Pandemic Diaries - Year 3, Month 1

20 March 2022

I wanted to start pandemic year 3 with a happy blog subject, so here we go - the Tucson Botanical Gardens!  How can anyone be gloomy with flowers and butterflies, glass sculpture and mosaics?  Right?  We all need the occasional pandemic break, especially when we can do a break outdoors and distancing from others!

 

My friend who lives in Phoenix drove down, and we met at the gardens.  It was one of those sunny but almost chilly days that means winter in Arizona - cool enough for a jacket, but sunny enough to necessitate sunglasses.  Perfect day for several hours walking around the gardens.

Things have changed a bit since my last visit here - there were more sculptures and mosaics, which added more color to the gardens since this was still winter, and not too many flowers were in bloom.  Although a surprising number of flowers continue through the mild winters here.

 

The front entrance gate is now a metal and glass honeycomb sculpture - and I think the bodies of the bees may be lights!  Not sure, since we were there in the daytime, but they looked like they might have small lights inside.

 

There were a series of gorgeous huge butterflies and dragonflies by sculptor Alex Heveri, made of glass and steel, scattered throughout the gardens.  (Turns out the honeycomb entrance is by her as well.)  Not sure if these are a temporary or permanent part of the gardens, but they were wonderful!  It seems easier to talk about them as a group, rather than as they crop up as we walked around the place. 

 

Blue morphos are probably my favorite butterfly, and the sculpture shows how beautiful they are - iridescent blue with black edges with tiny white and orange dots.  Such incredible butterflies!

The blue swallowtail is similar in color, but of course has those extended wings that are the signature look of the swallowtail.

 

Each one had a sign, giving the name of the butterfly or dragonfly, but they were more interesting to just look at and try to catch the sun shining through all those little glass pieces!

 

And I think the sculptural bees, butterflies, and dragonflies definitely belong in the gardens.  Without these pollinators, we wouldn't ever have flowers!  So it made perfect sense to have these pieces of art scattered throughout the garden.

 

 

I noticed several murals I didn't see when we visited three years ago.  The sign for the children's garden was a wonderful mosaic, with three-dimensional plants and animals in bas-relief.  

There were some interactive educational things to play with, such as split logs to build fences, or building blocks.  And a wonderful mosaic mural made by a community school.  Just a very happy mural, with some pieces made by school children, and the rest likely made by adults.  

Also in the children's garden was a lovely mosaic created and donated by the Tucson Hebrew Academy.  In the upper right corner it says "Tu B'shvat" which is a special day to plant and give thanks for trees and plants - it's considered the "birthday" of trees.  It actually occurs in February or March, when the almond trees start flowering in Israel.

 

The Casa de las Rosas was designed to look like a traditional neighborhood garden, but seemed to mostly be flowering plants in a variety of containers.  Pretty, and interesting - but the sign itself, with the 3-D flowers, was actually my favorite part! 

And in the herb garden area, there was a beautiful mosaic showing seasonal herbs as well as the garden tasks to be done during that season.  An informative and colorful piece of art!

 

Each section of the herb garden had a small sign describing the herbs, or what herbs grow well in this climate, or how to cultivate herbs in a desert climate.  They were all beautiful, and had the same blue and white floral border tying this whole sprawling garden together.  I of course took photos of each and every ceramic sign, but will just include a few examples here.  I know not everyone shares my love of ceramic art.

 

Most of the benches scattered throughout the gardens were also colorful mosaics, some with different quotations about gardens, some just with joyous flowers.  I took photos of all of them, but will only include a few photos of favorites.  I think the most interesting was the design showing a variety of cacti, with all the names.  For those of us who don't really know much about cactus, there are a few that are recognizable.  The rest are just "eh, cactus."  But each kind has a name, different characteristics, and different kinds of flowers.  Probably different scientific names as well.

 

I will admit that I didn't realize there were different names for the varieties of what I call "prickly pear," or even "barrel cactus."  SO many kinds of cactus.

 

And some of the cactus in our neighbor-hood are showing flower buds sprouting, so we should be seeing some blossoms in the next several weeks!

 

But some of the cacti were already blooming at the botanical gardens, so of course I had to take photos of them as well. 

And even with the signs and this very informative bench, no, I really have no idea what kinds of cactus flowers these are!  Well, okay, bright pink cactus.  Does that count?

Tucson is in the Sonoran Desert, and one of the largest species of cactus grows here, the saguaro.  People think I'm crazy when I say the saguaro all look like they're greeting people, and just want to give us a hug.  But look at this cactus and tell me it doesn't look exactly like that!  I mean, it's even bending over from its height of twenty-something feet to give us shorties a hug!

Okay, last section.  I love butterfly gardens, so of course we stopped there and wandered slowly, looking at all the colorful and ephemeral beauties fluttering around.  I think their very short life is part of why butterflies feel so symbolic.  

And my one butterfly fact - when the caterpillar builds its cocoon (or chrysalis) and hibernates to turn into a butterfly, they actually change their DNA!  How is that for some kind of metaphor for major changes in our lives!

 

The butterfly garden was beautiful, as always.  Full of flowers, various plants that the caterpillars eat, a little stream so the butterflies can drink the water - a little micro-environment designed just to keep the butterflies happy.

 

We wandered around, looking at everything, taking photos of the beauties.  The blue morphos flitted by, nearly sideswiping us - they always do that, as if they're saying a very quick hello, how are you, I could land on you but I don't want to, bye now! 

As I was taking a photo of a black and red butterfly, one of the moss green and mahogany brown butterflies landed on my finger!  Of course, I froze in position, just looking at this friendly little butterfly, who just sat and looked at me.  It must have stayed for a full minute before flying off to a flower!

There were bird baths holding sliced fruit - some butterflies like flower nectar, but others like the blue morphos like fruit.  Actually, I remember one butterfly garden staff member told me that butterflies prefer slightly old fruit that's beginning to turn, it's a bit juicier.  Also slightly alcoholic at that point.  Which explains why butterflies never seem to fly in a straight line, they're often rather tipsy!

 

So, it was a wonderful visit to a gorgeous place, and a lovely way to take a pandemic break.  Everyone needs to take those breaks occasionally, it's part of the whole self-care concept, right?

 

Besides, it's now officially springtime!