What once was is no longer

Have you ever had it where in your mind you envision something and the more you thought about it the more excited you got. I had that recently. Last week I asked Ralph if he had noticed if the sunflowers were blooming at the Joshua Art Gallery. He had confirmed that he had seen them and of course me being me, I started planning an early morning photo excursion. I thought I could drop him off while he played golf and then I would spend a few hours photographing the beauties. In my mind there would be a myriad of colours and I started planning different compositions. Oh how fun it would be just to get out and see them. So, early Wednesday morning I got up at 5:15 with Ralph and got ready for my morning adventure.  I had hoped that there would be some mist rising because of the temperature change and thought that I might get a nice shot of the early morning sun over the pond at Pipers Heath. That was not to be. When we turned into the drive of the course there were several workers on the green beside the pond and definitely no mist. I wasn’t off to a good start. After saying goodbye to Ralph I headed to the gallery. To be truthful I drove right by it. As I glanced to my right while driving by I didn’t see any sunflowers at all. Hmmm, they must have planted them on the back side of the garden. I turned around and headed back. Upon arriving at the garden I discovered that there was only a few sunflowers. Probably leftover seeds from the previous year. The garden itself had plenty of vegetables and other smaller flowers like lavender planted but wasn’t what I had planned for. I stayed for a short while and took a few pictures and then decided to drive along Burnhamthorpe Rd to see where it would take me. So much construction and new development was underway. The road was not real pleasant to drive on. I turned off onto a country side road for a while but that wasn’t enjoyable either. I was driving the speed limit (60) and cars were wizzing by me. Alas, my dream of a fun outing didn’t turn out as planned. 

I decided to go to Whole Foods and do a bit of shopping for some groceries. That took a total of 7 minutes. Hah hah...what a morning it was turning out to be. It was now 8:10 and Ralph wouldn't be done until at least 10:30.  I parked at the Mall thinking  I would do some Mall walking.  No luck there either as the doors were locked tight. I guess they are discouraging Mall walkers because of Covid.  Oh well.  I decided to slowly drive back to the course and see what caught my eye along the way.  I noticed an interesting piece of art so I pulled into the side road and there was a park that I never knew existed.  I parked the truck and went exploring.  What a beautiful park it was filled with many gardens full of flowers.  I spied a few photographers grouped together near one garden and they all had "huge" telephoto lenses on.  Curious, I approached and asked what they were shooting.  Hummingbirds they replied.  Respecting the social distancing, I chose not to join the group, but rather made a note to myself to come back early one morning and see if the hummers were there when it wasn't quite so busy.  I continued to wander around the park and took full enjoyment from all the beautiful flowers.  It was a good way to the pass the time while Ralph finished his golf round.