Trying to Forget It's Winter

First, a note.  For the last several days, I am - somehow - not receiving email notification that readers have commented on my blog.  Or, at least, 90% of the time I am not receiving notification.  A few of your comments are slipping through.  Please accept my heartfelt apologies for not responding to your comments, and know that I appreciate each one!  This happens every once in a while -- and Typepad usually figures things out pretty quickly.  In the meantime, please keep commenting!   I love to hear from you.

Now . . . on with our regularly scheduled post.

It's been really, really cold and quite snowy here for the last couple of weeks.  (Winter finally decided to catch up with us, after a really quite pleasant December.)  That kind of winter weather makes you go to rather extreme measures to try to . . . well, see past it.

My Mom and I visited Meijer Gardens last weekend (for the Orchid Show, as I explained yesterday), a wonderful botanical treasure right here in our backyard.  We didn't JUST visit the Orchid Show, though.

I convinced my Mom that we should go outside . . .  

To visit our favorite . . . the Japanese Gardens.

We braved really frigid temperatures - and some light lake effect snows - to take in the gardens.

Very lovely.  Very stark.  Let's just say . . . there weren't many of us out there!  (But we were not alone.)

The paths were pretty icy, though, so we didn't venture far.

Before heading home, we warmed up in some of the indoor conservatories.

It was great to find some daffodils and crocus blooming in the seasonal room!  It gave us hope for the coming spring.  (And also reminded us that we want to plant azaleas this year.)

The desert room almost made us feel hot and bright sunshine.  (Almost.)

It was a great afternoon -- and really did help us to forget about winter.  At least for a little while!

Gardens are always a great escape!