We’ve spent a very serene day  visiting Fort Worth’s Botanic Garden.  It’s the oldest botanic garden in the state of Texas and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was created during the Great Depression which began in 1929 and fulfilled the dream of an “outdoor library of plants.”

This statue is called “Spirit of Woman” and depicts the frontier woman at dusk waving her family home after a long hard day in the field when all the work was done and represents a collection of individuals who heartily embraced the ethic of equal work on the trails, plains and ranches.

We started our visit in the tropical rain forest before moving to the main gardens. We saw squirrels, geckos, lovely birds and a large magnificent butterfly.  The flowers were beautiful.

The Japanese Garden was originally the site of an old gravel pit and covers 7.5 acres. It has three gates symbolic of heaven, man and earth.

The ponds in the Japanese Garden are full of Koi (imperial carp), the size of which I’ve never seen before.  Some of the fish are 80 years old. We also came across a Heron (known as the Gobbler) who apparently helps keep the fish population down by eating the baby fish!! 

One funny thing we saw as we entered the gardens was the parking sign! How kind of them to make a parking space especially for us Brits!!

We then took time to visit the Stockyards Museum that has displays of cowboy, cattlemen and Native American memorabilia dating back to the early days of the Stockyards. It has an electric light bulb first turned on in 1908 at the Byers Opera House in Forth worth and  is still burning today!  It’s in the Guinness Book of Records of course.

So tomorrow it’s ‘farewell’ Fort Worth and ‘hello’ Sante Fe. The drive will take us about nine hours so don’t be surprised if there’s a blank page for Day 21!!