VIEWS FROM THE BENCH
THE LOTUS POND AT THE GAZEBO
by Florence W Deems
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An integral part of the Gazebo's landscape is the Lotus Pond, to the west side of the Gazebo. The lower deck, in fact, is built over the pond. During the summer lotus plants spread their large fluted platter sized leaves on the water's surface and send up pink and white flowers. Later, you can see the peculiar-looking seed pods. Growing all around the pond's edges are clumps of tall graceful grasses, which are lovely, but which make trying to get decent images of the lotus flowers difficult. Several lanterns also are "planted" around the pond's edges.
The first image below shows the bench at the west end of the Pond. It's one of the newer and fancier benches. The next image shows the view to the north. The Lotus Pond is out of sight to the right of the large tree at the right. In the distance, what looks like a hedge is really an arbored walkway or allee hiding beneath wisteria vines. The third image was taken to the right of the previous image and shows the tall grasses that line the pond's edges. Two umbrellas for tables on the Gazebo's lower deck and the Gazebo are visible beyond. The last image has a strange appearance because I shot it with a Lensbaby which distorts edges of images. This view shows how overgrown the vegetation gets during the summer. Click on the images to see larger sizes.
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