Exploring Home II

In my blog post Exploring Home I, I talked about taking one day a week and doing something vacation-like before my husband starts his job. I promised to share one more of these outings, and this is it (see below).

The description on the bottom of the photo says “Congress of Clowns,” but no, I did not accidentally take a wrong turn out of Florida and end up in DC. This photo was taken at the Ringling Brothers Historical Museum. We like to go there once a year, maybe twice if possible. We usually find it to be relaxing and quiet … meaning, not a lot of tourists. We’d never been there in March before, and we found out when all the tourists go. It wasn’t quite as peaceful, but still picturesque nonetheless.

The morning started out a bit chilly. The bright sun warmed the day, and the soft brush of sea air wrapped us in comfort.

We’ve been inside to see many of the circus props before. There is also an elaborate art museum with original paintings and sculptures from the renaissance and earlier. The Ringlings were patrons of the arts, and there is an art school on the property.

The mansion where John and Mable lived is exciting to see too.

This time we hoped to enjoy the serenity of the grounds and didn’t do as much indoor exploring. We spent a little time in the secret garden where the two are buried (along with John’s brother). Lots of buzzing from nectar loving bees there.

The gravesite is way back there. If you can see the statue sticking up, that’s where they are buried.

Flowers from the secret garden

We walked past the bamboo trees and saw a suspicious character coming out of the woods.

Oh, it’s just one of Mable’s many sculptures dispersed throughout the grounds. What a lovely serenade.

Mable’s rose garden didn’t have as many blossoms as it did during other times of the year, but the sweet aroma still pleasured our noses. A few of my past blogs have featured roses from past visits to her garden.

I could share endless photos, because I’m one of those endless picture-takers, but I’ll leave you with rose alley. This is the last of our explorations for a while. Thank you for coming along on this tranquil day, and for our other little excursions in our home state. If you missed them and would like to check them out, click here, here, and here.

P.S. I have a non-related blog post scheduled for Wednesday that will feature a couple photos from the Ringling Museum.

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