Where it all Started

 

   C and I went to the Chicago Botanic Garden yesterday. We're taking a few days off and spending it in Chicago and Milwaukee.
  I had wanted to show C the CBG for a long time. I first went there about 13-14 years ago when I came to visit some friends in Racine. I remembered that I liked it lot. It was huge. We spent the whole day walking around it. There were gardens of red roses, yellow roses and pink roses. There were more plants than I could name. There was a sensory garden. The sensory garden had plants in it that are supposed to be touched and smelled. It was the first time that I smelled a plant that smelled like chocolate. I learned to gently rub the leaves between my fingers to release the scent.
   There was a Japanese Garden comprised of three islands. The first two you could walk around. They each had something called a "dry garden" some thing I'd never seen before. It was a garden meant to be seen only. The ground was covered in small white pebbles that were raked carefully into different patterns around the plants and some lanterns. One of the bridges was a zig zag bridge. I was intrigued. I found out the reason why the bridge was built that way was so that evil spirits couldn't cross. It was thought that evil spirits could only move in a straight line.
  After that visit to the garden my friends took me out for sushi. I'd never had it before and liked it. It was a wonderful and I had such a good time.
  When I got back to Minnesota I wanted to find out if there was a similar garden closer to home. There was. It was in Chanhassen and I went to visit it. It's not as big as the botanic garden in Chicago,but it still had the same feel. I went there several times and brought friends and family. Soon I decided that I might as well buy a membership. I would be supporting the garden and I would save on admission fees.
  I took C there shortly after we were engaged. I wanted to share with him a place that meant so much to me. He fell in love with the smells and the sights and the changes that we would see every time we went there. It became as special to him as it was to me. We would go out there when we were feeling stressed and always return feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work.
  We've taken others out there in the 11 years that we've been together. We've taken some of our children and grandchildren. We took President Campbell and his wife Susan out there. I remember that day. We'd been planning to go for a long time and the one day that we all had off together it rained. We went anyway and had a good time.
  We took a widowed friend of ours. We took a family that we've known for many years. All have enjoyed it.
   I wanted to show C the place where it started. I wanted to share with him the place that moved me so much that I had to find the Arboretum in Minnesota. The weather looked like it was going to cooperate, so we went.
  It was easy to find. We drove through the entrance gates and into the parking lot. I was eager to get out of the car and start looking around. The staff and volunteers were busy planting and preparing beds of plants. Even though there wasn't much there it was still beautiful to me. There was a walled garden with four different types of English gardens. The roses had been uncovered and were waiting for warmth and sun.
  There were many things that had not been there the first time. There was a trellis bridge and a courtyard garden. There was a waterfall garden and the sensory garden that I remembered. There weren't many plants in the sensory garden. There was a lakeside garden and a garden formed around a small model railroad. The railroad garden was being set up while we were there. I could see that it was going to be really nice once it was done.
  We found the Japanese garden. It was just as I remembered it. There was the little teahouse where we sat to rest the first time I went there. There was one island that had no bridge to it. It was meant to be looked at only and was supposed to represent a place where the gods lived, a place inaccessible to mortals.
  Even though there wasn't much there, I could see the potential in it. I knew that in a few months it would be gorgeous. C liked it a lot too. He wended around with his camera getting all kinds of shots. He thought that it would be a good idea for us to take a long weekend this summer and go back to see what it would look like in July. It's a good idea, I hope we can do it.
  I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. It was just as wonderful as I remembered. There aren't too many places from my past that I want to go back to, but this was one of them. I was glad I had. It was where my love of gardens started.