As you may notice in this weekend’s photograph of Dad and
the two girls in our community garden plot, winter in Wisconsin is still
snowing strong.
But my girls and I are bored with winter, so occasionally we
escape to the warm tropical Conservatory of the Olbrich Botanic Gardens. In the warmer months, we will stroll
the 16 acres of beautiful free gardens, but since they too are covered in snow,
we have spent all recent visits in the lovely hot of the greenhouses.
Immediately upon entering, Aurora began spinning and
dancing. Round and round. Up and down. Back and forth.
Then she discovered, or rather rediscovered, her
shadow. “It’s back Mom! <hee,
hee, hee> Look Mom. There
is my shadow.” Now with a partner,
she really got to jumping, dancing, and running about.
She made friends with Sam, and they ran round and around the
paths. They paused only to laugh
at the bright canaries singing on the surrounding branches. Alas, Sam left.
Aurora made friends with Sophie, and they ran round and
around the paths. They hopped on the boats (grown-ups might mistake them for
benches) and rowed to exotic locales, like Wisconsin and South Carolina. Alas, Sophie left.
Aurora made friends with Simon, and they ran round and
around the paths. They put their
hands in the water fall and climbed up and down the stairs and climbed up and
down the stairs again. Alas, Simon
left.
Aurora pretended to take naps on her boat (I was the alarm
clock). She counted and named the
koi in the pond. She pet various
leaves. She played a lovely game
in which she would hide under a giant leaf and when I could not find her, she
would exploded out from underneath in a big, beautiful shriek which would send
her sister into huge shrieks and giggles of her own. When she got too hot, we retreated to the garden's library.
When we returned, Aurora sang many a song under the wisteria.
Adeline delighted
in grabbing every possible leaf/flower/etc and laughed at everything her sister did.
Aurora made friends with Sayla, and they ran round and
around the paths. They held hands
together and looked for the quails that wandered about the walkways. Alas,
Sayla left.
Aurora took me on a flower hunt, but, alas, it was closing
time, so we left too.
