Gentian's Photographic Misadventures

[Gentian]

Right, like with my writing, I'm going to take Gray's advice and make a central thread for my pics. Today, Twilight and I went on another date, so we have lots of new stuff to share. Before we get to that, though, here are links to the threads that came before.

A Day at the Park: http://waifucentral.com/thread-565.html
A Night on the Town: http://waifucentral.com/thread-572.html
Twilight Sparkle and the Human Castle: http://waifucentral.com/thread-575.html
Embroidery Sucks: http://waifucentral.com/thread-598.html

New stuff!

There's a beautiful park, that's not too far away from where I live. I've wanted to take my marefriend there for some time, but it's important to go when the season is right; too early or too late and there's nothing to look at but twigs. Well, it's finally time, so here we are, heading out!

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It's been a while since I've come this way, and had forgotten about this place. That's weird, because I've had dreams, and even written a story about it, but there you go. Anyway, as we were passing by, I asked Twilers if she wanted to see a human shrine. Can you guess what she said?

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We did a walk-around of the grounds. It's a small shrine, so there wasn't much to see, but I thought this little sapling growing from the trunk of the larger one was poignant. It kind of reminded me of that scene in "A Link to the Past" where upon hearing the ocarina, the fellow sitting on the stump transformed in to a tree. Twilers had no idea what I was talking about, unfortunately, but she thought the decay patterns in the stump were "fascinating." She doesn't know why that made me giggle, either.

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On the way out, I decided to photograph 2 of the buildings, too. I think this one turned out rather nicely. I'm sure the crow who had been cawing at us from the tree-tops was just happy to see us go.

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So, we left the shrine, and continued on our way. As we were riding by, I caught a glimpse of brilliant yellow, before it was hidden behind a wall of bushes. Twilight saw it too, and since we were going to look at flowers anyway, we decided to stop yet again, and take a better look. I'm glad we did.

I just want to say, it was fairly difficult getting this shot. The ground was steep, and loose, and I had to clamber about like a spider to keep from rolling indignantly all the way to the bottom. Twilight, with her quartet of steady hooves, fared much better than me.

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We made it!

And Sweet Celestia, was it crowded! Insanely so. I had hoped to get a shot of the front gate, and of the building next to it with a roof covered in grass. Nope. TOO MANY PEOPLE. It seems, that unbeknownst to me, the city had picked today to have a flower festival. There were food vendors, flower and plant sellers, and people. Everywhere. There was even security, to handle the traffic, and the bicycle parking was overflowing.

Well, let's just start then, with some purple roses. I took this, because I thought purple roses were actually rare. As it turns out, there were at least a half-dozen varieties in various shades of purple, but I didn't know that yet, so we jumped at the chance to photograph Purple Pony with Purple Rosy.

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More pretty roses. You can see some of the food stands in the background.

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More pretty roses!

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There were also some gorgeous kinds of white roses. Unfortunately, as you can see here, it was such a sunny day, that they're pretty much spots of glare. That's too bad, because they really were fantastic.

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These roses were a brilliant mix of colors. They looked like someone streaked their petals with dye. Simply breathtaking.

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Just a closer view of the previous roses.

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This arcade is the centerpiece of the whole place. It leads straight from the main gate, to the artwork visible at the far end of the park. It was so crowded that I couldn't get a nice shot down the middle, and even this one took, perhaps 15 minutes of waiting. The wind was starting to kick up, and I was afraid Twilight's vessel would end up in the water, so we called it "good enough."

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That is one classy fountain, I tell you what.

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The next few shots will be of roses, I don't think commentary will be necessary. I hope you like them.

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We finally found a vantage point from which I could photograph most of the park. So many colors!

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While we were enjoying the park, we couldn't help but notice there were an awful lot of people photographing me photographing my marefriend. But, this picture was particularly amusing, since the man standing behind and to the left of me when I took it, actually took some snaps of Twilight himself.

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Pretty pony, pretty roses, and interesting artwork.

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These really caught my eye. At first I thought they were different kinds growing together. However, if you look closely, you can see that even though the flowers grow in clusters, and each flower is a solid color, the individual roses within the clusters are of different colors. Really neat!

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Another fair view of the whole-ish park. You can see the arcade from pic 12 on the right.

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These gorgeous flowers were part of a larger mass that continued behind the bench and off to my right. There were so many people there I couldn't hardly see the roses at all. But, nobody was on this end! Some women sitting under parasols on the bench kindly slid off to the side so I could take this.

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I had to actually wait in line to get this one. I think it suits her nicely!

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And here we are, back at the gate. We decided to have another try at the arcade, but the wind was even stronger than before. Oh well, I think the alternate angle adds something, and those roses off to the side definitely don't hurt!

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It hadn't even occurred to me, that the sight of so many roses would actually make Twilers hungry, but it did. We both suspect that neither the staff, nor the other guests would have taken kindly to Twi devouring one of the bushes, not that she would have anyway, of course. So, we went off to find some food. As I've mentioned before, TwiTwi has embraced her (mostly) omnivorous pegasus side, and when she discovered corndogs, she had to try them.

Here we are, outside the park, enjoying our lunch of a wiener on a stick, a corndog, a "lemon tea", and a "peach tea." The park is behind Twilight, and behind me is, well, you'll see...

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...but not yet! Mmmmm, pony's first corndog.

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Look at all those roses! And we aren't even in the park anymore. They are what was behind me. Unfortunately, this street was loaded with people. The park's gate was maybe, 50 meters to my right, and a bus stop was double that to my left, so they were parading by as we ate. Not that we cared, and this was one of the only unclaimed spots in the shade, and just look at those roses.

We had to wait some time to get an unobstructed shot, but since the bus-passengers came in bursts, we managed.

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We decided to stop in for ice cream on the way home. Twilight wanted "burgundy cherry," and I, being the banana-loving fiend I am, chose "spring basket." I must say, the ice cream itself was good, but it could have done without the little candies in it.

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Guess who likes Baskin-Robbins now? It sure was a day of enjoyable firsts for my Princess!

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So, like I said: the day was really sunny. My arms are a little burnt, in fact. Twilight having fur, and bangs, and thus not understanding the sheer hell too much sun can bring, thought my choice of attire was hilarious. Here she is making fun of me. After I bought the ice cream, of course.

Such a cunning pony!

And that's it for our date today. We had fun, and hope you had a good one too.