Day 23 - Metis Sur Mer, Q.C.

It is Friday, June 22 and we have great plans to visit The Reford Gardens.  The sun is shining and it is gorgeous out.  We are all dressed in shorts, etc; however, just as we are about to drive to the gardens, it gets overcast and cooler - hey what's this about??  We start to walk through the gardens and we hear thunder - oh no!!!  I guess the Dear Lord wants the flowers watered so down came the rain.  It didn't take long for us to find shelter.  Fortunately, we were near the museum and home of the Reford's so we spent our time there while it poured. 

However, while walking around the park, I'll share some pictures of plants.  Bottom left are two walls of different colored Impatience Plants.  There are pools, creeks and bridges to make the walk very enjoyable.  The yellow plants are Lady Slipper Orchids.  I've never seen anything like them.  The peach color flower is a Peony mixed with Blue Poppy's.

These are all different colored Peonies.  They were huge as you can see where I've got one in my hand.  That particular plant had clusters of petals whereas the white one only had a few.  I've never seen so many different varieties of this plant.  They must have had several hundred plants throughout the garden.

As you can see, the flowers were plentiful and huge.  The colored sticks above are a sort of Garden Art.  Each side of the stick is a different color so it changes as you walk around the outside or even the inside.  The combination of all the flowers was very fragrant even just walking through a path of trees.

Picture of the Day - Cute little Pansies

I made this collage a little bigger so you can read about the garden as well as the Stick Garden.  The house where Elsie Reford lived is now a museum as well as a cafe' and dining room.  Both Elsie and her husband were very involved with the community as well as the art's.  Robert was one of the first people to own a Kodak camera and enjoyed taking tons of pictures and even developing them in his dark room. They had a very simple but large house.  Both enjoyed fishing.  Even the pond is set in a very peaceful setting.

After our trip to the garden, we took a drive along the coast and noticed all the different colored houses.  They would not nearly look so good in Illinois; however, here on the coast, they are so warm and homey looking.  As you can see in the top left picture, four houses in a row are different.  As we drove around, I kept taking more pictures.  There were lot painted black, brown, dark blue and yes, even white.  Go figure!!!

 At the end of the day, we took a walk across the road from the park by the coast.  It was a great night and the view of the lighthouse was something we've been waiting to see.  I don't know why some work and others do not, but you can see the light was working.  We again, played Black Queen w/Rod and Patty; however, the boys won tonight - darn!!!   Hope you had a great day as we sure did - rain or shine.