#1643 testing out my photo taking skills

Today was a busy and fun day for me. I want to focus on just one part of the day, but here's a quick list of the things I did:

made copies of and mailed off a scholarship application for T

weighed in => down .8 lb (good!)

got my hairs cut

put in some volunteer time at Red Butte Garden (RBG)

made crazy good shredded chicken tacos for dinner and from-scratch brownies for dessert

watched both Final 4 games

downloaded a bunch of photos I took at RBG

washed dishes

did laundry

moaned about how much my knee is hurting

I think that about covers it.

What I want to focus on here are the photos I took at RBG. One of my volunteer activities is taking photos there. I took these for myself, just to see what I would get. I took about 50 photos with my big camera. I won't show them all to you, but here are some of my favorites. You can click on the photos to enlarge if you'd like to see more detail.

view of the snow-capped Oquirrh Mountains from the Children's Garden

The Children's Garden, where I spent some time looking for blooming plants has an amazing view of the valley from the upper level. I live way across the valley from this spot, much closer to those mountains back there.

the old wagon trail

Back in the early days of Salt Lake, wagons would come down this trail from the granite quarry up in the Wasatch Mountains to bring the granite that would be used to build many of the buildings in the city. The oak trees were cut back by the wagon drivers and as the trees grew back they formed an these arches. I can't wait to see how gorgeous this is in the summer when the leaves are on the trees. I really want to walk on this trail, too and go back to the quarry area.

mama Canada goose on her nest

The mama goose didn't seem very happy to have me looking at her. I am not close to her at all. I zoomed in with my camera. It will be fun to see the baby geese!

mini daffodils

In the rose garden area, there are lots of these mini daffodils. They are adorable.

gnarly trees not yet budding with daffodils and yellow twig bushes

This photo looks better when it's bigger. There are a lot of contrasting colors and shapes.

Lenten roses

I have never heard of Lenten roses before I went on the garden tour at RBG. These roses are so pretty. There are different colors but  this dusty rose color is my favorite. The roses only bloom once a year, around Easter.

can you see the bee in the flower on the right?

 With these purple flowers, I was testing out my zoom action to see if I could get a shot of the bee that was getting pollen from the pretty flower.

white magnolia tree

 The magnolias are blooming! I was totally infatuated with this pretty tree and its flowers.

orchid show

There was an orchid show happening inside the orangerie. (By the way, the orangerie is one of my favorite places at RBG.) It smelled amazingly fragrant in there. Orchids are awesome. I enjoyed looking at them, but I have to tell you, nothing beats seeing an orchid growing in the wild.

I warned you that you would get tired of my droning on and on about RBG and it's only April 2. The place is just really, really wonderful and it changes every time I go there. Of course, since I'll be going there at least once a week, I might burn out on it sometime during the summer. But for now, I like it a whole bunch!