Garvan Woodland Gardens

(Click on the photos to zoom in)
It has been an eventful past few days; I'm writing the blog today because I wanted to tell you about the gardens (which Marley hasn't seen) and to mention his sick spell, and typical puppy, he didn't remember it 5 minutes after he got to feeling better.

A couple of years ago, we had the arbor built just outside the screened-in back porch. It's the size of a room, and in summer we stay out there a lot. Jim built me a swing, and I have my flowers, windchimes, and a waterfall, and then there's Harry, the Wisteria I've loved so much, though he has visions of taking over the world, and we have to trim him about once a week, but he has just about covered the whole roof of the arbor, in spring with heavy clusters of purple blossoms, and in summer with dense, green leaves, making everything below fragrant and cool. Marley loves to lie sprawled out with his belly on the river gravel and chew whatever's at hand....or at paw. The gravels are carpeted now with fallen blooms, and whenever he comes inside, I pick them from his long hair and vacuum the trail he leaves on the carpet.

Well, on Monday, I visited Lowe's and brought home a trunkful of bulbs and plants, and Marley and I spent a happy couple of hours planting and repotting. Almost immediately after we came in, about 2 pm, my puppy began vomiting and wretching all over the place, about every 5 minutes! My first thought was that he'd get it all up and be okay, but it went on and on, and I got really scared. Our vet is closed on Mondays, and Marley has such a horror of new places that I didn't want to put him through anything he didn't have to endure, so I kept watching the clock, thinking that if he had to go to the emergency room, we'd go before the doctors went home for the day. I managed to find Dr. Mann's home phone #, and he didn't seem too excited, just said to give Marley Maalox and keep food and water from him for 24 hours. The Maalox was magical! By the time Jim got home at 4:00, Marley jumped up and ran to meet him. What a relief! He was so hungry and thirsty that we gave him ice cubes (which he loves) for a while, a little Gatorade, and then water and puppy chow, and he was perfectly fine. I read up, of course, on what could have made him sick, and he most likely ate a bellyful of those lovely purple wisteria blooms! Never a dull moment with a puppy.....


On Tuesday, I'd planned to leave at 11:00 to go with friends from church to Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, but if Marley had acted the least bit sick, I would have cancelled. He was fine as frog's hair, as we say in the south, so I went and had a wonderful time.


The gardens are constantly changing and growing, beautiful any time of year, even Christmas; if you care to look, I'm pretty sure my first blog entry was about the painting I did of Garvan Gardens that won me the Corel Painter Master Artist award (I think that's the name of the award; it has been about 5 years, and I can't even recall what I had for breakfast yesterday.) But I digress.

The main point of this trip was to have High Tea after we browsed through the azalea strewn trails. I had never had high tea. It seems the English used to have it (maybe still do) at 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, and it often replaced both their regular tea and dinner as well because it's a lovely meal in itself, with scones, jellies, clotted cream, lemon curd, tiny sandwiches, and delicate little desserts, along with of course, 3 kinds of tea.

Didn't get any pics in the tea room, but one person at each table chose (or was chosen) to be Mother, and she filled each cup in turn with tea and added lemon, cream, or sugar cubes. Most of the workers throughout Garvan Gardens are devoted volunteers, and our table attendant was new to her job and kept dropping the food on the floor as she tried to place it on our plates, but it just added to the fun. Anyway, have you ever seen a roomful of women with food not having fun?

And no matter where I go, I look forward to coming home to this furry little ball of love who's always excited to see me.