Snow Covered Japanese Garden

I've seen a lot of beautiful things in my life, and our trip to the garden today ranks right up there.  I am trying to find the words to adequately describe the experience.  It was absolutely magical.  The 79 acre botanical garden was so peaceful and serene.  There were maybe 15 others walking around, and we hardly saw them.  Everyone had their cameras out to capture the beauty, so no one was really talking.

It also was sunny and warm enough out not to be miserably cold.  Thirty degrees and bright sunshine is surprisingly warm.  I just wore a fleece pullover, and was very comfortable.  I never even put on the gloves that I brought with me.  

Like our first trip to the botanical garden, our favorite part was the 

14 acre Japanese Garden.  

All of these pictures are from the Japanese Garden.

If you look closely in the far left of the picture, you can see two geese eating something in the water.

Large waterfall

Even the sky was picture perfect this morning.  Now, it's cloudy and getting ready to snow again.

We took advantage of all of the excess snow to have LOTS of snowball fights throughout our walk.  I always lose, but it doesn't stop me from starting them!

Snow covered cherry blossom

It's pretty impossible to have a bad day after looking at this all morning.

Poor duckies.  Tony was torturing them by throwing in little clumps of snow  so that they'd think it was food and swim over.  At least we fed them from the food stations on the bridge.

A goose just started eating the snow right off of the little poles!

In conclusion, if you're ever in St. Louis after a snow storm, bundle up and had to the botanical garden.  You won't regret it!

Botanical Garden Covered in Snow

I may complain about the snow often, but I still find it incredibly beautiful.

On Saturday afternoon, it began snowing around 1 p.m. as we wrapped up the last of our scholarship weekends for this year.  Fat, fluffy snowflakes are my favorite which is what we had yesterday.  When it finally stopped around midnight last night, we had right at 

4 inches of snow here in St. Louis.  

While it was still snowing, I attempted to convince Tony that we should go to the botanical garden.  He wasn't too keen on the idea, so I decided that a Sunday morning trip would work.  The snow would still be on the ground, but less chance of me slipping and falling as I'm prone to do.  Waking up Tony at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning isn't an easy feat (especially when it involves walking outdoors for an extend period of time in 30 degree weather), but every once in a while, I decide to tackle the challenge!

We arrived right after the garden opened at 9 a.m.  Once we walked through the welcome center to enter the gardens, this is the sight that we were greeted with!

Spring flowers covered in snow isn't something that

 you see down in Louisiana!

Spring here is often marked by the blooming of the tulips.

Since it was so sunny this morning, the sidewalks were relatively safe.  I did find one patch of ice to slip on, but I never fell!

Pink magnolia tree

Entering the Chinese Garden.

There's a small waterfall that empties into a little 

pond at the back of this picture.

Cherry blossoms are so of our favorite trees.  Our bedroom and bathroom are filled with pictures of them as a nod to Tony's Asian heritage.

Another pink magnolia

Several day lilies were already in bloom.

Holly tree

You can see the snow falling from the branches.  At times, it would almost seem like it was snowing again with all of the snow falling from the trees.

One of the enormous holly trees.  It just look right all covered in snow.

Another pink magnolia right as we exited the park.  The bright sun was melting the snow quickly, so I'm glad that we went right as they opened.  Much to Tony's dismay, we did manage to spend two hours walking around the garden.

While there are several magnolia trees on the property, this is the only Southern magnolia tree that we found.

Snowy St. Louis

View from our bedroom window

 

 In honor of the snow today, I thought that I'd post these snow pictures from January.  This was probably the largest snow storm of this winter that Tony and I were here for.  We missed the "big one" while we were in Louisiana.

 

Rooftop Deck

 

Stairs covered in close to 5 inches of snow.  

Always makes leaving the house fun!

Before Tony started shoveling off the car.

I love how you can sort of see how the snow glitters in this picture.

 

A work in progress!

 

College Church covered in snow

Snow bank of shoveled snow on the way into the building

 

View from my office.

 

Another view from my office.