The bloom is off the rose and my camera was hard pressed to find inspiration. I left mostly empty-handed but as usual, I was high off of wandering through nature for an hour (in a sunny ten degrees).
It’s a far cry from a year ago yesterday when we experienced our first snow storm. It was pretty magical… even though I admired it and photograph it, from the other side of the fence.
There were still pockets of brilliant colors, though they were mostly laying on the ground.
Or reflected on the still water.
You find the oddest things when you’re not looking.
A plaque commemorating a very unusual character for a Victorian garden.
Frances Willard was a suffragist, instrumental in the passage of the amendment which allowed women the vote in the United States. She was a tireless campaigner for the rights of women, children and the working class, traveling an average of 30000 miles and delivering 400 lectures a year during a ten-year period.
She was also a leader in the Temperance movement which successfully brought about Prohibition. Her alcoholic brother who squandered the family fortune may have influenced her involvement in this unfortunate endeavor.
Her private life was equally controversial for the time. She was a self-described ‘lover of women’, some of whom she cohabited with .
Her list of accomplishments are impressive for such a short life. She died at 58 of influenza.
A partridge in a pear tree.
Actually it’s a starling on a maple tree.
I wonder if you get what you pay for in the wish department as well.
Every year at this time I walk around my garden counting the flower buds on my favorite flowering trees. It gets my imagination going anticipating my future floral display or when there aren’t many buds, gives me time to get over my disappointment. Hopefully we’ll have a mild winter with little winter kill. Flower buds are the first to succumb to harsh weather.
It’s official. Yikes! I guess I had best face up to the fact that I won’t be running away from Christmas this year.
Next week I’ll be posting my last photo tour of the season.
During the off-season I’ll go beyond the Gardens fence once a month, and post a photo tour of a garden I visit in my travels.
The 2012 season of the Halifax Public Gardens ends at dusk next Friday, November 30.
All copy and images copyright © Serena Graham-Dwyer, 2012. If you wish to use any part or whole of an image, in any manner, please contact us.
Along the Gardens path... 
Hi Serena, Just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed your photos throughout the season…thanks so much! bonnie
Thank you Bonnie. It was my pleasure.
Beautiful day for your photographs! Great light. Thank you for finally explaining who our battling sister was, l pledge to keep a good eye on the rose bed.
You have done a spectacular job. Happy winter traveling.
Helen
Thanks Helen. You are always so kind. Hope winter’s short. Are you part of the crew staying at the Gardens?