A local historic house has a fundraiser each year that features little backyard (for the most part) gardens. Annapolis has so many wonderful houses, many of which have little or no front yard. Most gardens are in the back, and one never gets to see them. In previous years this tour has been a great deal of fun, but this year the whole thing seemed very disorganized. Several of the "gardens" were in places where one could see them without charge, such as the governor's house and a couple of small gardens on the campus of St. John's College. I had volunteered to act as a docent at one of the gardens today and ended up on the sidewalk outside Government House (we couldn't actually get on the grounds of the mansion). What a waste of my time!
Not all the stops were that way. Melissa and I went on the tour yesterday in lieu of our monthly tea outing, and some of the little gardens are exquisite. But yesterday was miserably hot and humid--more typical of August around here, and we gave up before we quite finished the tour and went in search of air conditioning and something cold to drink. Today there was a breeze, and they closed the tour early because of storm warnings. The storm struck just as I got back to my car!
I did practice with the macro feature of my pocket camera, a feature that often defeats me, and managed to capture a couple of pretty flowers. This little hibiscus has some pretty markings.
The hydranga looks like it has little seed pearl beads in the center of the flowers.
I think I will redirect my volunteer efforts next year unless the group gets a bit better organized. Normally this event is extremely well organized and delight. I have no idea what happened this time.
