Kansas Staycation: Ted Ensley Gardens, Topeka

Flowers are the music of the ground.

 From earth’s lips, spoken without sound.

 – Edwin Curran

As I was sitting in the Topeka ExpoCentre arena last week for the church annual conference, I could hear the rain pounding on the roof. After nearly 12 inches of rain at home and flooding throughout Kansas and neighboring states, my first thought was, "Not again!"

But, by the time the afternoon session was over, the rain had stopped, so Randy and I visited the Ted Ensley Gardens near Topeka's Lake Shawnee. And the rain that I was bad-mouthing had decorated the flowers there like frosting on a cake.

It couldn't have been more beautiful. (And, bonus! It hadn't rained at home!)

 

The gardens comprise 37.5 acres on the west side of Lake Shawnee. The lake was built as a Work Progress Administration project and completed in September 1939. The gardens are named after Commissioner Ted Ensley, who formed the idea for a rose garden in 1978. From there, the rose garden expanded into waterfalls, fountains, streams, flower beds, a gazebo, a garden pergola, walkways and bridges.

We entered the garden via a 60-foot covered bridge over a rocky stream just north of SE 37th Street and West Edge road.

 The gardens feature a panoramic view of the lake...

  ... as well as plenty of places for sitting and enjoying the view and listening to the splash of the water in the fountain.

 

The pathways lead to tucked-away spots to find even more flowers and greenery.

The Shawnee County Extension Master Gardeners help maintain a Woodland (Shade) Garden as one of their demonstration gardens (below).

In May, staff and volunteers plant more than 90,000 annual flowers and plants. By the time we visited, those flowers were in full bloom.

 

The May planting comes after Tulip Time at the gardens, when horticulturists from the Shawnee County Parks and Recreation Department, with the assistance of volunteers, plant more than 80,000 tulips and daffodils. They are in full bloom in April during the city's Tulip Festival.

And speaking of flowers, the garden includes 1,200 varieties of perennials and 300 varieties of annuals, roses, trees and shrubs.

I loved the old-fashioned roses in all different colors. They are the most fragrant.

 

But there were also the more traditional "florist-shop-type" varieties, all glistening with raindrops.

There are also meditation gardens and water gardens throughout the complex.

The arboretum features 450 trees, including 87 varieties, some rare to Kansas, including a zelkova tree that will grow 100 feet tall and buckeyes, among others. But many of the trees enable visitors to see how a mature tree would look in their own home landscaping. It also demonstrates which trees grow best in that area of Kansas, which are most disease resistant and which have the best growth habits for withstanding wind, ice and snow.

In 2009, a statue was added to honor a little girl named Katie, who, upon seeing the gardens for the first time, exclaimed, “I’m so happy!” I understand the sentiment.

People aren't the only ones who like the flowers. So do the spiders, who left behind their handiwork in colorful settings.

Even in the carefully-manicured gardens, an interloper caught my eye ... and maybe reminded me a bit of the reality of home.

Weeds are flowers, too, 

once you get to know them.

--Winnie the Pooh

I know them all too well. Maybe that's why I can appreciate all the work that goes in to keeping the botanical gardens so manicured and beautiful. 

Topeka can be a great Kansas staycation destination. Besides the State Capitol, we also enjoy the Topeka Zoo and Discovery Center where we've been multiple times with Kinley and Brooke. While I was at church conference, Randy and Kinley spent the morning at the zoo and the afternoon at Sports Center, a family entertainment center, where they played 18 holes of Goony Golf and rode the go-karts. 

Now that the girls are getting older, our to-do list includes the Kansas Museum of History.

For casual dining, we like The Burger Stand. We tried The Pennant for the first time this trip, and I'm sure we'll be back, now that Jill & Eric and the girls are moving back to Topeka. The Blind Tiger Brewery and Restaurant is another local eatery. 

Find out more about Topeka eateries and attractions at Visit Topeka.

Music & More

 

On a typical Tuesday summer evening, there may be music on the County Line. But the music will likely be on the tractor radio as Randy makes another round in the field.

There may be flowers. But they will be the wildflowers along the ditches or in the pastures as I take another meal to the field.

But this Tuesday, we had "high class" music and flowers. Randy had a Kansas Wheat meeting in Wichita on Tuesday and Wednesday. After his first day of meetings, we went to Botanica's Tuesday on the Terrace.

We weren't the only ones there for music and flowers. Besides all the people sitting around and listening to the band, Tim Jonas & the Whiskey Militia, we saw a photographer taking senior portraits of a girl.

We took "senior" portraits, too. (It depends on the definition of senior citizens. The guy I was with will qualify sooner than I will.)

We sat and listened to the band for an hour. But then I wanted to wander the gardens during the second hour of the event.

With the shady venue, I may have waited too long to get optimal photos. But, then again, there were some golden moments during the golden hour after all.

The colors of this delicate flower could mimic the sunset, though the shade trees kept most of the evening sky hidden from view in the gardens.

But the golden rays from the setting sun did tinge several scenes with diffused light.

This pioneer woman seemed to be gathering flowers in her basket before dark.

Even as the sun went down, it was hot and humid. FYI: The flowers wilted less than we did.

Spring Bouquets: An Anniversary Trip

Photo by Stan Reimer, Pratt; Flowers by Lou Lynne Moss, The Flower Shoppe, Pratt

For my wedding, I chose spring flowers to wind through the candelabra and for bridal bouquets. They've always been my favorite.  And 35 years later, spring flowers were again part of our special day. Randy took me to Botanica on our anniversary, part of a short Wichita getaway. 

Even though I've seen Botanica more beautifully "dressed" in floral designs, there was still plenty of blossoms to be found along the garden paths. 

For this collection of some of my favorite images of the day, I found some quotes to accompany them. This visit to Botanica was better than any bouquet Randy could have given me.

 Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made

 and forgot to put a soul into.

- Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

Earth laughs in flowers.

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Afternoon on a Hill"

 

Flowers don't worry about how they're going to bloom.

 They just open up and turn toward the light 

and that makes them beautiful.

 ~Jim Carrey

The flower offered of itself
And eloquently spoke
Of Gods
In languages of rainbows
Perfumes
And secret silence...
~Phillip Pulfrey, 

from Love, Abstraction and other Speculations

 

Springtime flowers bloom

 like colorful arrows piercing their way to the sun. 

~Terri Guillemets  

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions —

 so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance,

 so small in size yet big in beauty, 

so short in life yet long on effect. 

~Terri Guillemets

Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil. 

- Bishop Reginald Heber 

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"

-Robin Williams

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose

 I would always greet it in a garden.
-  Ruth Stout

***

For more photos from our wedding (many, many moons ago!), see my Monday blog.

Beauty in the Cracks

 

The pink petunia seemed to grow right out of the concrete as I pulled into a parking spot on Main Street Stafford.

Just a few yards away, its compatriots were gathered demurely in the red-brick planter box. Since early spring, those petunias have been growing right where the conscientious, community-minded gardeners planted them. The flowers brighten and beautify Stafford's downtown. And they are doing their job admirably. All up and down Main Street, flowers bloom in the planter boxes, colors bright and cheery,  waving in the Kansas breeze.

Since springtime, I've noticed the planter boxes on my way into the Post Office or Stafford Mercantile or even just driving down the street. But, honestly, they remained in my peripheral vision. They were there. They were pretty. But, I didn't give them all that much thought or attention.

 

But, as I pulled into the diagonal parking space, this escapee caught my imagination. How did it get there? Did a seed float a few yards away and take root in the miniscule spot of soil found in a sidewalk crack? I was sufficiently intrigued to take a few photos.

I kept thinking about the little flower bravely growing in the concrete crack, long after I left Stafford for home. I thought the pink petunia was unique. But, when I was in town again the next day, I noticed even more of these "escapee" flowers. 

And it made me think about finding beauty in the cracks - in the places where you least expect it.

We know the world is cracked.

• A mass shooting mows down worshipers in a South Carolina church.
• Passionate people can't agree with one another at a church conference. Both sides believe they are representing Jesus and his teachings. 
• Friends mourn loved ones.
• Others struggle with scary diagnoses. 
• Machinery breaks down - again.

I could go on and on.

Yes, the world is cracked. Sometimes, like the little pink petunia, we feel like we're all alone, clinging precariously to life in less-than-ideal circumstances. But, if we look around, we might find others standing in the cracks, just like those hardy flowers that find a way to bloom from concrete. 

It requires us to STOP.

It requires us to intentionally find the beauty in bad situations. I'm not saying there is beauty when  innocent people are murdered or when people disagree or when we deal with the 101 frustrations of living in this imperfect world.

But maybe the beauty is in how we respond to one another in love and compassion. Maybe the beauty is actually seeing the miracles all around us.

A Time to Think

All the world is an utterance of the Almighty.
Its countless beauties, its exquisite adaptations,
all speak to you of Him.
–Phillips Brooks, clergyman and author

A Time to Act

Open your heart to the beauty that surrounds you.

A Time to Pray

Dear Lord, please help me to see the beauty of every day.

The devotional (in blue) was from a daily email from Guideposts.

Hurry Up and Wait

Hurry up and wait.

That seems to be the theme around here. Randy spent part of his Sunday afternoon driving around and checking farm ground and pastures, trying to figure out where they could get in the field this week. Water covered half of northbound road to the Rattlesnake Pasture, and he was thinking he should have skipped the trip. But he made it without getting stuck, thankfully!

But, after another 0.40" of unexpected rain Monday morning, we are back to a holding pattern. Even with cooler-than-normal temperatures and excess moisture, the wheat is starting to turn. 

I hope it will hold out until after June 13. I am supposed to be our church's representative to the Great Plains annual conference of the United Methodist Church. It includes all the UMChurches in Kansas and Nebraska. Back when it was just the Kansas West conference, we met at the end of May. It's obvious that those planning the conference have no connection to rural Kansas or Nebraska or to rural life in general.

The rain may have again slowed down farm work. But it provided some pretty window dressing for our backyard blooms.

Do you like the HDR treatment above or the non-altered version below?

I kind of feel like the eye doctor, asking questions like that: Is this one better (HDR version of the lavender by the wash house) ...

... or do you like this one better?

Pretty either way, don't you think?

There's no question which of these "pictures" I like best. The new Kansas drought map, dated May 26, shows marked improvement on drought conditions in the state.

Here's the map from just a month ago:

It's been one of the wettest Mays on record. Wichita, with 11.77 inches, and Great Bend, with 10.36 inches, both tabulated the second wettest May, while Kanopolis Lake, Tribune and Colby had enough to make it the third wettest.

And while more raindrops on the forecast map make it hard to decide whether or not to put down our first cutting of alfalfa, it's been a long time since Kansas had so few counties affected by drought. 

When we compare it to March 2013, we definitely should count our blessings along with the raindrops.