naughty?

Here's three pictures I took at Sarah Duke Garden yesterday. The first is a picture of a family of ducks that were sheltering behind a cluster of iris plants. Very sweet and rated G.



But for some reason, when I look at pictures of iris blooms close up--I get a very different impression. Maybe it's just me, but they look quite naughty.

Now, while not as extreme as those Georgia Okeefe paintings could be, they definitely give me an impression of... something else entirely.

If you ever saw that Pink Floyd movie "The Wall", thematically based on the album of the same name, you know what I mean. *whew* That was a movie with some extreme imagery.

Adding to the theme of the iris petals was all the matrimony in the air.

There were at least 3 weddings going on while we were at Duke--maybe more. The Chapel had one happening while we there, and it looked like the security guard was piling up folk from another wedding scheduled later, and there were several groups down in the garden doing weddings and receptions. I'd never seen that level of social ceremony there before. Large sections of the place were off-limits to all non-guests.

Fortunately the Asian section, where these iris pictures were taken, was still open to everyone.