This past weekend I visited the New York Botanical Garden for their annual Holiday Train Show. What fun! We went to the evening show with our friends and enjoyed the festive outdoor lights throughout the grounds as we made our way to the indoor train display. Magical moments were aplenty.
Train sets of all types were on show—there were long trains and short trains, cargo and passenger. I loved the single bee and ladybug trains the best. They careened around plants including African Violets and many varieties of Orchids—not surprising because it is a botanical garden.
I think the most spectacular part of the show was the variety of buildings on the ground and the spanning bridges above that were all made out of plant materials of some sort. Buildings of New York City and The Hudson Valley were represented in great detail constructed from twigs and leafs and moss and more. I think it is time to get out our N gauge electric model train set!
From A Railway Carriage
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!
XOXO Rachel