Tulip Tops 2012 - Still an extravaganza

On Wednesday the skinny portion and I went, as we do every year, to Tulip Top Gardens, which is less than fifty kilometers from where we live.  It is always a delight and puts our home grown Floriade to shame (and we go there every year as well).  Floriade is free to enter but makes up for it with the intense marketing within its boundaries.  The Tulip Top Gardens entry fee for an adult is $12 which includes a sausage sandwich and a free cup of tea or coffee.  I don't eat meat so the skinny portion got two sausages - which won't go astray at all.  He still badly needs building up.

The entry to the gardens is down a very steep path flanked by blossom trees (there is also a level entry for people with disabilities).
(Clicking on any of the photos will enlarge them.)

At the bottom of the walkway there is a small bridge.  I couldn't see any, but I could certainly hear the frogs.
Looking to the left...

Looking to the right...

Looking straight ahead.

 

We ambled along, basking in the sunshine and taking photos as we went.  Classical music plays from the trees and there are small groups of chairs dotted around the gardens.  There is a small waterfall, cascading down the hill to the ponds below.

Still walking...

A bed of forsythia with brilliant purple pansies beneath them.

Another steep path, going up to a look out spot.  My legs are often reluctant to move, and make me pay for exertion, but I was showing them who is boss.  (Incidentally they are, but I am still glad I did it.)

 And the views across the valleys were definitely worth the spasms that the climb caused and is causing.  Aren't they just lovely?

Down to the ground level gardens again .

And up the path again to the car park.  Isn't it a delightful outing?