Beyond the Garden Gates...

It's late, on a beautiful, lazy Sunday, and I don't have the energy to say much.  But I wanted to share something with you here.  Today was Frederick's annual Beyond the Garden Gates Tour, where selected downtown residents let the public into their backyards to view some of the city's hidden treasures.  Some of the gardens were beautiful, some were rather bland, but it was a perfect May afternoon, and I had a wonderful time strolling through my little town and getting to see some things I normally couldn't.

I took some pictures, and I thought I'd post them here.

Notice the hanging balls - they are traditional Japanese Kokedama Moss Balls.  There are two more in the lanterns in the foreground.  This beautiful garden, and the beautiful home it is attached to, belong to the gentleman in the black beret.  He is apparently Australian, from his accent.

I really enjoyed the modern look of the back of his house, and the iron staircase on the left.

Pretty garden, but could've used some shade.  Notice the upper porch on the side of the house.  You see those all over the place around here.  You can see one in the background of the image with the Australian beret'd fellow above, in fact.

Same garden as above, but a view of their neighbors, and another of the classic, Mid-Atlantic/Southern Colonial upper-deck side-balconies.

Pretty modern fountain from the same garden.

Not actually a part of the tour, but just a house I passed along the way.  I liked the "witchy" look of it.  If you zoom in on the tree on the right, you'll see one of those kitschy "tree faces" attached to it.  I think it works for this place, in a way that it usually doesn't for others.

I think this was favorite garden of the tour.  I really loved this one.  It was beautiful everywhere I looked.

Upper-deck porch, again.  I really love these, and really hope to have one myself some day.

Still the same garden, you can see this shady conversation area in the background of the pool shot above.  SO PRETTY.

The front entrance of the above garden, filled with several interesting pieces of modern sculpture, in various media.  Notice the ubiquitous Siddhartha Buddha in the background.

This little guy is on your left immediately upon entering the above garden.  He appears to be carved from an old tree stump.  The finishing touch that guaranteed this was to be my favorite garden of the day.

Again, not part of the tour, but just something I noticed on my way from one garden to another.  This is a delivery box for South Mountain Creamery.  Apparently, this resident gets milk and/or butter delivered by a milkman.  I love my town!

Notice the elf-home facade at the foot of this old tree.  Cute.