Ann Norton Sculpture Garden

 

This week's activity was to check out the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden. I'm not sure what I really expected, but I do know this place greatly exceeded those expectations. The home (which has been turned into a museum/gallery) was fresh and intriguing (even if I'm not really a fan of the artist-in-residence's style). The gardens were amazing, tranquil and serene. Ann's large sculptures were impressive and thought-provoking. There were over 200 types of palms imported from all over the world. I also enjoyed the orchid shed and studio. One of the more unique aspects were the pathways made from local rock. All-in-all we quite enjoyed our time meandering throughout this garden on a beautiful Florida day.

Ponytail Palm from Mexico

Zululand Cycad from South Africa (top right)

Note: We went the day after king tides had caused flooding along the coast. This museum is located on the Intracoastal Waterway, and so we were a bit concerned about how easy our access might be. However, we got there just after a new high tide and while there was water on the waterfront street, there wasn't any on the cross street where we parked. So, we were quite surprised two hours later to discover our car sitting in a few inches of water! Fortunately, I was able to hop from the curb into the car and crawl over to the driver's seat and move the car forward to pick up Wayne, so we didn't have to get our feet wet.