botanical garden | summerplayshouse

We took a little hike the other day to check out the newly opened Ventura Botanical Gardens. Right now it’s mostly California shrubbery and wildflowers but the city has major plans for a full Botanical Garden that will include many different walking trails and different flora throughout. The views from this hike are lovely and although the trail was rather crowded with families and their dogs, it was nice to see so many people out enjoying the outdoors and the trail still seemed rather quiet and peaceful.

There were some beautiful little wildflowers hidden and scattered throughout the trail. We came across a honeycomb from a bee hive that was strewn out along the trail. It was a neat site to see and photograph. Ellie didn’t seem to enjoy the hike as much as we would have liked her to. Half way down the trail she was done and let us know. We hope as she gets older she will enjoy taking these little hikes with us. I know we enjoy being outside in the California open.

We took Jeff’s parents down to the beach one night last week hoping to find the Channel Islands information booth. They want to go hiking on one of the islands and needed more information. We found the lovely little information center with its own mini botanical garden and after some exploring of the center and gardens we decided to take a walk on the beach. It was a chilly evening and getting close to the baby witching hour, but that sunset was calling to us…

Thank you to Jeff and his parents for taking some of the pictures (the ones I’m in). It was such a nice walk. The sun going down and the waves and the winter, chilly air made it almost magical. And then as we were nearing the end of the walk, my sweet, sweet baby buried her head in my shoulder and snuggled in close. It was magical alright.