Wisteria - The Randomness of Splendor

Late afternoon sunlight reflects on trees in distance

While most visitors to the Crystal Hermitage Gardens arrive during mid morning to mid afternoon, the light is much better and softer at this time of year towards the late afternoon, early evening.  When I arrived around 5:30 PM, I found no visitors.  Having the wonderland garden all to myself, I wandered around seeking out new views and perspectives.  Mandala, who runs the shrine, suggested several locations for photos.  Here are some of the results.  Click on the image to enlarge.

The tall wisteria tree is in full bloom.  

The Splendor of randomness

The Evening light (compare to previous blog post of morning light)

Crystal Hermitage Chapel in the morning

I went over this morning to capture this particular angle of the Crystal Hermitage chapel at the recommendation of Mandala who runs the Shrine museum there.  Early morning sun gave the best light.  Made HDR photos from 3 exposure sequences. Click on each photo to enlarge.  Which one do you prefer?  please comment

Hermitage Chapel 1

Hermitage Chapel 2

Hermitage Chapel 3

Hermitage Chapel 4

Hermitage Chapel 5

Tulips at Crystal Hermitage

We made it back in time for full tulip bloom.  Every April, the Crystal Hermitage gardens at Ananda Village opens it gates to the public for several weeks of garden viewing.  The upper gardens are open during week and both upper and back gardens open on first 2-3 weekends.  Sudden late spring storms delayed the flowers opening then the weather turned warm into the 80's which made this weekend the best viewing of all.  Over 400+ visitors here just today Saturday.

We spent the morning as volunteers greeting people and I cooked in kitchen serving up scones and quiche with coffee and ice tea.  This is such a wonderful way to connect with the greater community.

View of upper gardens from hermitage front porch

Ornamental Cherry tree in back garden

Another view of upper garden from front porch of Hermitage

Looking down from upper garden at Hermitage and Yuba River canyon