Overland Park Arboratum

After having oats for breakfast, we stopped by the post office so I could mail off some postcards and Chris' birthday package... it's only going to arrive a week late, but better late than never. ;-)

While I was waiting for the woman to finish serving me, I had the box sitting on the counter with the address label facing outwards. A guy behind noticed and started chatting about where the parcel was going. I admitted that it was for my brother's birthday which was tomorrow... then I thought about it and corrected myself and said, 'well, actually, it's today because they're 17 hours ahead and so over there, it's already his birthday'. The guy was surprised and then said, 'oh, but that will get there in a day'. I had to keep a straight face as I corrected him and said it'd take at least a week.

He was lovely though, because the box needed some additional tape which the post office couldn't give me, so he went out to his truck and got some duct tape for me to use. He was a regular MacGyver, and so friendly too.

Em and I then hit the road to the Overland Park Arboratum and Botanical Gardens. As with a lot of outdoor places during the winter, we had this place all to ourselves with just the staff as distant company. Have I said how much I love winter in Missouri!!?? :-D

The signs at the entrance advertise the place as being a winter wonderland, with the cardinal as their bird of choice. It was a wonderland, but I didn't see a single cardinal. *grumbles*

I *will* get me a photo of one of those birds before I leave, I'm determined!
The lake is all iced over. Though it was cold, below freezing (celcius) the wind was mild and the sun warm so as long as we stayed rugged up with multiple layers, it was quite nice being outdoors.
I wonder where the oyster shell came from? It seemed out of place, but made a nice still life shot.
I will never tire of leaves trapped in ice.
Aha, finally a winter berries photo that I'm satisfied with. You would not believe the number of photos I took before I got this one.
Here's lichen on a tree branch. In small ways there is evidence of winter giving away to spring -- or of nature being fooled by the unseasonally warm weather. Is this another indication of climate change? I didn't think too hard about that, I'm on holidays afterall.
Around the botanical gardens are plaques and commemorative tokens in recognition of people who have passed away, or families who have donated their time or money toward the gardens. This one caught my eye because of the wording and the truth in it, and the young age of the man it remembers.
Em does such a great job carrying this lugging great tripod around with us. I keep making her bring it, though we rarely use it. Maybe one of these days we'll realise that it does little more than build upper body strength and decide we get more than enough of that kind of exercise at the gym. ;-)I loved the rope and metal fixings for the bridge. It seems like it could be a hand with fingers clasped around the ring and the forearm receding into the distance... or maybe not. *lol*Because I was down at ground level, I looked at what other things might make interesting still life subjects. Though, still life may not have been the right word because the wind had picked up a little and was making macro photography a bit of a challenge.
On the water (ice) I found a couple of things to capture.
I didn't expect to find running water, but here it is.
We stopped for a banana break. By this time it had gone lunch and I could have eaten a horse, except there were none around... thankfully. We had a banana instead and I set about cleaning my camera lens. Big mistake, the more I cleaned the worse it became. Em finally saved the day by undoing the mess I had made and I vowed not to touch it again after that.

This is the view looking across the frozen lake toward the entrance. The little blue shed is for storage.
I love the colours and curves in the ice.
Here's Em, almost invisible behind the shrubbery. There were some beautiful, towering grass plants on display. They would be considered weeds in Australia, but they are just gorgeous here, and a nice distraction from the greys and dulled greens of winter.
Here are some of those grass plants I mentioned earlier.A frozen creek. This one is unique in that the moss and aquatic plants that live in the water have snap frozen and retained their brilliant greens. The ice forms a layer above with air in between. I've never seen anything quite like it.
Here this is an optical illusion, is the green band above or below the ice? I see it both ways, even though I know the green was below.
This has to be my favourite trapped-leaf in ice picture.
Further along, we happened across some birds. These shots have been improved just a little so that you can see the birds, not a tiny blob in a tree. I don't know what species this is.
This photo below is a Black-capped Chickadee in flight, and the one below that is the same species, but perched.
Here we have a Downy Woodpecker. *tee hee* Woodpeckers are so cool. Our Treecreepers are woodpeckers in training, they scale the trees the same way but never get down to the tap-tapping.
There's a metal bell in the garden which apparently rings out in the warmer months. I'm not sure why it made no sound now if it makes sound at other times of the year. Maybe someone stands and bangs on it or something.
We left the botanical gardens side of the property and moved toward the woodlands. A large stone gateway separates the two sections. By this stage though it was getting late in the day, we had missed lunch (banana break excluded), it was clouding over and Em had run out of battery power in her camera so we decided to just have a quick look then call it quits and come back another day.
Up above is a crow of some kind. I haven't verified the species.
Just past the gateway is an enclosed arch. We stopped there, intending to turn around and leave when we saw something that made us stay just a little longer....This is America's version of a possum. It's called an Opossum and it's pretty damned ugly. Look at those mean little eyes. ;-) Apparently these little beggars are hard to come across and usually move around of a night-time. Here we almost walked right into this one. It was chowing down on some seed that we think must have been left out for the birds. People are encouraged to feed birds during the winter and into the spring because of the harsh conditions and damage that's been done to the environment. I wonder if we'll get like that in Australia, because at the moment bird feeding is not encouraged.
I got heaps of shots of this little guy, even if he did creep me out when he looked straight at me. Then he toddled off down the slope to the stream, nosed around there for a couple of minutes then came back up a little ways before disappearing into the brush.
Not to miss out on having his photo taken, here's another Downy Woodpecker.
We left the arboratum with hundreds of photos and a great feeling, discussing when we would come back to do the woodland walks. There are three of those, covering different terrain, and each path is a mile long. That could take us all day. Next time we'll pack ourselves a lunch. :-)

Along the highway we saw a sign for an upcoming motor show that looks really good! We stopped for a late lunch at Panera Bread and while eating we spied an owl on the roof of a nearby building. So excited, we (me) rushed off dozens of photos before it flew away, then we scoffed down our food so we could get outside to see it as it was only about half an hour or so off the sun going down.
This is our 'owl'. Looks a bit plastic, huh!? The funniest thing is that we saw its head moving. Uh huh, maybe we left lunch go a little too late today. *lol*We dropped into the Hallmark store and browsed around and came out to this stunning sunset.
On the drive to the supermarket, which was our next stop, we saw a 4WD with a 'truck scrotum' on the back, otherwise known as Bulls Balls. My God, what will they think of next!?
Here's the supermarket. Yes, I will take a photo of anything!! :-)
Once we were fully stocked up on goodies, we headed to the gym for our workout, then from there went home and had a light dinner given that we'd had such a late lunch. We intended to watch some tv on the internet, but the internet had other plans so we browsed our photos instead -- a much better way to spend the evening anyway. :-)

Now we just have to decide what day to go back to the Arboretum for the woodland walks.