Monday, August 25, 2014

Gigantic Tiny Trees

We are getting back on board with The Big Trip!  I had not forgotten, I had just gotten steam rolled by summer.

When I did our home school interviews (this is me interviewing the Zoomlians about the pleasures, disappointments, hopes and lost regrets of home schooling as we know it), one thing that came up repeatedly was that the kids wanted The Big Trip to be more immersive.



So, picking up where we left off in Japan, we went off to tour Japanese gardens and gigantic tiny trees at the Arboretum today.

This gigantic tiny tree was started in 1625!

This grove was my favorite.
And this one, I think, looks like an Ent.

Can you see it?

Besides the bonsai, the gardens were lovely.  There's really nothing like the tranquility of a Japanese garden.

Choclo was fascinated by the lanterns.








We also visited the Chinese Pavilion with their gigantic tiny trees.

In China, they are called penjing, and they often feature interesting rocks to make miniature landscapes.


And then we went home to make Yakitori Chicken for dinner, and watch a bunch of Star Blazers!

1 comment:

Annabelle said...

Glad your trip is continuing. Here in Hawaii there are lots of Japanese and I missed enrolling my daughter in a class at her school on how to use a soroban. Bummer. Hope they offer it again. It looks like fun (at least to this engineer!).