For the last twenty years my family has been enjoying visits to the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In fact, visits have become somewhat of a tradition. So, it was difficult for us to accept the fact that the IMA is now charging pretty exorbitant entrance fees. When Andrew's school organized a field trip in April I jumped on an inexpensive way to pay a visit!
April and May are the best months for this lovely garden.
It's always fun to run around and pretend this is "our" house:
It's so easy for the imagination to work in these surroundings:
View of Oldfields from the back:
Down the path -- this was April 16 and not much was blooming yet.
But there were beautiful tulips in the planters:
The kids really do not enjoy posing for pictures at all.
Laura will cooperate a bit:
Our big five year old:
This is one of my favorite bushes -- I think there is only one in the garden and the timing of its blooms is very hard to catch. Such a treat to catch it this year!
And the magnolia was incredible:
More picture opportunities:
Picnic in the grass:
Had to bring along the hot water so we could have tea to keep us warm!!!
Another beautiful vista:
James had a little game with a squirrel:
"Chase me around the tree":
"There you are":
Another view of the magnolia:
The one saving grace about the new entrance fees is that there is one afternoon/evening a month that is free of charge (first Thursday of each month from 4-9pm). I put the dates on my calendar and we managed to all make it to the grounds for a picnic dinner on May 7. It seemed we had the whole place to ourselves! (I was sure it would be packed.)
There is always a picture on the stone:
The rhododendrons were beautiful:
The kids wanted to tour Oldfields first so in we went. I always love the silver tea service in the dining room.
And I was so excited that we could view the new silver exhibit upstairs!
What a change in three short weeks in the garden down the walk:
Look at those azaleas!
They were shockingly beautiful!
A view back up to Oldfields:
And around the path to the fountain garden:
Some really tall tulips:
The kids still had energy so into the museum we went:
Rachel and I walked around the dress exhibit while the boys devoted their time to the new cars exhibit.
One of my favorites, of course!
Rachel and I loved this display of American clothing through the centuries. It would be so fun to make dolls for each era.
And we had to run through the car exhibit too, just so we didn't miss anything. This is the new 7-seater vehicle I need to drive our family around!
It was a very memorable evening, a rare occurrence around here with everyone's schedules going somewhere different. Now I'm looking forward to another visit some Thursday later on in the summer!
1 comment:
Oh that was a lovely, lovely post. It looks like Scotland but a bit ahead of us. You must have much warmer temperatures to have sleeveless tops on! (Low tonight predicted to be 39 here.)
I love the dresses through the ages display, and that "people carrier".
Maybe having only one opportunity a month to go will actually focus your mind on being sure you get there?
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