Travels

 
My mom and I drove to Hammond Wisconsin yesterday to see the llama race.

Pretty llamas:

Here’s the final race:

Photos:

After a hearty 99 cent IKEA breakfast (a road trip tradition), I’m heading down to Missouri—first stop: Excelsior Springs.

It seems like a good time to go…possibility of snow in the Twin Cities forecast! Booooo!

I’ll be gone about two weeks. You can reach me via my cell if you need to, or I’ll check email occasionally.

I went to St. Louis March 5-9. I now have a photo tour up on the March 5th entry.

While I was in St. Louis, I looked for signs of spring at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Spring seemed a little late this year—the flowering trees were not yet blooming, but they did have large buds. Here’s what I saw:

Spring was starting in the English Woodland Garden. Daffodils were pushing through last fall's dead leaves.

The winter aconite, with its yellow blossoms, was the farthest along.

Hellebore unfurled it's leaves...

and showed reddish blooms.

At first I thought it was too early for crocus.

But as I looked closer, I could see them...

Purple...

and yellow!

I was too early for glory of the snow, but gigantic snowdrops greeted me in the Mausoleum Garden.

More crocus were blooming in the bulb garden

And they looked almost fluorescent in the Shade Garden.

There were also some bright purple early irises.

Just before my camera battery died, I came upon a gorgeous Ozark witch hazel.

Wow! What a splendid finish!

Saturday, Barb and I went to the Butterfly House for March Morpho Mania. Every March they release thousands of blue morpho butterflies into the conservatory. It was amazing—but extremely hard to capture with a camera. They flutter so quickly. I did manage this composite photo. The blue was much brighter in real life.