Despite keeping it covered for the winter, our beautiful fountain is showing damage from the extreme weather this year. I am trying to convince myself to consider it “added charm,” yet I hate to see some of our lions heads crumbling. Oh, what to do? I guess, just wait for spring. Once the fountain is running and splendor has returned to the garden, the old beasts will seem more at ease.
Since not much will be blooming in the garden for the next day or two, after breakfast I decided to play around with getting a few photos of our fountain. The sun was quite bright -so nice after the long winter we had.
For some time, I’ve been wanting to put an arbor over the bench that looks out on the garden. Since we have several garden weddings coming up at the Bed & Breakfast, I decided to go ahead and get that arbor. I don’t have time to get anything growing on it before Saturday’s wedding, so I am trying to figure out whether we need to decorate the arbor and if so … how. (The bench will be moved out of the way and we’ll have mums around the arbor’s base.)
The fountain looks great, but I worry that this might be its last season. Each year it gets more difficult to repair weather’s tolls. We really love having the fountain, though. It is beautiful and we enjoy the water sounds. So we’ll keep it running for as long as we can.
It rained on and off all day yesterday – a gentle, soaking rain of the type that is good for the garden. I managed to get some lovely photos of my roses after breakfast this morning. This is my favorite of the photos …
Have a wonderful day!
As part of my resolution to experience more of what Manhattan has to offer, I recently attended a gala at Kansas State University Gardens. It was a wonderful evening. The theme was Three Coins in the Fountain to celebrate the installation of a second fountain in the gardens. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera that night, but that just gave me extra reason to go back! The gardens are just over 2 miles from The Morning Star. I hope that you enjoy my photos. (Since the completion of the gardens is still “in progress”, I’ll certainly have more in the future.)
Manhattan City Park is only a few blocks from the Bed & Breakfast and I’ve been wanting to get over there to see the Rose Garden for a few weeks now. With yesterday morning’s breakfast starting late, I was able to dash over to the park for some pictures about 45 minutes after sunrise. It’s hard to believe, but I actually got there too early as the sun was blocked by trees and I had to wait for it to get a little higher in the sky before any of the flowers were in the sun. I did get some nice pictures of the roses and the fountain, but was not able to stay for as long as I would have liked.
The Rose Garden was started in the 1920’s by Mr. Berry, an 1883 graduate of what was then Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University). He was a member of the Kiwanis Club which was instrumental in tending to and funding the garden in the early years. The garden served in part as a demonstration plot to show that roses could be grown in Kansas. Boy can they!
The fountain was originally put in City Park in 1895 and was moved to the Rose Garden in 1986. Whenever I study the fountain, I am delighted by the detailed workmanship and wonder if there is still anyone around who does such work.
Paul Scarlett Rose on Arbor
Tropicana Rose
Olympiad Rose
Bella Roma Rose
Fountain Detail
The fountain is back on and its lions are spewing water. One of our guests’ favorite things to do while staying with us is to sit on the porch and listen the fountain burble. Ok, so it’s one of our favorite things to do to! Hooray for the return of the lions! 
A Taste of Morning 