Mother's Day at the Chicago Botanic Garden

[jtb1951]

Greetings all!!
Health concerns have kept me off the board lately (except for the occasional lurk) but I just wanted to share some color and nature from our annual family Mother's Day jaunt through the Chicago Botanic Garden. Because of our long winter the spring blooming has all come at once, and it made for a wonderful day among the flowers and trees! There are too many pics to jam into this one post so they will be spread across a few. I hope you enjoy!!

P.S. For those of you out there that believe in the power of prayer, feel free to offer some for me if you are so inclined. I found out 9 days ago that I have prostate cancer; fortunately for me and my family it is early stage and eminently treatable. After a few more visits with the docs I will have to decide on the treatment; either surgery (radical prostatectomy) or radioactive seed implants (brachiotherapy). In either case, life is about to get a lot more interesting, so prayers gratefully accepted. Sorry for the downer postscript.

John.
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[Millie]

Hi John,

I know we haven't "met" yet but I wanted to say thanks for those absolutely amazing photos! I live in the sub-tropics and can only dream about gardens like that!

I hope your treatment goes well and I'm glad it was caught in the early stages. Youwill be in my thoughts.

Camilla

[Strawberry Curls]

John, oh, John, stunning!!! What a treat, thank you for these gorgeous shots. How did you post them so big?

Thank goodness it is early stage! I will hold you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. Alice

[jtb1951]

Hi Camilla,
Thanks for the kudos and the thoughts, and a belated welcome to our wonderful corner of cyberspace:)!

Hi Alice,
Thank you also very much for your comments, thoughts and prayers! As for your question, I uploaded the photo files as usual by clicking on the paper clip (attachment) icon, was chagrined to find that it didn't give snapshots like it used to, only hyperlinks, so I clicked on the icon once more and a list of the files appeared and at the bottom of the list were the words "insert all", so I clicked on that and the photos themselves were inserted instead of the hyperlinks. Hope that helps! Thanks again!

P.S. I believe the 97 kB file size limitation still applies.

John.

[Bachi]

Hi John,
The flowers are gorgeous and oh, such colors. You have a good eye for taking impressive photo’s, once again thanks for sharing.
You will be in my thoughts and prayers.
Regards
Wanda

[jtb1951]

Very much appreciated; thank you, Wanda!

John.

[nkk1969]

Great pictures, John. Thanks for posting them.

I hope this isn't too personal a thing to say on the board, but I wanted to tell you I know (still present tense :) ) several men who went the radioactive seed route and they are all fine now. To quote Hans and Franz for the old SNL sketch, "You can DO it!"

[big hugs and lotsa prayers]

Nikki

[tangential1]

Thank you for the flowers, John; they're beautiful:) I dragged my parents up to the botanical gardens in Vancouver, BC for my birthday, but it was late March and nothing was in bloom yet.:rolleyes:

I'm sorry to hear about the health concerns. I'll be sending you happy thoughts through the ether.

[112233]

Thank you, John, for the beautiful flower pictures. You have a wonderful eye for photos. There are some lovely flowers in my garden but never tulips or bleeding hearts. They don't like my climate or soil or ?
Margaret

[jtb1951]

Thank you Nikki, t1, Margaret, and Sheri for all your kind comments, thoughts, wishes and prayers! I found the photos to be cheery, and just had to share:)! There is enough darkness in the world that a little brightness (in living color!) can be a welcome thing! Thanks, again!!!

John.

[KarenB]

Golly those were GORGEOUS!! Thanks for sharing, John!

and I'm sending my prayers along as well. . .

Karen

[jtb1951]

Thank you very much, Karen; the pleasure is all mine!!

John.

[Meags2387]

Those pictures are beautiful! It reminds me of how my mother's garden looks right now. I especially love the bleeding hearts. My mom has some that are all white, but I like the pink and white ones better. Sorry you're ill!!! :( I'll be praying. -Meags

[jtb1951]

I'm glad you enjoyed them, Meags, and thank you very much for the prayers!!

John.

[Roxanne]

John--

We haven't "met" but I wanted to thank you for the pictures of those wonderful flowers. Very cheerful, indeed. Thank you for that happy gift.

I am praying for you and sending all of the positive energy out your way in Chicago that I can. I am also sending a virtual hug or two (if you were here in person, I would give you a real one--I'm big on the power of hugs.)

Take care, Roxanne

[jtb1951]

Thank you, Roxanne; I greatly appreciate the prayers and positive energy focused this way, and I too, am a big believer in the power of hugs and accept both real and virtual ones:) with gratitude! I'm glad that you enjoyed the flowers; a little spreading of cheer is a worthwhile endeavor, in my book!! Thank you very much!!!!

John.

[2bnallegory]

I really enjoy seeing pictures of what is going on else where. Those gardens look nice, wish my yard would look a tenth that nice. I wish you well and glad that it was caught early. Take care.