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Recent retiree--35 year's experience teaching reading, English, adult basic education and volunteer leadership skills. Started this blog to exchange ideas and commentary with friends and others having an interest in joining the discussions. Greatest life accomplishments include: 1.organized my 3rd grade class to check out library books for me to get around librarian's weekly limit--Amazon.com, the Mullins Elementary 3rd Grade Class of 1956 is still waiting for "thank you" notes; 2. volunteered in the Peace Corps, island of St. Kitts, West Indies; 3.taught adults to read, earn their GEDs., and speak English as a second language; 4. bought a border collie puppy for $6, got evicted rather than give him up, and began a life-long love affair with all things "Dog"; 5. joined a physical fitness boot camp in my mid-50s--don't mess with someone who's been doing regulation pushups in wet grass at 5:30 a.m.; 6. walked across Northern England with best friend Sally--over 80 miles from the Irish to North Seas; and 7. travelled to many foreign countries for pleasure and work.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Watery Wednesday - Monet Inspired Garden in New Zealand

For this week's photography memes I'm going back to photos taken on a 2004 garden tour of New Zealand.

Hortensia House is on New Zealand's South Island near Blenheim. The gardener/owner is a Frenchwoman and artist. Her paintings and ceramics were inspired by the many flowers in her garden and by the French Impressionist Claude Monet. Hydrangeas in great variety, roses, fruit trees, and native plants blend together in this elegant garden.

Hortensia House has beautiful open windows accented with periwinkle blue that look out over intensely planted perennial beds to a graceful stream that runs through the property:

This Japanese bridge is inspired by the one at Monet's Giverny garden in France and leads to a small island:

The island has flower beds close to the gazebo--which echoes the house's architecture. Behind the gazebo are open fields:

Want to see some more "watery" photography? Click here for the players.

8 comments:

Jan n Jer said...

These photos look like post cards, simply beautiful Faye!

Sayre said...

Gorgeous! Out one of our country roads is an odd looking building on stilts in the middle of a pond. It's too fancy to be a hunting shack of some sort but not practical as a living space either. I'll have to take a picture of it sometime and send it to you. I've been musing about it for years!

TexWisGirl said...

purely magical...

Dianne said...

A magical place which brings back memories of my trip to the real Giverny in France........ It's wonderful to see creative people who follow their dream ....I'm sure many hours of hard work and planning went into this little corner of paradise which can now be admired by so many others.
A lovely post Faye.

"Adelaide and Beyond"

George said...

I've always thought of Japanese gardens as being peaceful places. The bridge is graceful and beautiful, but everything about this garden is simply gorgeous.

NatureFootstep said...

That is an interesting garden. A lot of photo opportunities I believe. :)

Faye, for BOKEH you need a camera with manual settings. If you have that you can do it. Have a great weekend.

Melbourne Australia Photos said...

How amazing! Yes, I agree these are picture postcard views, Faye, or even painting-like. New Zealand is gorgeous and there are some very keen gardeners there!

Liz said...

What a gorgeous garden! It really does have everything. A painter's (and photographer's) paradise, I think.
Following you now :)