Lovely Orchids And Giveaway

I recently visited the Los Angeles Arboretum to see a display of  Cymbidium Orchids
and attend a demonstration on the care of these beautiful flowers.

It was a very overcast and chilly day and I thought seeing beautiful flowers would be
perfect for a day like this.

You might remember that I was at the Arboretum last August and showed you the
house where the television show Fantasy Island was filmed and later the first
Meet The Fockers film was also shot. When they finished production on the “Fockers”
film they painted the house back to the original Fantasy Island colors. You can visit
that post and read about it HERE.

When I arrived I was greeted by an old friend...

After greeting the peacock(who wouldn’t leave me alone)I went inside to the Orchid
display. It wasn’t a huge fancy show but the orchids were gorgeous!

After the care and planting demonstration, I went back outside where my feathered

friend was waiting and ready to show its beautiful peacock feathers...

Because it is too early in the season for much garden color and it was chilly outside,
I didn’t wander around as much as usual.  However, there were other feathered friends
who insisted on saying hello....

Geese....

And a family of Ducks...



Visiting the Arboretum is always a delight and I look forward to later in the spring and
summer visiting the waterfalls again and other flower displays.



Now about the giveaway,
I love having both of these books in my collection and I thought you might like having
them in your collection, as well.   They are,  Mary Emmerling’s Beach Cottages...
At Home By The Sea.  A beautiful book.

And, Seaside Style by Seaks and Taschen, another lovely book. If you would also like
to have these books in your collection please leave a comment and let me know you are
a follower. I will announce the winner on Sunday, April 10th.

Have a great week and I hope you are starting to see some beautiful spring flowers in
your area.



Peacocks and Ze Plane!

I recently went out to the Los Angeles Arboretum to spend a little quiet time and

enjoy a warm summer day.  I took lots of pictures of different kinds of trees and

plants but I realized there is something you might find a little more interesting. So, I’ll
begin by telling you that it took about ten minutes before I was allowed to get out of
my car because of this fellow...

They had just shut off the sprinklers and this peacock was more interested in
drinking some nice cool water from the puddle in the parking lot than he was in
allowing me to leave my car.  He wouldn’t budge and I wouldn't open my door
because I didn’t want to bump him. It was close to 100 degrees so I guess that
cool water was important to him.

Here are a few more peacocks. They certainly are friendly.

A show of feathers...

Here comes a new mom and her little peacock babies.  Like most of the bird world,
the females don’t have the bright colorful feathers that the males have.  It’s too early
to tell about the babies yet.  They sure are cute and mom has to keep them in line.

There are some pretty waterfalls at the Arboretum.   Lovely on such a hot day!

This young man took a fancy to me and would not leave me alone.

You can see him watching me.  He also talked to me the entire time we were together.

Hmmm.  He wants me to show you something interesting.  We should follow...

Well, here is what I thought you might be interested in...Did you ever watch the
television show Fantasy Island?   Do you recognize this house?

That’s right, it’s the house they used in filming the Fantasy Island series.

The front walkway is all white marble.

You can see the bell tower where Tatoo would ring the bell to greet the guests.

The very opening of the show (before we saw Mr. Roark and Tatoo) was filmed in
Hawaii but the rest was all filmed at this location.

The house is locked up so we can’t go inside but it looks like someone is in the front
window. But as you get closer no one is there!  I understand that now and then the
same thing happens in the upstairs window.

As you walk behind the house you can see the lake and island setting which was
known as a very tropical Fantasy Island.  You also can’t help but think of Tatoo
saying “Ze Plane, Ze Plane!”.   Many thought he was saying “de plane, de plane”,
but he grew up in France and his French accent led him to say “Ze Plane, Ze Plane”.

Other movies were filmed here and at one point the house was painted dark brown for
the movie Meet The Fockers with Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand,
Ben Stiller and Blythe Danner.  That story took place in Florida but was filmed at this
house.  The production company restored it to the Fantasy Island colors of red and
white when they finished that production.
As I said, I couldn't go inside the house but I took some pictures through the windows
and I think you will be surprised at what I found.  It may have been left from another
television or movie set...or maybe someone's fantasy on Fantasy Island.

Here are a few other views around the house...

On the way back to my car I met up with this mom and dad and their teenagers.

Actually you can only see one teenager because they kept trying to slip away

from their parents(sound familiar?).  Mom and dad are not quite ready to have

them leave the nest just yet...I know some of you can relate to this because you

are sending your teenagers off to college for the first time.  I guess this is a slightly

different way of feeling like an empty nester. I believe for the peacocks living here,

much like for the human species, the nest will never be empty just a little different.

I was not able to get a picture with both the teenagers and parents at the same time. 
The kids moved too fast...I bet mom and dad think they're growing up way too fast!

And my new friend was waiting to say good-by to me.  He seems to like living on
Fantasy Island.