My kind of rest

We totally slept in late this morning, and took it rather slow for the rest of the day. For the first part of the day, the children played and I did work around the house, while Charlton busied himself on the floor. During the second part of the day, we tried to run a few errands such as car washing, grocery shopping and library. I did manage to convince my children to follow me to this pretty private garden that I've been wanting to see for a while. I'm generally fascinated by nature and especially by plants and flowers. But I particularly reserve a special spot in my heart for desert or dry weather plants. Maybe it is their amazing resilience amongst the scarcity of life's necessities, or maybe it is their peculiar beauty that captures me, but whatever it is I really enjoy their unique display. Ruth Bancroft Garden didn't disappoint me a bit! I couldn't believe how many variety of desert plants from all over the world there were to be found on this three-acre desert landscape. You could turn your head in any direction and you would be greeted by the Mediterranean fan palms, or colorful rosettes from Mexico, or the many kinds of cactus I was able to recognise like the Prickly Pear Cacti, and the Golden Barrel Cacti. My favorites, however, were the Italian blue gray agave with its stately present, and some sort of cactus with its beautiful flirtatious yellow flowers. Here are a few of the pictures that I took:


This month, the garden hosted a myriad of local artists and their work. I didn't quite understand if these art pieces were created with the intention of garden decorating or for any sort of artistic enjoyment. Sometimes, the uniqueness of these pieces were borderline weird, but that made the whole visit extra fun for my kids. I also didn't know if you were allowed to touch them, and because I couldn't find any signs that prevented us from doing just that, I kept snapping picture after picture with my kids posing (and sometimes climbing) alongside these interesting displays.

The only one who didn't get his kind of rest today was Charlton, so as soon as we got home, I fed him, gave him a bath, and then put him down for the night. The children and I had a good time reading books for the rest of the evening. I love summer, just because I get to have my kids with me all day, every day. They make me work hard and sometimes I get mad at them, but mostly they make me laugh and happy.