Travels....

I had training in Ft. Collins, Colorado last week.  I wasn't looking forward to it.  I'm not a big city fan (I always feel trapped).  Well, I was in for a pleasant surprise.  Across from the building where our training was held was the Gardens on Spring.  They were amazing.  Especially the children's garden.   I apologize for the harsh light,  I went every day at noon.  A great time to refresh from training, not so good for taking photos.  Our tour today will be of the children's garden.  I do not have kids, but I was one once and I would have been in love with this place.

What a great entrance.

 Information about the different parts of the garden.

 You can't see them, but there are little watering cans everywhere for the kids to play with.

 I had never considered putting a piano in the garden, but it works.

 The signs were bright and bold, as well as the sculptures.

 

This is the entrance to the Secret Garden.  The secret garden had little tee-pees, log table and chairs, and little kid benches  hidden among the trees and plants. There were sound poles also throughout, so a little kid could talk in the shower tube and their friend, somewhere in the garden could hear them.

The sound pole is above and the hidden tee-pee is below.  I walked by the tee-pee twice before I saw it.  I also had to go look up what the little shower poles were for.  

 There are all sorts of things in the path to make you look.  Information about the months and animal tracks to be identified.  There was even a sundial.

 Even a miniature train garden with an actual running train.  I was scared to make it go, but a kind little boy proudly showed me how the whole thing worked.

 Back to the water feature.  It wasn't easy capturing a photo of it without kids.  Right after I took this about 40 little kids and parents showed up.  That was my cue to exit.  It was pandemonium.  

This was just the highlights there were more things than I could take photos of or name.  The vision this garden had was amazing.   If you are ever in the Ft. Collins area, please stop and spend some time enjoying this beautiful place.  I will have more about some of the other gardens in my next post.  I hope this gave you some ideas.  I know I will be working with my sister to help her implement a few of these ideas.