At the Chicago Botanic Garden, as if seeing the magnificence of all the growing plants were not enough, there is aways people watching. I was reminded of it again during my last visit.
Everybody from all over the world was there. Well, representatives from everywhere in the world were there. Every size, shape, color, gender, age. Actually just like the plantings themselves. And everyone moving in the same leisurely manner, pause and stroll.
There were the beautiful toddlers. Twice I came across a tottering tot trying out her legs. I leaned down to one scampering darling, and said with a big smile so as not to frighten, "Where is your mama?" She responded with an even larger smile. She was either too young to answer, or did not understand the language. I repeated it, wondering what I would do if this child had, indeed, eluded her parent. Fortunately, in each of the two cases, the mother came running up to claim her child. Am I so paranoid that a child, unattended, alarms me? I remember a newspaper item where an indignant person wrote abusively about a mother who had her child attached to a leash (around the waist, not the neck.) Looking at these situations, it sounded like common sense to me.
People watching will find the bridal party along with its cast of photographers. I saw two brides this day. One was in a bouffant aqua gown with a sparking crown in her hair. There were no bridesmaids with that party, just six attendant men, elegant in their black suits with aqua striped ties.
The second party had the bride in traditional white, clinging to a fine body. The equally lovely bridesmaids were bare shouldered in very dark brown dresses. Brown?
The Garden offers an unlimited choice of backgrounds for wedding pictures, but the rose garden seems the most popular with the high spraying fountain and the romance of roses. Yes, the photographer has the bride crouch down to bring her head level with the multitude of flowers. The brides never appear self- conscious with the mulitude of gawkers, myself included.
What a wonderful place the Chicago Botanic Garden is. Someday I may even talk about the flowers.
--Florence
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