A foray in a northwest Georgia wilderness area

Last Thursday it rained in Georgia.  I postponed my drive back to Tennessee by one day as the weather forecast indicated some drizzle and fog on Friday.  I thought it would be fine.  I had an early start on Friday and felt good.  My car was full of bags of things to take back with me as well as another 150 books for the bookstore in Trenton, GA.  Traffic on I-75 was light and I made good time to my exit ramp for highway 136 going toward Trenton.  Starting in 2010 when our youngest daughter and family moved to Brentwood in suburban Nashville, we made the trip to Nashville often.  We would use interstate I-75 all the way.  But as my husband enjoyed side roads I was able to avoid Chattanooga by going through the Chattahoochee National Forest via highway 136.  I found maps and marked them to give you an idea.  As you can see on the bottom map, hwy 136 is a curvy road going through Villanow, LaFayette and Trenton.  Then we would take I-59 back up to the main highway between Chattanooga and Nashville, I-24.

We would drive through a section of the Chattahoochee National Forest. This is a large forest that comprises 750,145 acres (3,036 km2) and covers 18 north Georgia counties.  In 2011, in the little town of Villanow, we noticed a sign indicating a "Georgia Scenic Byway" and turned into it.  This took us to the Johns Mountain Wilderness area.  It was truly a lovely ride with no houses, cars or people - a genuine wilderness.  Although numerous animals can be found in this wilderness - hawks, owls, ducks, beavers, river otters, bobcats, deer, weasels, foxes, American black bears, coyotes, eagles, geese and more.  I took some pictures and wrote a post about our ride, see my post of November 2011 "On the road again in Tennessee and Georgia."   Below are some pictures I took of Johns Mountain Wilderness area in 2011.

Villanow is an unincorporated town in Walker County (one of the most western counties in the state.)  There is a country store there that is listed on the National List of Historic Places.  It opened around 1840 and served the community for many years.  It holds the record as the longest operating stand alone country store in the entire state of Georgia, but it is closed now.  I drove by it and thought I should stop next spring and take another picture on a sunny day.  Then driving on I was stopped by a truck parked across the highway.  People were motioning me to take a left as hwy 136 was closed.  I just went back to look on Google map to find out the names of the roads I used.  The first little road is named West Armuchee Road, a country road with farms and old houses along it.  I then had to turn on an even smaller unpaved road, Smith Gap Road.  At the corner was a very old cemetery.  I was tempted to visit it but did not know how long this detour would take, so I went on.  Later I found a picture of it - it is called the McWilliams cemetery.  Below is the start of Smith Gap Road, the graves of Elizabeth Lillies, 1826-1867, Spencer Bomar, 1810-1884, Martha B. McWillaims, 1815-1891, William McWilliams, 1818-1878 in the McWilliams cemetery and the Villanow country store.  Click on collage to enlarge.

The road was getting narrower with more gravel and rocks.  Then I was stopped by a small river without a bridge.  I just stopped there, looked at the river and took a picture with my cell phone.  A big SUV came behind me and could not pass me.  I went out and asked the driver what to do.  He told me to go ahead and drive across the river.  As I was apprehensive he said not to worry, he would push my car if I were stuck in the water, or get me out if my car would not move out of the river... I went back in my car, took a big breath and drove across the river - it made a lot of noise as I went over rocks.  You can't see from my cell phone picture below, but there was a small waterfall on the left.  I found out it is called the Greenbush Branch river.  I also attach a picture of the map with the accident on hwy 136.  I penciled the detour I took through Johns Mountains wilderness.

The dirt road then kept going up the mountain with big holes full of mud, fallen branches, rocks and more.  I have pictures of the road when the weather is pleasant, but at the time it was not at all.  Below photo in center of collage and the two lower left photos show the road in good weather.  As I was driving up and around the mountain the fog was getting denser.  I was going slowly as I could not see well and was afraid someone would drive in the opposite direction, as there is room for only one car.

I think it was a 4 miles (6.5 km) journey to the end of the detour but it felt like 20 miles!  As I drove higher around the mountain ridge I knew that the sides went sharply down below.  Earlier I had come to a dead-end into a fork and made a left.  The local SUV behind me made a right.  So, I carefully backed up and went on the right (later after checking the map I realized the left dirt road went on and on all the way to Alabama.)  By then the SUV was way ahead out of sight.  It was a scary ride.  This is part of Johns Mountain Wilderness area after all and it is a 24,849 acre (10,057 ha) area in Walker, Whitfield, Gordon and Floyd counties.  It is located inside the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.  It's not a place where many tourists venture and even less in winter.  The few people living close to the wilderness area are families going back generations as seen in the cemetery.  In summer Johns Mountain Wilderness is lovely, but it was not then.  Below are photos of the wilderness area in better weather.

I kept driving, turning around sharp curves and finally it became a small paved road.  There were still no vehicles, houses or people.  I was pleased that I had just bought 4 new Michelin tires and had a full tank of gas.

I came to the end of Smith Gap Road and turned on Old Alabama highway 151, passed Homestead Hollow and was back on hwy 136!  I was very happy that my foray into the wilderness was over thinking I was OK then... I drove through LaFayette (named in honor of the Marquis of LaFayette) went on the switchback roads on the next mountain and finally arrived in Trenton, GA, located in the foothills at the Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee line.  John, the owner of the Trenton bookstore, was happy with my 4 large bags of books.  I told him about my adventure in the mountains.  He assured me that there are many scenic areas and I should stay several days in summer to take a look.  I may do that.  He added that I needed to still be careful driving as there was more fog ahead and a year or so ago a pile-up on I-24 destroyed 30 vehicles and several lives.  After crossing the large Tennessee River I stopped at the rest stop for a bit of lunch and rest.  I walked around and took pictures of the mountains I had left on the other side of the bridge, pleased that this was over.

The Monteagle Mountain grade in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee was still ahead.  It is the "white knuckle" highway mentioned by truck drivers.  I talked about it in my post of January 21, 2019 Stops along the way..  Indeed as I came up the steep hill the fog was thicker and thicker.  In a short while I could barely see the front of my car and could only hear the trucks without seeing them.  The higher I drove the heavier the fog became.  The visibility was terrible.  I knew there was another rest stop at the top near the Monteagle exit.  As soon as I came to it I entered it and stopped the car.  I took a picture of what I could see.  It was a bit better than on the freeway - picture below.

I waited in the car for a while, then walked out and took more pictures as the fog was diminishing.

I was hesitant about continuing driving and anxious about going down the steep Monteagle hill.  But then I did not want to get homichlophobia and had to move on.  So I did, carefully, and once down the hill the fog had almost dissipated.  Now the ride would be much easier.  It had been an eventful foray in the wilderness then in a dense fog.  At least I had seen some pretty spring blooms at the first rest stop.

A busy autumn week in Georgia

First, I'd like to thank all my blogging friends for writing many words of comfort on my last post about the passing of my husband.  I am also grateful for the individual emails of support that were sent to me.  It was a sad time returning to Georgia where I had planned to take back my husband's winter clothes to Tennessee, but now they were no longer needed.  I found a homeless shelter not far away and was able to bring some of his warm coats there.  After I told the roofer that my husband had passed away he said that I could delay the work until it was more convenient.  But I had decided to go to Georgia that week so I could vote early.  And I did drive there on October 28, 2018, as I mentioned in my last post.

This was an important mid-term vote in Georgia because it showed that the state is not totally conservative anymore.  The youth turnout increased 500 percent and six time more Hispanic/Latino voters cast their ballots as well as twice as many African-Americans as before.  Some people in GA had to wait 6 hours in line to vote.  The turnout in my county, Cobb, was 63.7% more than last time even though 600 voting machines had been taken out of the pool by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is also running as a Republican for the governor seat.  I was very surprised to see that all the suburban counties around Atlanta switched to blue, anywhere from 55% to 83.4%.  Even if she does not win the race (at this writing it is still undecided) Stacey Abrams, the Democratic Party nominee running for the Georgia Gubernatorial seat, has shown that Georgia is becoming more liberal.  Twenty-nine counties in Georgia voted blue (Democratic) against for example states in the Midwest not considered as conservative as the deep South, such as Indiana with only 3 blue counties, and 3 blue counties as well in Missouri (against 13 blue in Alabama.)  Pictures below showing voting in Cobb County (courtesy AJC.)

The new roof installation was done promptly several days after I arrived in Georgia.  Next month it will be the gutters.  The day before I drove to Georgia, Saturday October 27th, eleven congregants in a Pittsburgh synagogue were massacred by a man shouting anti-Semitic words.  This really upset me that in this country, in 2018, there could be such an attack on innocent worshipers.  I thought that people of every race or religion were endowed with the same inalienable rights here, no?  I read that in 2017 anti-Semitic incidents increased in the US by 60%, the largest increase in a single-year.  These 1,986 incidents included physical assaults, vandalism and attacks on Jewish institutions.  Below is a photo of the stained glass windows in the main sanctuary of the Pittsburgh synagogue Tree of Life or L'Simcha Congregation, courtesy Tree of Life synagogue.

 Many argue that President Trump is not helping with his brand of politics using racial rhetoric, attacks against immigrants and his ways of stirring the pot of nationalism and even proclaiming that he is a nationalist.  So when I read that the American Jewish Committee was encouraging people of all faith to #ShowUpForShabbat the first Friday and Saturday after the Pittsburgh tragedy I decided to attend to reject hate and show my support against anti-Semitism.  Many Jewish organizations in the country were taking part in this appeal (and in other countries too.)  I found a synagogue in West Cobb County, not far from my home, and I showed up for Shabbat that Friday evening.  I had never attended a service in a synagogue and was pleased that the rabbi gave many explanations about the programming of the Shabbat service.  It is a small synagogue but it was full with new attendees that Friday.  All of us, Jews and gentiles were happy to say "Shabbat Shalom."  (photos courtesy Temple Emanu-El, New York.)

The rest of my few days in Georgia went very fast as I gathered as much as I could again to give to charity or toss away.  But I am a long way from being done.  I did find another couple of bags full of vintage postcards.  Sometime it was depressing to look at clothes that my husband had worn on a special occasion.  I would take a few minutes rest and have a nice cup of tea - always comforting.  Luckily I had kept a few china mugs and cups in Georgia and some special tea.  Below is a picture of the Harney & Sons RMS Titanic Tea.  It was created with a blend of Chinese Keemum and Formosa Oolong as a commemorative tea to honor the 100th Anniversary of those who perished in the sinking of the Titanic (a portion of the sale of this tea goes to The Ocean Conservancy.)

On Sunday 11 November 2018 there was another commemoration, the Centennial of the end of World War 1.  This most terrible war ended at "the eleventh hour on the 11th day of the 11th month."  I had written a post on the history of WW1 on December 2, 2011, after having been in Paris when, for the first time, a Chancellor of Germany attended Armistice Day in Paris.  You can read it here
"Historical Armistice Day - 11 November in Paris."  In this post I explained the history and gave statistics: "In four years the number of military and civilian casualties came to more than 40 millions: 20 millions dead and 21 millions injured.  This number includes 9.7 million military deaths and 10 million civilian deaths.  As a point of reference, in four years the American Civil Was suffered 600,000+ killed. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

As another point of reference: since June 2003 there has been 4486 troops killed in the Iraq war - during World War 1 over 7500 troops were killed each week.  The scale of destruction of WW1 was enormous - whole generations were wiped out."  We need to salute those who served during this atrocious war and honor the millions killed and wounded in the conflict.  The Armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany in the Forest of Compiegne in France in a railway carriage at 5:00 am on November 11.  Six hours later, at 11:00 the conflict ended.

On July 14, 1919, there was a Victory Parade down the Champs Elysees in Paris honoring the Allied with General Pershing, Marshal Haig and troops from the United States, Belgium, The United Kingdom, from Italy, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Siam, Czechoslovakia, Japan, China and more - 31 countries had fought in the war.

In Paris on November 11, 2018, over 100 world leaders and dignitaries walked up the Champs Elysees in the rain toward the Arc de Triomphe to stand before the grave of the unknown soldier (President Trump did not walk with them on account of the rain but came separately.)  Notice that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not walk under an umbrella.  He had said during the commemoration of the raid on Dieppe where 907 Canadian soldiers were killed, 586 wounded and 2000 taken prisoner, that in Dieppe that day it wasn't rain, it was bullets.  Yo Yo Ma, the French-born Chinese-American cellist played the souful Saraband from Bach's Cello Suite No. 5, to the world leaders assembled there.  At 11:00 a minute of silence was observed, and then all the bells rang in churches all over France.  In his speech afterwards, President Emmanuel Macron saluted the memory of the soldiers sacrificed in the fighting.  He also said : "Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism" "Let's add up our hopes instead of opposing our fears!" He urged the assembled leaders to "fight for peace" by refusing "withdrawal, violence and domination," pleading once again for a multilateral approach to global governance at a time when more and more countries are inclined to turn their backs on it.  He ended his speech with "Long Live friendship between peoples, long live France."  (Photos courtesy Paris-Match.)

Then the 130 honored guests were invited to a luncheon at the Elysee Palace where Chef Guillaume Gomez (shown below) included the famous Bresse chickens and the potatoes from the Somme in the menu.  At the main table were seated Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin, Mohammed VI King of Morocco, King Felipe VI of Spain, Peter Cosgrove General Governor of Australia, Albert II of Monaco, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Denis Sassou Nguesso President of Congo, Idriss Deby Itno President of the Republic of Chad, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahou of Israel and many others.

For this special luncheon the Elysee had set their priceless porcelain china named "Oiseaux" (birds) created in 1758 by the manufacture of Sevres.  This porcelain manufactory was founded in 1738 thanks to the support of French King Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour.  It replaced the Meissen porcelain as the grandest of ultimate luxury favored by European royalty, the 19th century aristocracy and great collectors.

As part of the week-end ceremonies President Macron invited the world leaders to a "Paris Peace Forum" to discuss global governance.  Angela Merkel of Germany was present as well as Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan but Donald Trump did not attend.  He also did not participate, because of rainy weather, in the visit to the Aisne-Marne American cemetery in the village of Belleau were the US forces suffered 9,777 casualties including 1,800 killed.  France renamed the wood "Bois de la Brigade de Marine" (Woods of the Marine Brigade) in honor of the Marines' tenacity.  This is an historic battle for the US Marine Corps.  (US Veterans noticed that Donald Trump canceled this planned visit supposedly because it was raining, and were not pleased.  However, a French newspaper noted that someone had heard Mr. Trump saying he had no interest in visiting the cemetery and it would mess up his hairstyle.)  There are roughly 36,000 monuments in France honoring the fallen of WW1.  I showed many of them on my postcards in a 2014 post, look here .  This year the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, unveiled the new WW1 Paris monument to the 94,415 Parisians who died for France and the 8,000 missing in that war.  (Photos courtesy Paris-Match.)

I am back in Nashville now and will not return to Georgia until December because family will gather for Thanksgiving at my daughter's in Tennessee.  I wish a happy and festive Thanksgiving to each of you.

A green burial in the Tennessee hills

Last Sunday, October 28, 2018, on my way to Georgia, I made a stop at my usual highway rest stop in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, along Nickajack Reservoir Lake.  In some earlier posts I showed pictures of this lake in the winter and summer, this time it started to look like autumn.  It was a sunny day, around 74 degrees F (23.3 C.)  A mist was slowly evaporating from the water.  I walked on the little path along a tree showing vivid red fall leaves.  Sun and nature always heal sadness.

The roof of our house in Georgia was scheduled to be replaced in early October.  I had planned to drive from Nashville to Georgia then.  But life had other plans.  My husband of 51-years passed away in his sleep on Monday October 8, 2018.  He was still walking 3 days before his health took a down turn.  The doctor had told us that he would be slowly declining in the next 2 or 3 years because of his Alzheimer's disease.  We did not expect to lose him suddenly like this, and it was a shock.  I had to quickly come up with funeral arrangements.  My husband dedicated his life to nature, the environment and wildlife so I was fortunate to find out that the first conservation burial ground in Tennessee had formally opened in mid September 2018.  This 112 acre property of rolling hills and meadows had been an old family farm in Sumner County, Tennessee, on the Western Highland Rim, and had been minimally impacted by human activity.  Native American artifacts can still be discovered on the ground.  (Photo courtesy Nature Conservancy.)

This burial preserve is adjacent to Taylor Hollow Natural Area, a 172-acre restricted access natural area owned by the Nature Conservancy.  Taylor Hollow was once a part of the magnificent mesophytic (moderately moist) forest system of middle Tennessee, and is now one of the last undisturbed remnants of this historic and majestic habitat.  It contains such endangered plants as the Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia verna,) the Ozark Least Trillium (Trillium pusillum var. ozarkanum) plus several others.  In spring there is a spectacular display of wildflowers on the grounds.  (Photos courtesy Nature Conservancy.)

In a future post I'll talk about my husband's illness, but I just cannot do it at this time.  The natural conservation cemetery and Taylor Hollow Natural Area are privately owned, non-profit, with a conservation easement, preventing development of the land forever.  This is the first natural burial ground in the United States protected by the Nature Conservancy.  It will prevent this land from being developed, contaminated and abused.  There are no metal caskets, fertilizer, formaldehyde, concrete or metal vaults, plastics, or foreign matter introduced into the landscape in a natural burial.  A conservation cemetery does not displace pollutants into the environment.  Naturally native plants and animals flourish in its sanctuary.  The funeral director of this conservation cemetery told radio station NPR: "This is not something new; this is something very traditional.  It is more of a return or revival of traditional burying practices.  And it really and truly becomes a place where people can go to reconnect with a loved one."  "A lot of people want to go to a place to say goodbye, and it becomes a sanctuary, a preserve, and a place to connect to nature as well as the memory of your loved one."  He added "People [who] choose to be buried in this area are the people who want wildflowers blooming on their grave and butterflies fluttering about."

This is the way our ancestors were buried but, after the Civil War, it changed with the introduction of embalming.  These natural burial grounds are rare in the U.S. (about 100+ and over 200 in the U.K.) because the 21,000+ modern funeral homes in this country are strong and persuasive.  They are responsible each year for the felling of 30 million board feet of casket wood (some of which comes from tropical hardwoods,) 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million ton of concrete for burial vaults, and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid.  Even cremation is not environmentally safe, with the incineration process emitting many a noxious substance, including dioxin, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and climate-changing carbon dioxide.  There is no law regarding embalming or the use of these toxic chemicals which are flushed into our sewers and create an enormous environmental problem.  A natural burial in a conservation cemetery is an eco-friendly option.  There, visitors feel a connection to the earth, a quiet way of saying good-bye to the loved one surrounded by nature.

On Friday October 12, 2018, we drove to the conservation burial grounds in Westmoreland, about 1 hour northeast of Nashville in Sumner County, in the state's northern border with Kentucky.

The ride was pleasant.  We drove through open land and rolling hills.  There were no large towns or malls, just a quiet country setting.

We drove on a narrow country back road to the conservation cemetery.  There was no sign, just a gravel parking area and a wood fence (as shown in the heading photograph.)  The site chosen for my husband's burial was in a wooden area, close to a trail.  The funeral director told me that he had seen a 10-point buck there that morning - my husband would have liked that.  Motor vehicles are not allowed and there are no roads, just rugged paths.  Hiking up the trail we did not pass rows of tombstones, soaring monuments, or plastic flowers as in the standard cemeteries.  We read poems, listened to specially selected music pieces and songs, and then my husband was laid to rest.  Men and children shoveled the dirt back and plants were returned.  It was a simple burial like they used to have in the old west in days of yore.  In this conservation cemetery native stones from the property can act as grave marker, although a GPS tracking device can pinpoint the location of each grave space.

I was still disoriented by my husband's sudden transition.  It seemed that just a few days had passed since he was in the assisted living gardens watching our grandchildren play.  Below is such a picture and also one from last March in a Nashville park.

Everything had happened so quickly.  My head tells me that as hard as it is, going in his sleep is better than having suffered two or three more years from this awful disease; now he is free.  The day before he passed, on Sunday October 7th, I was next to him playing the music he liked on my cell phone.  The next morning, he was gone.  I remember we listened to some Chopin music as in the video attached below.  Now I'll keep listening to his favorite music, alone.

 The song is ended

But the melody lingers on

You and the song are gone

But the melody lingers on ...

 Irving Berlin (Russian-American composer 1888-1989) 

  

 

Dahlias in Halifax Public Gardens, Nova Scotia ... and more

This week's post was going to be on a day trip to San Francisco using the Alameda-San Francisco ferry.  Alas, my desktop computer, a 4-year old Gateway 'all-in-one' - the computer with all my recent pictures - kept crashing and then stopped altogether.  I took it for repair and was just told that I need to purchase a new computer (they said it was too old to be worth a repair...)  I checked the pictures I have on my old laptop computer and could not decide which photos to use.  My New York friend Frances, from the blog City Views Country Dreams had a post last week showing beautiful dahlias; so I decided to use the dahlia pictures from a trip we made to each of the Canadian Maritime Provinces some years ago.

When we visited Halifax, Nova Scotia, we spent several hours in the Victorian Public Gardens.  Below are some vintage postcards of the gardens - they have not changed much.  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

We visited the gardens in mid-September when the dahlias were in full bloom.

My love of dahlias goes back many years, almost a life time.  Let me explain.  My parents were married in 1936 and lived in an apartment in Paris, near Montmartre.  They had bought a small week-end country house in a little village about 2 hours north of Paris.  I looked in the box of photos my late mother gave me and found photos of this house.  On the back of one of the photos, my mother had written that the house had been bought in 1936, in Silly-Tillard, in the Department of Oise (I just found this out when I saw the photo today.)  Below are old photos of my parents and the house, circa late 1930s.

The small village of Silly-Tillard is about 66 kms (41 miles) from Paris - the closest large town is Beauvais, 17 kms away (10 miles.)  In 1936 there were 295 people living in the village and in 2012 the number went up to 487 - so it is still quite small.  The village is located on the old road to Paris.  It is a picturesque place with houses from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, some of them half-timbered.  There is also an old "lavoir" - outdoor public wash-house.  Trout fishing is famous there.  Here are some pictures of Silly-Tillard, courtesy Villages de France.

After World War II my parents drove during the week-ends to Silly-Tillard in their Renault Celtaquatre automobile.  They usually went with friends and I stayed in Paris with my grand-parents.  I still went to Silly-Tillard with my parents a dozen times.  With no friends to play with, I would walk to the neighbors' garden.  There, hundreds of dahlias were awaiting - it was a gem of a garden.  I remember this garden as one remembers a dream - flowers everywhere, of different shapes, and glorious colors.  I spent happy hours there.  Many dahlia plants were higher than me - at the time I must have been 5 years old or so.  I don't have pictures of the garden but I found on the Daily Mail, UK, pictures of Amy Chesterman, 6 years old, in her father's dahlia garden in Bournemouth, England.  I did not look like her but the dahlias would have been similar around me.

Below is a picture of our country house and my parents Renault Celtaquatre (these cars were manufactured between 1934 and 1938.)

During the war my parents' little house had been requisitioned and occupied by a German officer.  When my mother found out (my father was in hospital because of war injuries) she walked ten miles to the kommandantur (German military headquarters) in Beauvais, near the village, and requested that rent be paid for the house.  Everyone told my mom that she would place herself in danger, but she persisted and they did pay her rent in the end.  But they also made some alterations to the house and my parents sold the house in 1947 or 1948 or so.  I don't remember the house well, but I still remember the serene garden next door with all the dahlias ... most of all the variegated with white and the purples the best.

I am not sure how many dahlias were in our neighbors' garden, but to me it seemed like a field of flowers just as in the vintage postcards below.

When I heard that the Public Gardens in Halifax had a dahlia garden I knew that I had to go there.  The original gardens were created in 1836, then established as a civic garden in 1867, and finally the City of Halifax took responsibility for the gardens in 1874.  Nowadays the Public Gardens still look as they were originally planned in 1875 by the Gardens' Superintendent - as formal High Victorian Pleasure Gardens.  At the entrance, we are greeted by a set of elegant wrought-iron ornamental gates,  installed in 1890 and bearing the original Halifax coat of arms.  The gardens include a bandstand, statues, fountains, ornate bridges, floral displays, 80 species of trees and 200 of shrubes - some exotic and semi-tropical.  One of the trees was planted by King George VI in the 1930s.  In 1984 the Halifax Public Gardens were recognized as a National Historic Site.

 We entered the gardens through the elegant gates, built in Glasgow, Scotland and standing in the gardens since 1890.  We walked on the alley bordered by large trees and then followed a body of water to Griffin's Pond.

We stopped to look at the ducks.

A replica of the RMS Titanic floats on the pond.  It is a reminder that 121 victims of the Titanic were interred at Halifax Fairview Cemetery after the ship sank on 14 April 1912.

We kept walking on the winding paths, stopping to admire the flower displays.

Several historic statues were near traditional Victorian carpet beds: Flora, the goddess of flowers and spring and Diana, the goddess of woodland and wild animals.

As in all fine Victorian Gardens, the Halifax Public Gardens have fountains in addition to the historic statues.  In 1897 the classical sculpted Victoria Jubilee Fountain was erected to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. This fountain sits in the center of the gardens.  In 2012 the fountain was restored in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.  The Boer War Memorial Fountain was built in 1903 to honor the memory of the soldiers from Canada who took part in the war in South Africa.

Next we came by the colorful gingerbread style bandstand.  It was built in 1887 to also commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.  It is an ornate wooden bandstand with a copper roof.  It has been used for concerts and social events for 128 years and was restored in 2011.  Walking around the bandstand I could see the dahlia beds, at last.

The dahlias are tuberous flowers originally from Mexico, Central America and Columbia.  The director of the Madrid Botanical Gardens, Antonio Jose Cavanilles, named this plant in honor of Anders Dahl, a Swedish botanist, who died in 1789 - the same year Spain was to receive the dahlia plants from Mexico.  There are more than 57,000 registered cultivars of dahlias.  They come in a great variety of colors, sizes and shapes - anemones, collarette, balls, etc.  Dahlias bloom from late summer until first frost.  It is difficult to choose a favorite.  Below are two anemore forms with yellow centers, and two ball forms - a fuchsia pink and a dark red.

The two cultivars below were new to me - but they have a certain charm.

There were so many exquisite blooms and amazing colors - I kept moving from one to the next in awe.

Aren't these lovely?

How about these, from pale yellow to golden apricot colors?

This big fluffly dahlia below is called a "Big Head" in France and a "Dinner Plate" here.

The collarette dahlia type was first introduced at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris.  The American Dahlia Society listed the collarette as a form in 1905.  The red collarette dahlia below looks almost artificial.  It is a stunning flower, indeed.

The American Dahlia Society was founded in 1915.  This coming week-end (Sept. 19-20, 2015) they will celebrate their 100th anniversary with a show at the Hofstra University, in the village of Hempstead, Long Island, New York.  If I had known about this earlier I, perhaps, could have gone there for a quick trip.  Dahlia photos below courtesy ADS library.

These are gorgeous flowers -  la crème de la crème.

Here are some more

Walking in these mid-19th century idyllic gardens, just half a mile from downtown the modern city of Halifax, was like entering a time capsule - being back in Victorian times.  It was the fashion then to walk in gardens, wearing a lovely outfit, while listening to the military bands in the bandstand gazebos.  I think that these unspoiled gardens, with their rainbow of floral delights, would have enchanted the French ladies Monet painted below - on top "Woman in a Garden" then "Woman with a parasol in a Garden" by Claude Monet, French 1840-1926.

Don't you love these amazing, dramatic flowers?