Garden walk

We spent the evening at Gilcrease Museum gardens.  We did not go inside, we spent the whole time just walking around the grounds.  Beautiful weather for it.  I knew about the gardens around the old house from going there last fall when my co-worker got married there.  I did not know they had a huge lower garden with a pond and bronze statues all over the grounds. 

We missed the Azalea flowers peak blooming but there were plenty of other flowers to look at.  I will have to do a different blog on just the flora and fauna of that place.  I took so many pictures and really enjoyed getting out and walking around the little wooded trails. 

We walked down several stairs to get to the bottom garden.  I liked the iron rail that looked like wood.

There were so many steps I was beginning to wonder just how far down did we have to go to get to the bottom.

I have always like native stone and these steps were really cool.  Nice thick slabs of rock!

Once we reach the bottom there was a sidewalk to follow all around the pond. 

The pond was pretty.  It had a gazebo at one end and a bronze statue at the other. 

I was really enjoying myself.  Who ever made this garden area did a wonderful job.  There were enough plants and foliage that every few steps a new view opened up.  Most of the area around the pond had steep drop offs all along the sidewalk.  I can only imagine how much work it was to put it in. 
There were only a few other people there so it was pretty quiet.  It was easy to relax and listen to the birds plus there was honeysuckle blooming everywhere so it smelled good too. 

I was really surprised that once we walked past the pond there was several other large open areas.

This bear bronze was huge.  There was an area of small trees right behind this that I just had to walk through.  The ground was a bit soggy from all the rain we have had but it was worth it.  This is what I found between those small trees the the forest edge.  I could hear the little hatchlings chirping away when the parent landed.

After I took this photo I was really wishing for my zoom lens.  But then I would have had to bring a bag and then I would have wished for a tri-pod.  So it is just as well.  It would have slowed me down cause I would have wanted to take even more photos. 

The next area had an old wooden tool shed , a bronze of a pioneer woman and gardens that were full of plants that the pioneers would have used.   

I liked how this bronze showed a simple part of daily life.  She is churning butter and holding her hand up to block the sun.  The sculpturer did a excellent job showing movement with the wind blowing her apron away from her dress.   

I could have spent much more time around this area but there was a large amount of wood boring bees around the shed and they can be aggressive. 

At this point the hubby was ready to go, he is allergic to bees and did not want to get stung.  He was ready to head back to a safer area.

That is him way ahead of me.  Turning around to make sure I am still following.  I tend to get side tracked.  I have a hard time leaving an area that has things that I have not looked at, touched, smelled and taken a few pictures of. 

Like this bronze of a mother deer with two fawns.  How cute is that? 

I could do another blog on just the bronzes that I have not posted, or one of the upper gardens, or one of just the flowers.  I took so many pictures and it is not practical to post all of them.  I will do at least one more blog from this fun outing!  It is going to be hard to limit it to just a few photos.  We are diffently going back at some point with the Grandson.  I would love to follow him around and capture him enjoying this place!