{"id":3955,"date":"2010-07-16T01:28:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-16T01:28:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-03-23T04:25:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T04:25:28","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/?p=3955","title":{"rendered":"Botanical Garden Outing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Botanical Garden Outing<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Saying that it was an &#8220;outing&#8221; makes it sound so proper, for some reason.  Also, for some reason I want to add either an extra t or n in botanical.  I don&#8217;t know why.<\/p>\n<p>So, last Saturday, we visited the St. Louis Botanical Gardens.  Once again, just like every time I go there, I&#8217;m shocked and amazed to live in a city that has such a treasure.  Even after so many years, it is hard to get a grasp of the fact that there are so many things to do and wonderful things to see &#8212; and most of those things are free.  Amazing.<\/p>\n<p>The reason that we made this particular visit was to see the dinosaurs.  I must admit to knowing nothing about the whole dinosaur installation except to say that you can read more about it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mobot.org\/events\/calendar.asp\">here<\/a>.  They&#8217;ll be there until October.  You should know this because you should go.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img38991279304845.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img38991279304845.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here, look, this expression sums it all up.   <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img38931279256582.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img38931279256582.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And, if freaky dinosaurs aren&#8217;t your particular cup of tea, well, maybe you&#8217;d enjoy the freakily gorgeous plants.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img39041279256970.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img39041279256970.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While his brothers were attempting to commune with a pachy-cephalo-brota-tricera-thingy, J was sitting patiently on a nearby rock, lost in his thoughts.  So I naturally started taking photos of him.  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img39101279257059.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img39101279257059.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beautiful hair, yes?  The image doesn&#8217;t even do it justice.  It is like every strand of his hair is a differently shaded strand of gold.  I kid you not.  Actually, I&#8217;ve got quite a bit of that gold laying around.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img38851279256537.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img38851279256537.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If anyone ever bemoans the declining numbers of blond, blue-eyed males on the planet, I want it to be known that I did my part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img39181279257161.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img39181279257161.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One of my favorite parts of the garden is the Japanese section.  It is so gorgeous.  And, I should note, that it is a little stressful, too.  Why?  Well, because of the gravel, of course.  All of that beautiful raked gravel &#8212; I fear when we get near it.  Why?  Well, because I&#8217;m afraid that at any point one of my males will decide that the gravel needs something else, something that only he can draw.  Maybe it&#8217;s a Barlow thing.  I&#8217;ll never forget my father-in-law admiring the gravel and then, gesturing to his pointy umbrella with a mischievous grin, asking, &#8220;What do y&#8217;all think?  How about I write <b>Sho Nuff<\/b> in the gravel with the tip of this here umbrella?&#8221;  That was a hoot.<\/p>\n<p>The koi, oh yes.  We can&#8217;t forget the koi and their beautiful colors and hauntingly weird, disturbing open mouths.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img39321279257886.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img39321279257886.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course, we had to visit with the koi a bit as we fed them their food.  Speaking of visiting, my oldest son had 2 arms in this lake when we went to the garden last.  I&#8217;m not sure, but I think that he may have been attempting to catch a koi of his own.  So, we&#8217;re probably the reason for this fence.  I mean, what would be the harm of grabbing a koi up out of the pond &#8212; that is how his mind works.  Kind of reminds me of when we were at the zoo once and I admired an asian duck that they had.  My baby immediately  went missing and I was about to call security when I spied him climbing out of the duck enclosure.  &#8220;Where were you?!&#8221;, I asked him frantically.  He replied, &#8220;I went to get you that duck, Mama.&#8221;  These males I live with, honestly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img39391279257991.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img39391279257991.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For some reason, the aforementioned wannabe duck catcher needed to hold my hand on the bridge and so I obliged, of course.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img39441279258103.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img39441279258103.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I had attempted to write a little poem about our day at the garden but the only part that was coming together was a  line I was going to put in there &#8220;I wore a skirt\/The color of dirt\/the ultimate mother apparel&#8221; but that&#8217;s all I came up with and so the poem shall not be shared.  I do recommend you getting a skirt the color of dirt, though.  Very useful.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/auto_images\/hires\/img39731279304749.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/auto_images\/lowres\/img39731279304749.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can see here that we come with squirrelly little brothers included.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s all until the next time we visit the garden which will hopefully be sooner rather than later.  <\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Botanical Garden Outing Saying that it was an &#8220;outing&#8221; makes it sound so proper, for some reason. Also, for some reason I want to add either an extra t or n in botanical. I don&#8217;t know why. So, last Saturday, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/?p=3955\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annbarlow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}