Butterflies and Bumblebees in Brooklyn

Most of our time in NYC was spent in Manhattan, but we also had the opportunity to visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, an oasis of tranquility in the midst of a place more often associated with hustle-bustle of a busy life...and not at all far from where David and Miranda live.

The Botanical Gardens (BBG) was started in 1897 at the site of a former ash dump. As early as 1915 BBG boasted an impressive Japanese Garden, and a conservatory in 1917 that contains flora from around the world.

Miranda had heard that koi will come when one claps one's hands. Maybe that was the signal the caretakers used when feeding time came, but the koi certainly came...and the turtles as well.

OK...I had bees in the title, so I had to include one bee shot

Flowering cactus in the conservatory

Flowering pond lily

Orchid in the conservatory

Another flowering waterlily

This is perhaps my favorite shot of the trip - a Monarch butterfly