On the Monday of the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada Jay and I decided to take advantage of our time off and go on a little bit of a photography outing. After a bit of thought we decided to make a trip out of the Civic Gardens. We have only been there once in the past and not actually spent any significant time there so we figured we would give it a shot. Considering its being a garden first and foremost, we figured there would be plenty of greenery and flowers and an abundance of spring photo opportunities in general. It also had the perk of being nice and close to home! And so with this decision made, we slathered on some sunscreen, grabbed the camera and away we went!
My understanding is that the Civic Garden Complex came to be through a partnership between the Garden Club of London and the City, as well as the Provincial and Federal governments. I’m not sure exactly how it all worked, but you can read a bit more than I can tell you about it myself here.
It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day and was even just a little bit humid. The gardens were full of people picnicking and general and enjoying the weather and the garden greenery themselves. Everywhere we looked we could see people walking the footpaths or sitting on benches chatting or even stretched out on the picnic tables scattered about reading a good book. A little something else I would have enjoyed doing! Upon arriving we discovered there weren’t quite as many flowers as we had expected, but there was still plenty of greenery around and the gardens didn’t disappoint in terms of opportunities for taking photos. There just simply wasn’t quite as much colour – but that’s okay, colour isn’t a necessity for taking good photos! We actually arrived at a great time in the day as it was bright and sunny but there was still some of the morning’s dew left on many of the plants.
We brought the dSLR as well as our phones to the gardens with us and we both went a little bit crazy snapping photos for a few hours. Jay was mostly stuck using his phone as I was hogging the Nikon quite a bit.
Hostas at the Civic Gardens
We both enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. I am only posting a few photos here today as highlights.
These photos were some of the only photos I took of areas of the park and I wanted to share these to show how beautiful and peaceful it was being there where we were. Stay tuned for some more photos of the plant life in coming posts as the rest will wait for my photos post in the works for about a week so from now.
A Lonely Bench at the Civic Gardens
Not only did we take lots of plant life photos, we relaxed a bit and took some others as well – mostly with our phone cameras and you can see why.
Getting a little bit goofy
Having fun – photographer style!
Getting a little bit serious about tulips
Jay’s turn! I did share a little…
It was such a fun afternoon and I can’t wait to go back again – with the camera…and likely picnicking ourselves! With the convenience of being so close to home, I think I can see us spending a lot more time in this place.
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The London Civic Garden Complex is located at 625 Springbank Dr, London, Ontario. To contact, call (519)471-6200. The facilities on site are also available for private functions.
