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Betsy and I often spend a great deal of time wandering through the Conservatory when we visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. I admit that I don't often know the names of the plants I'm seeing, but I do enjoy seeing them anyway. I like the color and shape of the leaves of this plant in a picture taken last February.

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I've mentioned several times that Betsy and I have season tickets to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. While we enjoy the beautiful gardens, we almost always visit the Conservatory when we are there. I'm not up on all the names of the gorgeous blossoms we see, such as the beauty above, but my breath is always taken away by what we find in the Conservatory. It's a good thing there was a 'Do Not Touch' sign, or I would have touched this just to convince myself it was real.

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This is one of the blossoms that Betsy and I saw in the Conservatory at the Biltmore Estate when we visited last month. I was struck by the colors and the markings on the petals.

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Betsy and I usually manage to see the Conservatory every time we visit Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. We wandered into the Orchid Room of the Conservatory when we visited in late November. The simple beauty of this orchid caught my eye.

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While in the Italian Garden at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, I captured this reflection of the house in one of the pools. The monochrome image seems to take me back in time to the late 1890s, when the house was built.

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This is one of the colorful water lilies we saw at the Italian Garden on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. I like the vibrant color and the reflections in the water. I also like the bee in that first blossom.

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I was taking pictures of the water lilies and flowers in Biltmore's Italian Garden when I noticed the clouds reflected in the waters of a pool. I thought they looked pretty neat.

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I never had much artistic ability, although I have always admired people who could play a musical instrument or create beautiful art. So I became very intrigued when I learned how to create a line drawing from a photograph.

The azaleas and dogwood at Biltmore Estate were absolutely gorgeous when we visited on April 14. I thought the scene above would make a pretty good drawing. What do you think?



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Betsy and I enjoyed our last blogging break so much that we are taking another. Hopefully we'll be back about May 9.

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I don't know the name of this plant -- we saw it in the Conservatory at the Biltmore Estate. I really liked the colors and lines of these leaves. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything to identify the plant for me.