Last night, Josh and I took advantage of free entertainment and cultural experience and went to the grand opening of Coxhall Gardens, Carmel's newest park, out on the west side of town. All I knew about it was that the land was donated by a rich couple, the Coxes, and that the grand opening last night was featuring a free outdoor concert of the Indianapolis Jazz Orchestra, in the amphitheater that I saw on TV during last year's Solheim Cup.
I was very impressed when I got there. We had a nice picnic in the amphitheater, then I went to explore while Josh stayed and listened to the music. The first thing I noticed was the statue of the Coxes at the top of the amphitheater, arm-in-arm, coming to hear a concert. The quote underneath the statue: "An oasis in a sea of homes." I loved that quote. I was the perfect description of this place, and a perfect description of what Carmel needs. The grounds were gorgeous. The flowers had been planted recently enough that the gardens weren't lush yet, but you could see how beautiful they will be next spring. One of the most delightful parts of the gardens was the Children's Garden, that included playhouses> and areas to climb, a couple slides, and mazes and tunnels made of plants, which I thought were very cool. It will obviously be cooler when the plants are grown up.
The centerpiece of the park is not the Children's Garden, however, but the matching bell towers at either end of the park. Unlike Taylor's bell tower, these have real bells.
All that said, the thing that really impressed me was the attention to detail all over the park. I love being able to look very closely and still see hidden details. The park was so obviously a labor of love and a tribute from Jesse Cox to his late wife Beulah. It was very beautiful.
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Today's adventure was going one town to the west to Zionsville for their Lion's Club Fall Festival parade. I'll admit, I didn't actually go to the fall festival because parking was $3 and I was all about free events this weekend, and I didn't stay for the entire parade because I was getting hot in the sun and didn't have anyone to talk to. My primary goals for the trip to Zionsville were (1) to see the new Nancy Noel studio that Anne works at on Saturdays and (2) to see our friend from our small group play the accordion in the parade.
Nancy Noel is a local artist known nationally for her paintings. She just opened a new studio in Zionsville inside a renovated church. The outside is a very unassuming looking old church. The inside is truly a sanctuary. I wandered in about 20 minutes after they opened, and was the only customer in the main room. Music was playing softly and echoing in the high ceiling. I was surrounded by paintings of angels and Amish children. It was somewhat surreal. I then went in search of Anne, who gave me more of a tour. It was very fun. Sooner than I liked, however, I left the church to make sure to not miss the parade.
Besides the crowds, the first signs of festivities I saw was the old-time band playing along the side of the street. There was an accordion player in this band, but not my friend. Our friend rode in the parade, on a convertible for the library. It was neat to see him. I waved. He saw me. I felt special. On the way back to my car, I caught pictures of quaint houses and gardens. Zionsville as a whole can be very well summed up as 'quaint'. There's not much else to be said.
Check out all the pictures from today:
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3 comments:
Why was there an ATM in the Garden? Was there also a gift shop?
I meant to make a comment about that... This is Carmel. You gotta teach kids to use ATMs. (The ATM was fake, a part of the playground.)
Oh, and the profile-picture-changing worked for you. I do approximately what you describe, except I save my profile picture/banner picture post as a draft after uploading it, rather than posting it, so nobody KNOWS I do it that way :)
oooh, sneaky sneaky! I didn't know you could do that!
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