Elephant...and the other animals and The Rhode Island visit

Originally uploaded by digijinx

The Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth, RI is definitely one of the unique places I have been to this summer or for that matter in my entire life. Must thank one of my managers for loaning me the book, New England Travel Guide. I have seen bushes cut as a big round...thats the best I have seen with creativity as far as cutting bushes was concerned, but this place was something entirely different. When you enter through the doors you see some arches but if you look to your left you see a man standing and that would be the Policeman. As we walk through the garden we spot all kinds of animals ranging from Unicorns to reindeers to a dog, a donkey..a camel...and some cute Teddy bears. They also have a vegetable garden and a beautiful flower garden with a pond and some water lilies. The basket of flowers was also a real treat to the eye. You know the drill, click on the picture for flickr...more there.
There is also an antique toy museum with huge doll houses...its a nice place to visit.We also stopped to click a windmill.

Then we headed on to the Breakers in Newport, a Mansion owned by the Vanderbilts and which has 70 rooms and one of the oldest elevators (about a 100 years old) and all the marble and alabaster and the carvings in gold. They had a huge flower vase about 4 feet tall I would say, with beautiful floral arrangement. Also there was an antique car show going on. The huge balcony on the second floor overlooks the Atlantic...Gosh! I wish I owned this place :)

Then off we headed to the Portsmouth beach, playing in the sand, collecting seashells, sea gull feathers, chasing sea gulls...and surprise surprise...we found a lot of hermit crabs...teeny tiny ones. we caught them and played with them for a while and then a small picnic and time to head back home. Another fun filled summer outing.

~Rambler.

Peace Lily..White Sails

IMG_0654a
Originally uploaded by digijinx

This was yet another fun filled trip this summer, and many more to come after this. My naughty niece and my mom were here for the weekend a while ago and we went to the Magic Wings, butterfly park and the Yankee Candle factory. We did not spend much time at the butterfly park but spent a lot of time...a whole lot of time there making candles, tasting blueberry jam, becoming princess and queen mother...it was a beautiful experience. I have written about the Magic Wings butterfly park, so am not elaborating on that, except for the fact that I clicked this peace Lily...aka White sails. It was one beautiful flower alright.

The Yankee Candle Factory is a real treat. There is a Black Forest, a Santa's Toy Factory at the North Pole...and there is Santa too...roaming around the Toy Factory. There are well lit Xmas trees, there is a theater that has shows every half hour or so, there is a Big Fort at the village of Bavaria and then you get to be crowned as Princess/Prince, Queen/King....We obviously had a Queen Mother and a little Princess. There is a puppet theater, blueberry jams, salsa dips...and best of all it snows every 5 minutes. Gosh..the place is just wonderful with toy trains running above you, snoopy snowboarding/skating... and then ofcourse there are the candles...if you step near the aisles, you can smell all of them at once...intoxicating.

We also get to make our own candles, we made a rainbow candle, a sun,moon etc., and dipped them in colored wax! it was a real thrill for my niece to do all this.

And once you step out of the factory, you have beautiful flowers lined up the entire stretch of the shop hanging from baskets from Pansies, to begonias to roses to well almost all kinds of flowers and colorful cows and also a Cart of flowers. Simply a very enjoyable trip.

Its definitely a must visit place.

This is the first trip among the many that I am undertaking this year.

Enjoy!

Making hay while the sun shines :)

~Rambler.

Vacation time

There comes the time of the year..in summer when you take a vacation...and am doing that right now. busy taking ppl around showing them the sights of New England et all.
Shall post in a week's time.
Believe me am exhausted :) and you too will be once, I post and u read 'em all.

Life Rocks!
~RR

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

This book is way beyond AWESOME. I can see myself reading this book over and over again. I completed the whole book...sort of a marathon and Boy! it was gripping and I didnt feel like putting it down. The book has the perfect ending and you could not ask for more. I am not going to be a tattle tale...read on and enjoy. Shall post another review in a couple of days...when the war is over.

Pssst.....Currently also reading....THE NAMESAKE...by Jhumpha lahiri. But since tthe HP book was coming out, i read,reread all the other 6 books in the series just to refresh my memory....the reading of the namesake was sidelined for a while, now am back to read it.

Fireworks galore

Fireworks galore
Originally uploaded by digijinx

Boston Pop Fireworks, on 4th of July was really a very spectacular event. We(almost 10 of us) went there hours before to get a good spot to view the fireworks. Craig Ferguson(Comedian/TV host) was gonna be there, the blueman brothers..some kinda orchestra..All along the rain was threatening to bring the house down...but we held on and the wait paid off. The whole thing was just awesome.
The time to kill was worthwhile, since I spent that walking and clicking the sights of the Clarendon and Newbury st., and it was a real treat. Though personally I felt a little sunshine would have helped with better lighting. Anyway..worked with what I had. Here is the link to the set. Click on the picture otherwise to take you to flickr.