Florida trip: THE PINEWOOD ESTATE

Pinewood Estate is a beautiful home on the Bok Tower property.

Nestled in the heart of seven and one-half lush acres at Bok Tower Gardens is Pinewood Estate, the enchanting 20-room Mediterranean-style mansion. Originally named “El Retiro,” meaning “retreat” in Spanish, the Estate was built in the early 1930s for Charles Austin Buck, a Bethlehem Steel vice president.

A beautiful kitchen garden contains these large heads of lettuce....

and quinoa.

Garden statue

I loved the layout of this kitchen cupboard holding everyday dinnerware.

The bathrooms intriqued me with their colorful tilework.

And always the beautiful carved doors.

Beautiful!

The office holding the home's only phone.

Breakfast served on a tray.

Steep stairway to the second floor.

Florida trip......BOK TOWER GARDENS

Approaching the site, we passed a beautiful and fragrant orange grove

Bok Tower Gardens (also known as Bok Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower) is a National Historic Landmark, contemplative garden, and bird sanctuary located north of Lake Wales, Florida, United States. It consists of a 250-acre (100 ha) garden, the 205-foot (62 m) tall Singing Tower with its carillon bells, Pine Ridge Trail, Pinewood Estate, and a visitor center. The tower is built upon Iron Mountain, one of the highest points of peninsular Florida, estimated to be 295 feet (90 m) above sea level.^[4] It is a National Historic Landmark that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Gardens was one of our side trips from where we were staying the first week near Orlando with Jenni, Larry and Will.  The day they met friends in Sea World, we tackled this very beautiful sanctuary.

The carillon is housed in this beautiful tower.  We sat in a shaded area to listen to the carillon concert and watch the maestro on video as he played high in the tower.

Had to photograph this camellia as it laid by itself on a bench.

The reds were vibrant against the green wooded areas.

I love capturing photos of gates.  This one leads up to the carillon tower.

A magnificent sun dial attached to the side of the tower.

The Singing Tower

at last........SPRING!

Such a long and cold and wintry-mix kind of winter.  Sadness with the passing of my sweet dad....trips to Rochester to watch as he grew tired of this life, waiting to see my mom again for their grand reunion. And watching others fighting off the winter blahs.  Enough time has passed and we are in the midst of April, so surely this must be SPRING! Worth the wait as each day something else bursts forth in color.

Yellow is the first color out: daffodils and forsythia

Daffodils come in all shades and shapes of yellow

Early tulips blend with lillies

Lenten roses are especially beautiful this year

Our absolute first sign of spring is the return of our osprey

joined this year with a pair of egrets

Winter 2015

Though it is still ongoing and we are currently in the midst of a very long period of frigid temps, I think that finally posting some of my pictures of our cold months will help to usher in a warmer time and SPRING.

New York State blast of winter in December

                   

Ice in our neighborhood...just the beginning of a long seige of  cold weather

Snow on the mini...one of our quick blasts of snow showers

Our latest storm this past week.....about 8" (looks like cotton)

Overlooking the snow from our nature center boardwalk

....and walking around the hood.

Poor little robin thinks it may be spring

Longwood gardens

On a cold and rainy day in early December,  Jim and I joined the Coastal Camera Club on a bus trip to Longwood Gardens.  We had tripod permits to use in taking pictures in the beautiful conservatory which is where we began our day:

Poinsettias abound!   

   
     

Entering the Conservatory....wow!

So many beautifully decorated Christmas trees!

Lillies in the winter....

Birds of paradise

There is a large area of only orchids

I shoot many windows in the Conservatory.  This day they were looking out to fog and grayness.

Our challenge was to shoot abstracts

Inside the house it was warm and interesting.

Stairways

fog

One morning this week we found ourselves out early in the fog.  We located Millsboro Pond, loved the way the fog played with reflections, and started to shoot.  I was using my iPad.

Still seeing some color.

Practicing panning

Submitted this one for competition

Trap pond park on a pontoon boat

This week the Coastal Camera Club had a field trip to Trap Pond State Park. Jim and I rode Loblolly Trail on our bikes and took a pontoon boat ride to capture Fall colors.  All in all, a good trip.  Temps in the 60s and sunny.

    

Biking along the trail we were traveling under trees that provided beautiful shaded color.

We came across Bethesda Church which was rebuilt after it had come into total disrepair.  Looking in the windows, I saw the remnants of a past wedding.

Everywhere,  I tried to capture the colors of the leaves on the trees.

The reflection of this church window is of the trees outside.

More color

On the pontoon boat we encountered more color and stunning reflections.

Beautiful day.