I know my last post was all about flowers, but -- look out -- here comes another one! Additionally, we've been to Crystal Hermitage before, so this is not a new find for us. Yet, when our good friends, Marlene and Cliff, invited us to this place of beauty, we were happy to say, "yes!" After a cool morning, we arrived right on time for our 10:15 reservation. Indeed, reservations are required, altho they weren't really necessary today. We'd been advised that the "tulips were behind schedule," hence, we'd not encounter a crowd. After one of the longest, coldest and wettest winters in many years, it's no wonder the tulips were slow to bloom. Not to worry, we'd still see flowers, just not en masse as we've seen in previous visits. Click here to see those (and arrow down past this post)!
Lovely intro!
Early spring flowers, like daffodils, put on good displays.
In my yard, mine have yet to show their faces.
For the first time, this year the wisteria, tulips, dogwoods, tree peonies, cherry trees and crab apple trees will all bloom together. They're calling it a super mega bloom! Jimmy and Cliff stand beneath a massive wisteria vine that seemed to be waiting for the "go" signal to break into color.
Sure we saw tulips, but only a handful here and there of the 19,000 tulip bulbs planted. You read that right -- 19,000 tulips! It'll be gorgeous when they're in full bloom! So many varieties!
Marlene and Cliff below the Mount Fuji Japanese Flowering Cherry. This tree was a virtual white cloud, with a bit of fragrance to delight the nose 😍. Quite a stunner in person.
After wandering in different directions, the four of us met up at the Moksha Mandir, a meditation temple, meaning temple of spiritual liberation. Though you can't readily see them, rose-colored tulips mixed with blue and white pansies and blue periwinkle (Vinca minor) made a nice display in front of the temple. Way down below, we could hear the middle fork of the Yuba, but I couldn't see it.
When Marlene and I looked at the glass cupola (kalasa) of the Moksha Mandir through our sunglasses (right), we saw a rainbow of colors. Without sunglasses, the glass appeared sort of clear (left). So we spent some silly moments trying to get the pic through the lens of our sunglasses, as you see above.
Make you hungry? Perhaps for eggs?
No one was wading in this tempting pool. I suspect the water was pretty darned cold. We've seen kids wading in the water when it's warmer.
Another early flowerer -- the camellias were all a-bloom.
Love these!
The two red/pink flowers are camellias, and the big white dude with yellow center (another fried egg photo!) is a Japanese Tree Peony, but I do not know what's blooming, lower left.
Sweethearts, celebrating our 22nd anniversary!
The hyacinths! Ohmygosh, their fragrance was tangible. Everyone who came near, me included, said the same thing: I need to plant hyacinths!
I really like the koi reflecting pond. You can barely make out a group of orange/ish koi in the shadow at top right of the pool. Not many flowers here, but it was so peaceful.
Spring was waiting ... as soon as temperatures warmed, everything, Everything! would burst into bloom. Both nighttime and daytime temps have been abnormally cold, and nobody flowers in the cold. I'm writing up this post five days after our visit. Meantime, our temps jumped, leaped into the 70's for daytime and 50's for nights, and, just like that, the flowers and flowering trees in our yard exploded into color! Even my daffydils. Seemingly overnight. I'm sure the folks that visit Crystal Hermitage in the next couple of weeks will be rewarded with thousands of beautiful tulips.
For us this trip was a nice getaway, with lunch, too. We'd missed seeing our friends, through all the snowzilla woes and our traveling, and today was a perfect remedy for that. A time to catch-up. And with flowers!
