdy was somebody's name, or just a southern pronunciation of "pretty").

Unfortunately I was a little underwhelmed with the number of butterflies flying about (it was an overcast day), but I was charmed with a choice monarch of which I snapped a picture.

I said a cheery "hello" to a group of school kids as I passed them on my way to the herb garden.  I was enjoying the herbs when a splash of color to my left caught my eye.  I turned my head and my breath was taken away.

It was a beautiful field of wild flowers, many of them poppies, with a little cabin in the middle of it, styled after the cabin in Little House on the Prairie.  I absolutely adore wild flowers so that was a real treat.

The picture doesn't do them justice:

And here's Yours Truly, with the background of the aquatic gardens (the problem with having a car for a travel buddy is that one simply has no other choice than to resort to selfies):

A Romanticist Moment, a More Serious Note

My visit to the Garden of Hope, a section dedicated to those who have struggled with cancer had put me in a pensive mood.  While I've only ever had one truly malignant form of growth, cancer is not foreign to me personally.  It's not productive to worry about it, of course, but cancer is there for many of us, either in our future or in the future of someone we know and love.  As we've extended our lifespans and conquered the other major killers, cancer has taken it's place as The Emperor of All Maladies.

I sat down in a grove of trees an read some lines from Wordsworth's Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.

A theme in a couple of Wordsworth's most famous works is the difference between how he viewed and interacted with nature as a child and as an adult.

I read:

To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.—And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
...
well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.


As I sat on my bench amid the boughs of the trees, I felt that I heard the "still sad music of humanity," and felt Wordsworth's gratitude and recognition of the moral anchor the beauty of nature truly is.  It is a gift and a joy that, in spite of maladies and wrongdoing, "disturbs [us] with the joy of elevated thoughts, a sense sublime."

And I leave you, dear reader, with that.

Yours Truly, 

Andrew

Update From Andrew

     It's a sunny Saturday afternoon and I just finished jump-starting my buddy's car and drying some dishes.  This time I have a legitimate excuse for not posting anything for a long time (besides my laziness).  Actually, I've been waiting on Prom pictures!  Unfortunately today, four weeks after the big event, I am still waiting...  Oh well, perhaps, Dear Reader, you now have something to look forward to (or dread I guess ;).  In the meantime I shall give you all a rundown of the exciting things that are going on in my life. 

1. School's Almost Over!
   That's right folks, Yours Truly is way excited to get away from Timpview High School.  I just finished my four AP tests (Biology, European History, English Comp, Calculus) and will know my scores some time in July.  The last day is on Wednesday which brings me to my next point:
2. I'm going to Canada!
   I depart for Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island on Thursday.  This is perfect because my father can get in his viking and WWI sites, and my mother her Anne Of Green Gables ones.  As for me, I'm just happy to tag along. 
   
3. Movies!
   I just had the first movie night that I've had for several months.  The playlist?  Stardust and then Signs.  I had seen Signs before which I find to be a tense and eventually uplifting movie, but I hadn't seen Stardust.  I had turned down the chance to see it when it was first in theaters based on some negative reviews, but I found it super awesome and fun-to-watch.
4. Books! Dracula by Bram Stoker.  Need I say more?
5. Tree Street Computers!
   Drew's computer-repair business is coming to town baby!  Check us out at www.treestreetcomputers.com.

Yours Truly,
Drew

New Mexican Thanksgiving

     Ahhh, so much to tell-and so much space to do it in... wait a minute... that's perfect!  Well, the title says it.  I spent Thanksgiving in New Mexico.  I seem destined to spend Thanksgiving abroad (last Thanksgiving was spent in Venice).  In fact I went out for gelato with my parents and Beno Seely to commemorate that great event.  I have to say that my Thanksgiving break from school wasn't the most relaxing as I was suffering from a deep lung infection and a serious cough :(  On the bright side I was able to watch all three LOTR movies in one day which was so epic that I had to pause them on several occasions and take a 30 minute nap to recover my strength so that I could continue watching.  After finishing all three movies I found my emotions totally drained and laid on the couch in a dull stupor for a long time afterwards.  And then I slept. 
     After a few days of wonderful antibiotics I was feeling ready to make the trip to Los Alamos where my brother and his family currently live.  I always love this particular road trip because southern Utah has some absolutely amazing scenery.

I had a fantastic time:

Reading to my nieces.

Clobbering everyone while playing Mario Kart Wii.

Discussing jobs, science, business, and other matters of importance over the Ping Pong table.

Cooking in the kitchen.
("Andrew," you say, "is there something wrong with your hair?" well no actually, I'm simply wearing an improvised hair net.  I'm a Dapper Dan man ;)

Puzzling over frustratingly hard mind games at the Science Museum (this one we never solved).

And practicing particle acceleration (again at the Science Museum).

Here is all of us including the newest addition whose blessing we were fortunate enough to attend.

What an amazing week!  If I hadn't started throwing up the night before we left it would have been perfect but, even considering that misfortune it was pretty near the mark.

On a side note:

Remember that southern Utah scenery?  This photo is from an amazing art/photography exhibit at the Los Alamos local library.

My driveway looks beautiful in autumn.  As you are walking up it and as the dappled sunlight dances on your face sometimes you can hear distant bells...

And doesn't Timpanogas look gorgeous with a fresh cloak of glittering snow?  What a beautiful place Provo is.

And now that you've been duly informed and inspired, auf Wiedersehen and goodnight.

-Drew

Our Venetian Thanksgiving

As many of you know, we spent our Thanksgiving holiday in Venice!  Thanksgiving morning we hopped on the tube and rode out to Stansted Airport to catch a plane to Venice.  We arrived in the afternoon, checked in to the hotel, and our time in Venice had begun!

This is the hotel that we stayed at.

For our thanksgiving dinner we first had a couple courses of gelato.  My first course was lemon, chocolate, and stracciatella (chocolate chip).  I then went in for a second course of lemon and maro (blackberry).  The maro, while still good, was not quite up the the standard of the others.  The chocolate was divine and tasted like brownies.

We were lucky to get to the gelato place when we did because thanksgiving was the last day before they closed for the winter (the sign says "Last Day").

Then we went out and had pizza for desert.  I had artichoke pizza (yum yum yum).  This pizza is what caught our attention.

This is a nice picture of one of the bridges spanning the canal in Venice.

And, of course, there was a Hard Rock Cafe (that we didn't go to unfortunately).

This is a picture of me, Dad, Beno, and Bro. Seely standing by the statue of the *Tetrarchs.

This was a the window of a shop that we found.  Venetian glass is very famous and glass shops are one of the three types of shops to be found in Venice (glass shops, mask shops, and clothing stores :) ).  These are tiny glass sculptures of insects.  On the other side which you can't see in the picture were cute little hippos and elephants and all sorts of other kinds of animals.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the shop again, or I would have bought some.

Then next morning, it was raining like crazy, and we were warned that the water would be past our ankles in some of the streets.

  Fortunately our hotel provided Wellies for all.

Brellies and Wellies

It turned out that the water was indeed up to our ankles, and beyond.

St Marks square is the main square in Venice.  That day, it was more like a pond than a square.

Mom and Yours Truly.

Here is Mom on one of the many duck boards erected for those who didn't wish to wade in ankle-deep water.

More duck boards

Sloshing around in a shop.

A cute little kid.

The **bell ringers

San Giorgio church located on a little island.

View of Venice from San Giorgio bell tower

The place to lodge complaints anonymously (mouth).

The next morning sported a welcome blue sky after the floods of the previous day.

An impressionistic shimmer on the canal

Dad, Beno, I, and Bro. Seely went to a church while the girls shopped.

Another nice shot of the church interior.

And more glass.

A beautiful blue sea to greet us.

In Venice there are police and fire boats as well as ambulance boats like the one shown here

Glass blowing on Murano island.

The grave of Igor Stravinsky on San Mishele island.

Another impressionistic scene.

And after the day was done, we bid farewell to Venice.

*Probably the 4 co-rulers of Rome in its last days.

**These were the first robots to kill someone.  Someone was up there working in the 1700s and they knocked him off.

Parades and Remembrance

This week has been a very busy week.  Yesterday I was woken up at an unearthly hour and told to get dressed for our tour at the houses of parliament.  After the tour was over it turned out that it was the day of the Lord Mayor's parade through the city.  We first made our way home, and then to the parade.  Now enough blabbing.  Time look at pictures!!!  Oh!  Also, we've been having remembrance ceremonies around here because of remembrance day.  The first one was at Trafalgar Square.  It was amazing.  We participated in the 2-minute silence, and to hear noisy London completely silent is an amazing experience.  Pix below.

Here is at Trafalgar Square during the remembrance ceremony.  Here we listened to some singers, participated in a 2-minute silence out of respect for the dead, and threw poppy petals into the fountain.

These are just some cute school kids "bunking off school" to see the remembrance ceremony.

Here is Dad throwing some poppy petals into the fountain at Trafalgar Square.

 

OK, now we are into the parade.  These guys are the royal artillery.  You can see the caissons rolling along in the foreground. 

 And here is the big man himself in the carriage that is only taken out of the Museum of London for this occasion.

 Here is one of the many marching bands.  I included this particular one because it lets you guys see the traditional hats that the soldiers wear.

 Here is a random potato harvester that came through.  You can see the potato guy up on top.

And lastly, the steam bus from Yorkshire.  Driven solely by steam.

Well, sorry about the ridiculously long wait but hope you enjoyed the pics.  No videos because of the terribly slow internet connection.

-Drew