When Turf Toter and I were at VanDusen Gardens last week, it was hot. And that turned out to be a really good thing, because I got soaked. And from the screams erupting from the maze nearby, I wasn’t the only one. It all started when I fell in love…again, with a new plant. Cupid’s Dart, or Catananche caerulea. Oh my, and I did I fall hard. Where have you been all of my life? And why have I never encountered you before? Imagine, a gorgeous hot day, the sun is shining, and as we came over a small rise, spread out before us was a long banking filled to the brim with Cupid’s Dart. A small stream meandered beside the banking, making this photo op even more appealing to me. I had to have some shots of it.
Only thing between photographers bliss, and me, a set of rotating sprinklers. No problem I thought, they aren’t on that high, I’ll just skip through them. I crossed the stream, and climbed the banking, barely got wet from the first sprinkler, and started to take some photos. When the water started to fall on my shoes, I proceeded up the path, and that’s when it ambushed me. Out of nowhere I got shot directly in the glasses. Hair dripping, lens foggy, I tried to proceed the way I had started, but without being able to see where I was going. Splat! It got me in the side, my skirt was soaked. And splosh! There was another sprinkler, my camera was all wet. Nearly blinded, I walked right into another sprinkler. Soaked head to toe, I rushed up the banking to safety, and looked over my camera. It had survived, and I dried quickly. And, I got the shots I wanted.
As for the poor people in the middle of the maze when the sprinklers turned on, they were soaked also. There was lots of good natured screaming that didn’t end until they found their way out. Kind of a lost, and splashed day. Jane.