Trip to the NY Botanical Garden

Last weekend was Anna's final performance with Amherst Ballet, and it couldn't have been in a more beautiful location with more gorgeous weather!  The dancers were invited to the New York Botanical Garden to perform excerpts from the Emily Dickinson Ballet on an open stage in front of the conservatory as part of the Garden's month-long celebration of Emily Dickinson's garden and poetry.  In life, Emily Dickinson was known as a wonderful gardener; her poems were only published after her death.

Anna and I arrived a few hours early so we could enjoy the gardens before a grueling schedule of rehearsals and performances.  Here she is relaxing in a tree...

 

Anna enjoyed photographing the flowers, especially all the peonies.  This type was her favorite.  She thought they looked like enormous daisies!

And here is another of her favorite flowers, foxgloves....

The Garden is enjoyed by a lot of wildlife, and there were birds, squirrels, chipmunks and bunnies everywhere.  Here is a baby bunny under a boxwood hedge...

Those photos were all from Friday.  Anna's performances were on Saturday and Sunday.  Here is Anna in her role as young Lavinia (Emily's sister).  Isn't the setting beautiful?

Between performances, the dancers handed out brochures about the ballet (not Anna's favorite thing to do), and some, including Anna, got to teach Creative Movement classes in the Children's Garden.  She liked working with the kids very much.  One of the little visitors who took a class was Anna's cousin, here in a photo with Grandmom...

I "kidnapped" Anna on Sunday during a time she was supposed to hand out brochures, and we went up to the Rock Garden.  This was our favorite part of the Botanical Garden.  There was a beautiful waterfall, which also happens to be on the postcard Anna bought, looking exactly like this...

But the highlight of the Rock Garden was definitely all the little green lizards running around.  Anna spent a lot of time photographing them.  See the little guy in the middle of the photo?

The Botanical Garden is truly an oasis of calm and beauty in the middle of the City.  We are very glad that Grandmom, Elise and Annelise were able to share such a beautiful weekend with us!  Here is a photo of the cousins, looking very happy to be hanging out together...

And a final photo of Anna, after all her performances were done...