Gardens

Looking for peace and quiet

/ edebock / 3 Comments

Chinese people tend to be quite loud and there are a LOT of them so this is definitely not a quiet place to live! The streets below our building are usually a beehive of activity. We jokingly call the scene outside our windows our reality show as there’s always something interesting to watch. Because the building has little or no soundproofing, the show comes complete with sound and now that the weather has warmed up and we often have the windows open, the volume has been turned up. Once in awhile, I wake during the night and marvel at the silence but sometimes there are people shouting or horns honking even in the wee hours.

When I was a child, if we asked my father what he wanted for his birthday, Father’s Day or Christmas, his answer was always the same. "Peace and quiet!" I must have inherited my appreciation for quiet places from him. It’s not easy to get away from the hustle, bustle and noise that surrounds us here but we did find a couple of slightly more peaceful places this weekend.

Yesterday afternoon, we visited the Dalian Botanical Garden with one of my university students. Chinese gardens, like Japanese, tend to be landscape style gardens that include one or more ponds, rock works, trees and gazebos or pavilions connected by winding paths. Though there may be flowers, they aren’t the main focus. The Dalian garden is on the outskirts of the city and surrounds a very large pond that is obviously well stocked with fish as there were many people with lines in the water. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and also Mother’s Day so there were plenty of families enjoying the park but in spite of that, there was a sense of peace that isn’t easily found here.

Today, we spent a couple of hours strolling along the boardwalk that skirts the Daxishan Reservoir, not too far from here. Though we were never far from the sound of traffic and there were others also out enjoying the walk, it wasn’t crowded. Again, there was a very welcome feeling of peace.

Finding beauty close to home

/ edebock / 4 Comments

When we’re on vacation or far from home, we seek out interesting or unique places to visit and things to do but we sometimes miss out on the gems that are closest to home. Until today, we had never been to the Devonian Botanic Garden just two hours away.

After taking some friends to the Edmonton International Airport to catch a flight, we spent most of the afternoon exploring the nearby garden. I lost my pedometer before we got there 😦 so I have no idea how far we walked but my feet are telling me that they had a good workout! With 80 acres of display gardens and another 110 acres of natural areas and ecological preserves, there were lots of paths to follow and areas to explore!

It was the Kurimoto Japanese Garden that I most wanted to see. During our year in Japan, I fell in love with its beautiful strolling gardens. In fact, I’ve often teased Richard, telling him that we should turn our backyard into a Japanese garden. He just laughs and I doubt that it will actually ever happen but I was curious to see how this style of garden could be replicated in our climate, so different from Japan’s. I wasn’t disappointed. With its meandering paths, reflecting pond, stone lanterns, pagoda and bridges it definitely captured the tranquility and the simple beauty of this unique garden style.

After exploring the Japanese garden, we moved on to the indoor displays. The tropical butterfly greenhouse was my favourite. It was fun picking out plants that we’d become familiar with during our recent stay on Saipan.

Moving back outdoors into the bright September sunshine, we set off to explore the rest of the outdoor displays. Though it’s late in the season and many plants are no longer in bloom, there were still lots of splashes of colour to enjoy.

  

After wandering through the various displays of annuals and perennials, the herb gardens, the native peoples’ garden, the alpine garden and many more, we returned for a final stroll around the Japanese garden before heading for home. After all, who knows how long it might be before I visit another one.