Cleveland Botanical Garden's Orchid Show

This past weekend I drove up to Cleveland to spend time with my best friend and celebrate her 30th(!) birthday.  I left the plans totally up to her, wherever she wanted to eat and whatever she wanted to do.  We started off with lunch at a pizza place, just down the street from her new house in Tremont, called Crust.  We decided to share a medium Spanakopita and it was delicious!  Good flavor and the crust was awesome (hence the name, I guess)!

Then when I asked Amanda what she wanted to do next she said, "I thought maybe we could go to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens [which I had never been to and she had only been once before], they are having their orchid show right now".   Umm, what?!  This sounded like an activity for my birthday, not hers!  But I wasn't going to say no to orchids, I mean, we know how much I like love orchids!  But I warned her just how much I was going to geek out...little did I know the vast quantity and variety of orchids the CBG packs into their orchid show!  I think my brain might have exploded from all the orchid-awesomeness.  Just see for yourself, but be prepared for an orchid extravaganza (and this is me editing myself significantly)...

Alright, so while my brain was literally on sensory overload and I couldn't stop saying "Ooh, look at this one!" and "Oh, I really like this one!" Amanda and I nearly poked our eyes/faces out...

In two different areas of their large glass house there were spiky/thorny branches growing out of the rocks right at eye-poking level, it was a bit terrifying!  Luckily we're nerds and wear protective eye-wear daily (and Amanda was looking out for me while I was geeking out over the pretty flowers!  Still, imagine a person holding their child right at their level and the adult looking left to the orchids...WHAM!! Thorn-stabbed!!  That does not seem at all safe.  

Seriously I have never seen so many different kinds of orchids in my life!!  It was magical!  But what made it more magical?!  Tortoises.

 Look at him snacking on that lettuce.  Isn't he so cute!?

Oh yeah, and there were cute, tiny little birds flying around and butterflies!

These were some of Amanda's favorites!  I couldn't really pick a favorite, there were too many!!

Most of the orchids above were scattered throughout the large glass house.  Inside the main building was a separate display of orchids in a variety of room set-ups, some of which were curated by fashion and interior designers.  They were all pretty cool, but I liked this simple display of orchids in ornate picture frames the best...

Whew!!  I warned you.  I went a little overboard, but I left in a euphoric state; blissed out on all the different varieties, colors, sizes, shapes of orchids.  The botanical gardens actually has several outdoor garden areas but since it was snowing we did not get to explore those.  I can't wait to go back sometime when the weather is nice to see the gardens and explore more!

A big thank you to my wonderful hlp, Amanda!  For suggesting the botanical gardens, for putting up with me while I have an irrational freak-out over flowers, and then for not leaving me there because I was acting like a giant dork and taking a photo of every orchid I saw!  Thanks A!  I do have a little more Cleveland goodness in store for you this week, so stay tuned.  And then this weekend I'll be going to the Krohn orchid show and unloading another huge batch of orchid photos on you all...you have been warned!

A Layer of Ice

Spring is definitely trying to make a comeback!  It was gorgeous yesterday and it's supposed to be even warmer today (I wore a new pair of sandals I just got from Modcloth in anticipation!!).  Like everyone else I'm so ready for Spring.  Not just the weather, but the flowers and the green everywhere and the life.  It's one of my favorite things to see flowers start to pop up everywhere and bloom.

Today it's supposed to get up to 70 degrees in Cincinnati!!  Isn't that crazy!?  It's especially crazy when you think that a little over a week ago we were covered in ice from an ice storm.  I had watched it out come down from the window all morning, but then when the snow/rain/freezing rain subsided for a little bit I ventured outside to some photos (and miraculously I did not fall on my butt!).  Now, as far as ice storms go this one was pretty tame compared to what Cincinnati usually gets; we generally get more ice storms than snow storms, although this year has definitely been the exception!  But the affects were still cool nonetheless...

So do you have an fun plans this evening to enjoy the beautiful little heat wave?!  I think Antoine and I heading to the park for a picnic after walk, probably with the Cheese-man.  Should be fun!

Wintry Ault Park

This past weekend, right before the snow/ice storm hit, the weather was actually pretty decent.  Not as nice as the Saturday before, but still I'll take it.  I'm ready for Spring!  For the flowers and the green everywhere.  So, since Antoine and I have been craving Spring (like almost every other human out there) we headed over to Ault Park to take some pictures and walk around before running our errands...

There were a fair number of people at Ault Park that day.  Several people were out throwing frisbees around, a couple people were doing yoga, a bunch were just walking around and then there were a couple others taking photos, like myself.

A hornet nest (?) that Antoine found near the Rose garden.

Antoine also spotted a couple of trees behind one of the gardens that had just been chopped down and the remnants (large tree stumps, which I desperately wanted to load into our car) were just lying there.

From what I could tell, the trees looked to be pretty healthy, so it's a bummer they cut them down, but I wonder if it has something to do with Cincinnati Parks plan to add another garden to Ault Park (there were nearby signs illustrating some for the plants they plan to bring in).

Oddly enough, I think I might actually like the way hydrangea look like when they're dead more than when they are alive.

I'm impressed with how beautiful Ault Park's gardens are in the winter time.  While it's not as beautiful now as they will be in a couple months or even the summer, there are still gems to be found!

Happy Friday, everyone!  Any fun plans for this weekend?  I'm heading north to Cleveland to celebrate my wonderful HLP turning 30!!  Crazy that I met her when she was just 19 years old!  I can't wait to celebrate and have some quality girl time with her, I need it!  Have a good weekend.  

Devou Park Overlook

Oh, hi there!  Sorry I disappeared for a while.  I was feeling slightly wretched up until this morning.  It was one of those things where you're not like full on sick but you feel like you're getting sick.  It was kind of miserable.  But I pounded back Emercen-C like it was going out of style and now I'm happy to report that I feel like a human again.

Anyway, back to Antoine and my day of fun...first we went to Krohn (yay flowers!) and then we filled up on a delicious lunch at A Tavola.  Well, Antoine had one more thing in mind before we concluded our day of fun...Devou Park.  If you're not familiar with it, Devou Park sits on a hill in Northern Kentucky and has an overlook of downtown Cincinnati.  Antoine and I had never been but always wanted to go.

The overlook!  It's not the easiest place to find if you've never been, but it's definitely worth the search.

After taking some shots from the overlook of downtown, we took a little walk around...

And that was the end of our New-camera-day-of-fun (as Antoine coined it).  We got home, changed into our pajamas, split some tasty donuts and turned back into our homebody selves!