A Walk in the Park

A Walk in the Park

It seemed like a perfect day to go for a walk in the Park.

The day started out cold and windy: 31 degrees (F) and a bit chilly with the wind blowing on the face. But it is the end of Spring Break and we had been wanting to go to Meijer Garden to see the Ai Weiwei exhibit (and the butterflies, if possible!) forever, and this was going to be our last opportunity before things got crazy again, what with school and graduation and things like that.

So we got up early (relatively early -- some of us are still on "spring break") and drove up to the Garden, arriving about forty minutes after they opened.

Good thing, too. We got there before the major rush started. People were still arriving in droves. With cars. And strollers.

We went to the Weiwei exhibit first, figuring that the butterflies could wait. And the line was winding through the Arid Exhibit, which meant at least half an hour wait. Mary got the map and led us outside, up the hill past the Children's Garden and the Ampitheater, to where the paths diverge. And we took the one that led to this Iron Tree.

Iron Tree (Ai Weiwei)

It's a huge rusted iron tree. Reminds me of cars in Michigan winters. I wonder if Weiwei built it from rusted Subarus? (More likely rusted Ford 150s, as there are more of them (in number) and less of them (regarding the amount of metal still clinging to the frame) than any other car on the road around here.

Art Patrons appreciating Fine Art

Cheryl and Mary looked at it for quite awhile. I wandered around and took a lot of boring, dull, rusty pictures (which I'm not going to bore you with here, because there aren't any people in them, and if you want to see the big rusted tree, come for a visit and we'll take you!) and also took a few candid shots of some of my favorite people.

Debating the merits of Rust

They were having quite a discussion which I didn't want to interrupt -- but managed to grab this picture with the telephoto setting -- and then (eventually) they were done talking about the rusted tree (or whatever it was they were talking about) and decided that we ought to head on over to the Japanese Garden, which they had both seen before.

There weren't many plants blooming in the Japanese Garden, as it is still only the beginning of Spring (which is a bit later than the beginning of Spring down south). There were a few teeny-tiny flowers poking their heads out of the ground, but mostly the buds were just turning green and everything still looked like winter.

As we were walking through the Japanese Garden, we came upon this:

Nice plaque to find in a Beautiful Garden

Naturally, Cheryl took a little time to soak in the atmosphere of the place.

Contemplating Life, the Universe, and Everything

From there, we took the circuitous path to the Zen garden (with stones but no rake) and the Tea House (closed for the season) the several Boat Landings (but no boats) and a couple waterfalls (which we were not allowed to climb upon!) and even a statue of a Buddha head lying on the ground as though it had tumbled to the ground off some cliff. It appeared to have been beaten and battered and crumpled. Not sure if that was the intent of the artist, or the kids who have doubtlessly played upon it.

Cheryl and Mary commented on the curious nature of the forlorn Buddha head -- what does it signify? -- but as there were no answers to be had, we retreated to the path and returned to the relative banality of the museum Gift Shoppe to see what wonders it might hold.

Discussing Buddha's Head

I did get a pretty good shot of the entire Japanese Garden from the little hill near where we started. I'm looking forward to seeing it again when it is warmer and the blossoms are everywhere.

Perhaps around graduation time.

Which is just around the corner.

The Japanese Garden