Airlie Gardens, Gnome Invasion

E and I with sister L went for a short, 4 day trip to the beach this weekend.  Sunday, we decided to do something other than hang out on the beach.

 E picked out a trip to Airlie Gardens, "More than a century of gardens by the sea." in Wilmington.

 It is also the home of the Airlie Live Oak, dating back to 1545 and the NC state champion live oak. 

 When we got there we were greeted by the Gnome Invasion, a collaborative art display featuring 15 over sized garden gnomes placed throughout the 67 acre garden.

 I decided it was too predictable to take a picture of the front of the gnomes.  So, I took pictures of "What the Gnome Sees."  Sometimes its a shady sandy patch.

 And sometimes it has a nice plant filled view. 

 There were real mushrooms,

 some very colorful,

 and some fake mushrooms. 

 E was in charge of the map and self guided tour.

 The sun was out and it was very hot, and I about melted when I got close to this mirror covered Gnome.

 E even let  me take a picture of her next to the nature gnome.

 This one had a view of the Bottle Chapel, featuring over 2,800 bottles, multiple sculptures and mosaics.

And in case you are wanting to see the front of all 15, here is the brochure.  More of the garden tomorrow, there is a lot to see in 67 acres.

Airlie Garden, Butterflies

Up next, I had a request for the butterflies at the garden.  There were all kinds, 

 This metal butterfly bench was very pretty, but the sun was shining on it and the metal got very hot.  I couldn't sit for long.

 There was a beautiful butterfly arbor,

 Butterfly mosaics,

 and one side of the bottle house was a butterfly. 

 We also saw caterpillars,

 and actual butterflies all throughout the garden. 

 But the butterfly highlight was the butterfly house.  Here, the butterflies were almost tame. 

 I guess they have been photographed so much they didn't mind.

 Several were congregating on the watering sponge. 

 And there was another beautiful butterfly sculpture on the ceiling. 

One even landed in E's hair.  There was a double door entry and exit.  I didn't understand what the mirror was in the area between the two doors until we were leaving.  Guess they don't want any hitchhikers leaving the building.

Airlie Garden Visit

Since Sadie has such a love of flowers, Virginia thought it would be nice to take her to a botanical garden.  There was one about an hour from where we stay at the beach.  I went with Emily to it several years ago and throughly enjoyed it.  That time there was a gnome exhibit.  That visit can be seen HERE. 

This time there was a bee theme exhibit.  It was a little rainy and overcast so we were not missing anything at the beach.

Sadie was vey excited about the flowers.

She even recognized that these pink phlox were like what I have at home.  

But her favorite part was the butterfly house.

We go a family photo for them.

There was some interesting Spanish moss on the ground.

We got to see some turtles in the lake.

And there were lots of  photo ops.  

But then it started to rain again which was fine because I think we had reached the end of Sadie’s and Allie’s attention span.  We went to The Boathouse for a great lunch.  They had shrimp and grits, my favorite.  When we got back the sun finally came out and we were able to get in some more beach time. 

Sadly, we will have to leave tomorrow.