The above were all taken at Bok Tower Gardens several years ago. I love the pumpkin spiders that they make.
Halloween at Horsepower For Kids.
We were in Boston in October of 2019. It really felt like fall.
We also spent a day in Salem while on our trip to Boston. I don’t think there’s anything more Halloween than Salem in October.
Fun scarecrows at the Botanical Gardens in Largo.
I hadn’t been to my nearby horse farm since May. It’s just too hot in the summer. The usual ducks were floating around in the pond.
I didn’t know if this one was an escapee or had just flown in for the handouts.
The usual chickens and hens were wandering around.
Mike the camel loves to give kisses. I wasn’t getting any closer.
Waiting to be carved.
Horsepower for Kids was having their annual fall festival fundraiser. I got there early in the morning before crowds. Just stopped in to see how all of the sanctuary animals were doing after Hurricane Irma. They had a lot of damage to exhibits but had mostly recovered.
It didn’t feel like fall or Halloween until I went to Bok Tower Gardens in central Florida. They had some fun decorations around the gardens. The scarecrows were made by local school kids.
The gold door to the the bell tower.
I was disappointed that the only bird at the feeder was a red-winged blackbird.
It was a beautiful morning. The moon was still out while I walked the trails.
I recently spent several hours walking around the gardens at Bok Tower. It’s about an hour and a half from where I live in Tampa but worth the drive. The gardens have a huge variety of things including flowers, trees, birds, butterflies and other tiny critters to practice photography while getting in a good walk.
The bell tower building contains 60 bells and was finished in 1929.
Looking straight up, it’s pretty tall.
The details in the openings at the top have different birds. The gardens started out as a bird sanctuary by Edward Bok. The 30 year editor of the Ladies Home Journal magazine would spend his winters in Lake Wales and developed the gardens with the help of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr ( his dad developed Central Park and Prospect Park in New York) and many others.
The door no one enters. To tour the inside of the bell tower, you need to have a high level of membership to go inside on one of the very few tours a year.
The lily pads were amazing.
Beautiful purple buds growing around the lily pads.
I was hoping to see frogs sitting in them but no luck there.
I’ve never seen these blooms before.
Looking down over a citrus grove, the bell tower sits on one of the highest points in central Florida.
The gardens were decorated for Halloween.
When did black and white pumpkins become so popular? Some had the spray paint starting to peel off. I guess I like the traditional orange ones.
The spider was pretty cool, made with pumpkins and branches.
I’ve been saying I want to visit Bok Tower Gardens for the last 5 years. I finally made it there on a rare random Monday off. It’s just under an hour and a half from my house so I need to get there more often. It was a beautiful day and very few people there. I took a ton of pictures so more to come.
Check out more sky pictures 