A Trip to the Past: Gardens

Last I left you, we were looking at some incredible historic homes and I was attempting to pick one to live in (OK, only in my dreams as I LOVE the country way too much to move to the big city!)
Shall we now leave the homes, wondrous as they are, for just a few moments? I so want to see some nature and this place has lots of it! Let's start with a view from the parade ground area...

Not too bad, huh? Nice view of the Columbia, green trees, mountains (hills) of NW Oregon across the river and the green grass of the parade ground. BTW--for non PNW'ers...did you know Washington state is known as the Evergreen State? Yep, it's true and there's a reason...

After a not too long walk we come to another area of the site and lookee here--a local resident!!

Yep, we found this little guy just hanging around and he was nice enough to let me catch a semi-OK photo of him, despite the fact that he would have preferred for me to go away. An FYI on Aimee--she loves squirrels and only her eagle-eyed Farmer Boy seems to be able to see them at their place, so it was nice to see this one close up :)

We will leave him alone now and move on to the area across the street and some flowers!

Hydrangeas...love these babies!

Have you ever tried to dry them?

And now rugosa roses and some heirloom ones...

I mean really, really old ones (not the bushes themselves, of course, but the variety of rose)

I love white roses...I loved, loved, loved the fragrance of the roses!!!

Lots of these -- rugosa roses.

They grew them as a hedge there and they were beautiful!

Now this is strikingly beautiful! I love roses that are variegated--ones that look like God took a paintbrush and handpainted each petal! Beautiful! This variety, I believe, dated from 1850 or so; the one next to it from the 1700's.

This bench invites you to sit awhile and experience the garden--the birds that are calling, fresh air and the wonderful fragrance of the rose garden!

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We'll take a moment to drink it all into our inner being, make a pleasant memory and then we'll move on to the next garden. Enjoy and I'll be back...

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Blessings,

Aimee

Photos: all taken at Ft Vancouver Historic Site this year.