Welcome to the weekend garden walk this October 4th, 2025. Arriving around 9:30am, we grab breakfast as usual. It’s bright and sunny again today, with not a cloud in the sky. For October, it is quite warm. Today, it’s supposed to get into the 90s. It wasn’t that warm in the morning though. Previous photos were taken with an IPhone, which I learned automatically doctors photos with AI. That’s no fun. So today, we brought the good camera. It’s a Canon, that’s all I can tell you at the moment. It’s older and mid-tier or starter photographer quality. My husband put the zoom lens on so I was able to get the shots I wanted I was unable to before. Luckily, the roses were still in bloom, there were bees still flying all over, and even butterflies. Today, a challenge for you maybe. Find the bees! Is there a bee in the photo? Maybe. Tangentially, insect tattoos are some of my favorites to see on people. The anatomy of the bee, or bees in particular, I find always to be well executed as a piece on people and I generally really like seeing a good bee tattoo. Weird… maybe. To the photos! CLICK FOR FULL RES – OR OPEN IN A NEW TAB….

The view from here: the cafe had a bold bunch of tiny sparrows waiting for pieces of food to drop.

Above: the willow that shades part of the area.

The entry into the garden is decorated with bright yellow mums.

Geese in migration, or looking to land for a rest in the lake.

Pathways to the lake front walk have “beams” of plants in a line from the center.

Rest and reflection on still waters.

Today I didn’t visit the big carp side, but still stopped to say hello to the bluegill (no cereals today).

These hanging flowers were a new edition to one of the building walk-throughs.

OP fullres photo. Stunning, really proud of this shot and the shots that follow.

This one above, my husband stopped and said “this one is more perfect” pointing to a different bloom in the sun. I just shook my head and said “that’s your opinion – I’m the beholder”.

CHALLENGE TIME: Find the bees!!!

Maybe I should have taken a video – but this bush is a living creature. No idea where the hive was.

Monarch butterflies and large bumblebees still thriving, I was surprised to see so many.

Can’t believe I got a shot of this guy kinda sitting still. I don’t know what type of butterfly this is – but it’s long feeder is visible and it would land for no more than a few seconds flapping its wings rapidly. Okay! Thanks for looking. I don’t particularly mind like, the whole photo re-using thing, and I have anti-AI crawlers running now so I think these are safe for simple viewing. Plus, you’ll now notice I installed a better gallery viewer and actually for real this time uploaded full size photos (these are straight off the SD card!). Enjoy the rest of your day!!