Yesterday, my youngest two kids played “in-town tourist” with me. For me, the practical application of this concept involves walking past the remaining laundry pile(s) from soccer camp, deciding to “make do” instead of make yet another grocery trip, and ignoring all things electronic.
I can do most of the above with alarming ease as long as there’s chocolate milk in the fridge (For me, this marks the sharp descent from “flexibility” into unnecessary hardship..).
The consensus choice for the first stop of our in-town “tour” was our treasure of a metro park, “Inniswood Gardens“. Absent the requisite metro park signage, one might believe they were in a privately-tended, admission-funded attraction. With 121 acres of parkland tucked amongst the neighborhoods of Westerville, Ohio this garden-park is one of our favorite escapes. Inniswood is a near-perfect blending of man’s whims and nature’s generous surprises, replete with rocky waterfalls, lush stately arbors, bustling pond communities, and vibrant imaginative plantings. Once the rolling estate land of sisters Mary and Grace Innis, the park is now tended by over two hundred volunteers and park employees. And it’s never the same… It’s “new” every season with breath-altering nuances that nudge the senses and invite their full engagement.
With both densely wooded trails and wheel-chair accessible paved paths, the Gardens have opportunities for all. A homestead area with barn, orchard and miniature house has a working water pump and is invariably surrounded by drenched and delighted children throughout the spring and summer months. The Sisters’ Garden was designed to “nurture the nature of the child in everyone”; it features a charming ivied “ruins” at the end of a trellised path. Herbs, flowers and trees are well-labeled throughout Inniswood, satisfying both the curious wanderer and the serious gardener.
Currently, David Rogers’ “Big Bugs” are nestled into the grasses and ponds of Inniswood.
These giant creatures are fashioned from combinations of cedar, willow, black locust and willow trees. Enormous ants, measuring ten feet in height, march the perimeter of a large bowled field at the northwest end of the park. A sixty pound spider rests on its twelve by twelve foot web of willow spun upright between two pines near the park entrance. Similarly over-sized and anatomically correct insect companions include a ladybug, assassin bug, praying mantis, and damselfly. The exhibit runs through October 14th, and based on the use of overflow parking yesterday, it looks to be an immensely popular and successful venture for the Columbus Metro Parks.
We’ll be frequent visitors, but we would be anyways. The advantage to being “in-town” tourists is proximity. And the ability to hit the grocery store on the way back home…
