When thinking about the
Cleveland Cultural Gardens, the Lay's Potato Chip slogan -- "bet you can't eat just one" -- springs to mind. After visiting one garden the other day, I felt that a return visit was absolutely necessary! Sal and I couldn't visit just one! I wanted some human company, too, so I was very happy when my sister agreed to walk through the gardens with Sal and me. (She is not only a great companion, but she has lots of great photographic ideas, too!)
We met at the
Rockefeller Park Greenhouse, which is a great place to park if you are going to do the garden tour. Otherwise you have to park along the side of the road, which is very curvy. This made me hesitant to park there, for fear of returning a couple of hours later to find that somebody had come around a bend and smashed into my car.
If I'm counting right, we visited at least 15 of the 36 gardens in about three hours, which was all the time we had. The walk is only about two miles, but frequent stops to take multiple photos really slowed down the process. The day was quite cold, but pretty leaves abounded and we got many lovely autumnal pictures. Unfortunately we couldn't get shots of all the photogenic scenes and statues -- due to lack of time. A whole day would be needed to really do this right!
The photos in this post depict a small fraction of what is to be found in the Cultural Gardens. I highly recommend taking a friend and going to see them yourself!
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| Our first stop was at the Polish Garden. Anne is upset by the caption on Copernicus' podium, which states that he discovered that the world revolves around the sun. Anne thinks the world should revolve around HER! |
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| Another denizen of the Polish Cultural Garden: Marie Curie! |
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| This amazing bust is located in the Slovenian Garden. We were not familiar with Ivan Cankar, but we loved this sculpture! The mustache! The hair! |
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| In the Czech Garden, we encountered this statue of Tomas Masaryk -- another person we were not familiar with. (Thanks to the internet, I now know that he was the first President of Czechoslovakia.) His arms looked perfect for holding Sal, so a picture was in order. Unfortunately, Sal kept sliding off as I tried to pose her on the statue, so Anne volunteered to hold Sal in place. |
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| The resulting photo. Does it look like Mr. Masaryk is balancing Sal on his arm? Hope so! |
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| We arrived at the Rusin (sic) Garden, and saw this statue proclaiming "I was, am and always will be A RUSIN." What? Check out the link if you are curious! |
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| Getting this shot required stepping into the fountain -- which had lots of big puddles in it -- and balancing Sal on a curved edge. This required much courage, because if she had fallen into the giant bowl, it would have been quite a challenge to get her out. I think the resulting photo is worth it, though. (Confession: I used the "boost color" and "edge blur" effects on iPhoto to improve the blah original.) |
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| This giant tree contained a ideal perch for Sal. |
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| This statue looked like a perfect chance to pose Sal in a hand -- as if Dante was holding her. Unfortunately, many tries resulted in many failures, so I took this picture. I didn't think I would like it, but I do. |
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| Anne worked very hard to get Sal balanced on this book, so I included this picture, too. Not sure which of the two I like better. Anybody care to offer an opinion? |
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| In the German Garden we came upon this bust of Bach. Since he is one of my favorite composers, I had to get a shot of Sal with him. There was no ledge to balance Sal on, and putting her at the base of the pedestal would have been a lame shot, so Anne came to the rescue again and held Sal in front. I would not have cropped the picture like this if I wasn't trying to eliminate Anne's hand from the picture, but I think the result is really cool. On second thought, maybe it looks strange to have Sal floating in mid-air... |
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| This is probably better, don't you think? |
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| This guy was also in the German Garden. We weren't familiar with Alexander Humboldt, but the bust is awesome and it has a nice pedestal for Sal to sit on. I had the crazy idea of putting Sal in this position -- like Sal and Humboldt were communicating by touching this way -- and I think the resulting photo is pretty neat. |
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| A more conventional (if there is anything conventional about a small ukulele posing with a bust) treatment of the same subject. Which is your favorite? |
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| The Hungarian Garden was so beautiful. Yes, that is water shooting up from the fountains. And what lovely colors... This is a Where's Sal shot. Can you find her? |
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| I took a picture of the sign in front of each garden so I would be able to properly caption each photo. I'm showing this one because my mother is British, and when we see a British flag, she often complains that it is being flown upside-down. I plan to show this photo to her, and sincerely hope that the flag flying over the British Cultural Garden is right-side-up! |
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| What beautiful colors -- and a lovely sentiment, too. |
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| I had to take a picture of Sal with Shakespeare -- even though there was no nice ledge to balance her on. This was the only garden we visited that had houses just a few feet behind it. It felt a little strange to see houses instead of trees as a backdrop, but I think it makes an interesting picture. |
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| Sal posing inside the fountain at the Hebrew Garden. Obviously this picture would not be possible in summer! |
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| The Indian Garden contains this wonderful statue of Mahatma Gandhi. I took many shots of Sal and Mr. Gandhi, and they were okay, but then my sister suggested this angle. Perfection! |
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| In the Finnish Garden some of the statues had been knocked over by vandals. Why people would destroy a thing of beauty is a mystery to me. Happily, Jean Sibelius was still standing. |
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| As we walked down the street, we passed this lovely combination of colors and textures. I had to put Sal in the middle and take some photos! |
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| This lovely statue is in the Croatian Garden. Titled "The Immigrant Mother" -- it is touchingly beautiful. A lovely finale to a lovely afternoon! |
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