As I sat in the wooden lawn chair and surveyed my domain, green beyond the ponds and gardens until the rocky ledges give way to the beach and beautiful ocean, there was one song that played in my head to describe my life. OK...well maybe it has nothing to do with my life but I just wanted to hum "rock superstar" from a lawn chair throne on the hill of this little isle.
This is how life is lived when you're rich and maybe a little famous. If you are not fabulously rich, notorious, and infamous enough to enjoy views like this yourself, then I suggest you take my advice and do what I did to get here. Trespass. Actually it wasn't even trespassing, I waited diligently for the day when my day off would coincide with both sunshine and the "open to the public hours", but since no one else was in sight I kinda imagined this as my front yard view...and to be fair when I followed the path through the trees I did temporarily trespass on the next door mansion owner's lawn.
The mansion next door
The Palm Grove Gardens are located on South Road in Devonshire near a modest little sign that announces their presence and that they are open Monday through Thursday 9-5. When I first pulled off the road to explore these little gardens, it was to tour the lovely Tamiko on some interesting grounds that I had seen, thinking she may be interested with her landscaping architecture background.
Tam at the Palm Grove gardens in the summer of 2012
The grounds by the roadside sport a quaint old wishing well, a very nice moongate, loads of flowers and sculpted shrubbery, and a stream that reminded me of what a Japanese garden might look like.
Reminding me a lot of a smurf shack, this is the building that houses the wishing well
covered in vines on one side and led into with a trellis on the other, this is my favorite island moongate
And so, for another 18 months, I thought that I had already seen the Palm Grove gardens. One day I was perusing the internet about Bermuda and read that somewhere on the island there is a little pond shaped like a map of Bermuda. My coworker Sue told me that it was in the Palm Grove Gardens. When I said I had not seen it there, she just casually mentioned that I had to go around the top to see it. And so, on this Bermudaful morning (yes, this blog is all still part of the day of adventure that I mentioned yesterday), I planned on making a 10 minute stop at the gardens to take a photo of the fabled pond. Little did I know.
When I parked at the top of the hill, the first thing I encountered was an aviary. I met two very friendly parrots, and scores of their friends. As you can well imagine, I was riveted to this spot and our a 10 word dialogue for quite some time. And yes, he did ask if it was one o'clock when I arrived but would not say it again on camera :)
Just around the corner from my new feathered friends were a couple of gardener's sheds which just had a nice weathered but cared for look to them. I am sure the buildings get a lot of used based on how well manicured the grounds were.
Event the tool sheds are pretty here
Beyond that, I immediately spotted the pond...and realized that the Palm Grove Gardens that I thought I had seen down by the road were just a tiny piece of the overall parcel of land. And it did indeed look like a little map of Bermuda, although it was hard to get anywhere high enough and close enough to get an really amazing photo. I did the best I could, and am happy to say it is at least as decent as the ones I found in the online archives, so will be content with this one.
A miniature Bermuda!
Looking back on the pond from the oceanfront lawn in the gardens
To the left of the pond is a big old mansion. That's when I wondered if I had missed the public part and was actually trespassing. Nobody seemed to be around, and the sites were too good to pass up, so I carried on. If you do want to visit the gardens however, the deal is that this is known locally as the Gibbons' Gardens (yes, as in the department store and the bank), and the estate is owned by the Gibbons family. It is open to the public, so don't let the mansion alarm you.
I felt very humbled even by the stairway
You know you are really wealthy not by when you start purchasing statues for your gardens, but when you can afford that statues that are so incredibly creepy close up that the hair on the back of your neck stands up. From a distance I thought this was going to be a happy musician...then I got close enough to see the horns and cloven feet. Creeeeeepy.
The gardens are really really large. There are numerous types of trees. Including this neat one.
Tree Art
Random ponds as clear as the blue sky itself.
The crystal pond forecasts a wonderful day
Manicured paths that lead all the way to the ocean.
undeveloped space in this quantity is rather rare in Bermuda. Worth it's millimeters in gold I suspect.
And now that I know the property belongs to one of Bermuda's wealthiest families, what I saw down by the ocean makes a little more sense.
What to do when you have too much money.
I was like, "Did someone seriously make an swimming pool in the ocean...and add an ocean sculpture like a lawn ornament?" Yes, I think they did. Maybe they wanted a fish free area. OR maybe they wanted an area to fill with fish so they can soak their toes and have a fish pedicure like that weird trend that was going on a while back. Either way, they sure have a pretty little place.
Must be nice to have the edge of your front lawn look like this.
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