Garden and Lots of Walking

 

Thursday July 29. Since the start of português class at 11:00 our morning walk is often changed to an afternoon one. Time wise it’s not a problem but starting that late we end up dressing better and it’s so hot. We get to combine our walk with our attempt at locating members, but this is why we need to dress better. Down the road about a mile from the church is a large garden we have wanted to visit but it was always closed in th morning. Today we decided to check it out and then continue past to check out some addresses further along the way. We arrived at the garden and went in. The garden was started in the mid 1800’s and is fairly large. It consists mostly of trees from all over the world. There were a few varieties from the United States but I think the most impressive were from Australia. Another neat part is that the trees are all labeled. The gum trees are huge, but by far the largest and most impressive were the banyan trees. The two they have are the two oldest trees in the garden.

The one with me in the picture is by a cliff like rise and you get to walk a road around and out to it 30 or 40 feet up.

The branches up there are still several feet in diameter larger than the majority of the other trees in their trunk. I kept thinking of the movie in search of the cast aways. Which was filmed in part in a banyan tree. I would love to have one but I would need about an acre for it not to mention 100 years to grow this big. Probably just best to visit. The roots are still taller than most of the grandkids. 

I tried for some flowers.

There was a pond by the bathrooms with lots of frogs and these really red goldfish.

After a little over an hour in the garden we continued on following our google map to try and locate two members houses. We found the houses but one was boarded up and no one home at the other. Heading home we were close to the larger grocery store in the mall so we purchased food we find easiest to buy there. We have to limit our purchase to what fits in my backpack as it is still about a mile home. It is amazing how many people are out in the afternoon on a weekday. Mostly teenagers and women. We headed home again to get another late lunch. We had purchased produce to last only a couple of days due to our luck with produce here. It was really hot and humid. Grandma and I were both leg sore and since the closest visit to be made is over a mile away we stuck around the apartment and grandma studied português. She is making posters of verb conjugation. Good for her. One other note not only are they using the names of our grandkids and kids on their cars, now they stole my nickname for Hallie Jumper.

There are even chickens in the garden.

Life is good. Love you all.