GardenBook

 Travel season continued for me with a short trip to Chicago , business related and tightly scheduled. Every time I go to Chicago I tell my self that the next time I will take an extra day and do some touristy stuff, but it was not to be this year. Still, I always find a way to pay another visit to the Lurie Garden in Millennium park.I've blogged about this garden previously here , and here . Designed by a world class triumvirate of Piet Oudolf, Robert Israel and the Seattle firm Gustafson,Guthrie and Nicol, the garden was completed in 2004. I've visited several times and taken vast quantities of photos--this is a garden I never tire of. It remains in the top tier of gardens for me ; a space that presents a stylized version of the North American prairie .   There are several routes that will take you into the garden, but access through the 'shoulders hedge is my favorite.  Looking  thorough gives  you a tantalizing peek at what lies ahead.  ...

 While on the coast last week, I scheduled my days lazily; puttering around Carmel in the morning before the tourists descend (since I live in an tourist area I always feel that I am a honorary local in other similar towns) and heading out with the camera and the addresses of all the nearby garden centers loaded in the GPS in the afternoon.  My first stop this day was Mission San Carlos Borromeo Carmelo , aka Mission Carmel, which I had not visited since the 80's. I arrived simultaneously with a bus full of school kids, and since I am famously child-phobic, I hit the road for Big Sur. Luckily, by the time I rounded back to Carmel the small fry were long gone.  Father Serra was a revered personage back in my days as a Catholic Kid. Since then his reputation has soured , muddied with accusations of abuse of the native population, ranging from simple paternalism to slavery. Father Serras grave site is here in the basilica at Mission Carmel. I stood before it , but took n...