Fields of Dahlias in the Rain

Yesterday my husband and I went on a fun day out and about.  We first went out to lunch at the Claim Jumper restaurant and both had a chicken pot pie and salad.  Then we drove on to Aurora to an antique shop to have another look at something that my friend Shirley had seen and told me about.  More about that later.  Then we headed back through Canby and went to visit the Swan Island Dahlia farm.  I just love it there.  Dahlias amaze me in how many different varieties of flowers there are!  You get to see this field as you're nearing the farm entrance.

A ways further and more varieties and waves of color.

This sign marks the entrance.  

The rain began the night before our excursion, but I drove very carefully as the roads were slick with no rain for 2 months.  We parked and went directly into the little flower shed where there are buckets of cut bouquets of dahlias - I selected 2 different ones in bright orange.  Then we began walking through the rows of flowers and admiring the blooms.. one more amazing than the next, so many colors, so many shapes.

I really like the stripy-ness of this one.

This is a big pompom shape and the colors just make me swoon.

The bees like them too.  It even braved the rain to look for pollen!

Don't you love the tubular design of this one?

There are BIG ones...

And bigger ones.. 

Spidery ones.. the color on this one.. I loved!  We used to have Dahlias but lost them all in an early freeze one year.  Dayle used to dig the tubers up each year but this one time the weather beat him to it.

This one was one of the biggest ones.. they call them "dinner plate" sized.  When I was a very young child, my mom would pick these and put them on the heads of my sister and I, like hats and take photos of us.  Really, she did.  So, I guess you can say I've had a close relationship with Dahlias my whole life.

This one amazed me with it's curly petals.

This one was the very largest of all.  Pretty!

They have a wonderful koi pond there.. the fish are HUGE!  The biggest ones were 2 and a half to 3 feet long!

The farm is so pretty, this was the view from our parked car, they have a lot of picnic tables for visitors to use.  They also had a fun looking gift shop but unfortunately it was closed.

Some of the other visitors to the farm walking among the rows of flowers.

We took a wrong turn when we were leaving and came upon these gigantic pumpkins, they were at least 3 feet in diameter!  I like this photo as there are flowers beyond the gourds and also a sweet vintage red farm truck in the background.  

I cut the stems and put my two bunches in this one vase.. the orange just makes me feel happy.

This is what we got from the antique shop.  An old vintage frame filled with old arrowheads.  I've always wanted some and now we have them on the wall in our family room.  I'm part Cherokee Indian and the old arrowheads always called to me.

I had to add this photo of a Japanese maple tree that was outside the restaurant, the colors of the leaves are just beautiful as they turn from green to red.

I will be heading to the pool soon.  It's different to swim when it's raining.. you really have to push yourself out the door.  :-)  I hope all is well with you.  Thanks for visiting, I hope you didn't mind having a flower overload.  LOL!
((hugs)), Teresa :-)