Botanic Gardens Beauty

Confession time: After living here for almost a year, I had never been inside Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens. Yes, it's true, though it's one of the highest rated attractions in the city, it's totally free, and it's only a few miles from our place, I'd never checked out what was inside the gates. I'd run around it plenty of times on training runs with Emily or as part of the Spring into Shape Series, but I had no idea what was inside. So on a sunny day last week, I gathered up my camera gear and headed to check it out.

I was impressed. I always had it in my mind that Sydney had it all over Melbourne with its Royal Botanic Gardens, but Melbourne's is really beautiful too! I walked all over the park snapping pictures of various flowers and plants for a few hours, and I've included some of my favorite shots.

The ponds inside the park are covered with some type of algae growth, so the poor ducks and birds swim in a sea of green. The leaf from the plant in the picture above right was nearly as big as me!

It's definitely starting to feel like fall here. You can see the leaves turning colors in the picture above, and the mornings and nights are much cooler. We're lucky that we're still getting some sunny, warm days. I'm not ready for another winter yet! If you want to see lots more pictures, head to my Shutterfly link. Otherwise, have a "bee"-utiful day!