December 9-12, 2021: San Antonio Birthdays
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On Saturday night, Prudence, yet again displaying her incredible generosity, took everyone to "Lightscape", a festival of lights at the San Antonio Botanical Garden.

Getting to the Botanical Garden

Usually, when we go over to the San Antonio Botanical Garden, we just drive over and park in the lot right outside the entrance. But for this special show, the process was very different.

The 40-acre, non-profit Botanical Garden was first conceived in the 1940s by Mrs. R. R. Witt and Mrs. Joseph Murphy, who organized the San Antonio Garden Center. The two went on to develop a master plan for a city botanical center in the late 1960s. The site of the master plan was a former limestone quarry and waterworks area owned by the city. Voters approved $265,000 in bonds in 1970, which was the catalyst for funding the new gardens. Ground was broken for the new facilities on July 21, 1976 and the San Antonio Botanical Gardens officially opened to the public on May 3, 1980.

Tickets for this event were sold by entry time, and there were way more people attending each of the event nights that there was no way everyone could park at the Botanical Garden itself. So parking was provided in a multi-story parking garage adjacent to Founder's Hall at the University of the Incarnate Word at Hildebrand and Broadway, about a mile away from the Arboretum itself.

So we took two cars over there, found parking places in the garage, and then lined up for the shuttle that took people over to the garden.

The shuttle took us from the parking garage over to the entry plaza for the Botanical Garden. It all looked much different at night.

We have been to the garden numerous times, but this was the first time we'd come to see something other than plants and flowers, and the first time we'd been here at night. So this visit won't have the kind of photos that we usually get. "Lightscape" is something different. At the event, over one million lights and festive displays have been set up in the Botanical Garden for this first time that the "Lightscape" event, which makes the rounds of major gardens in this country, has been held here in San Antonio.

The event has visitors follow an 1-mile, outdoor illuminated trail that winds its way through the gardens, stopping at major light installations, such as the "Winter Cathedral" and "Bluebonnets" (an installation that is only seen here in Texas). Everything is set to music, and each installation has its own theme that plays when you get close to it.

Before we headed off into the garden, we took a couple of pictures at the entry plaza:

For this "tour" of the garden, a garden map won't be helpful, as I can't tell just where the path ran- it was dark, and there was no diagram of the path through "Lightscape" provided. But let me divide the page into general areas.

Entry Plaza

Near the Entry Plaza for the Botanical Garden, there is the educational building, an herb and vegetable garden, and a kid's area. This area was all lit up with multi-colored lights, so most visitors stopped to take a look before heading up the main walkway into the Botanical Garden.

The Ruckman's houseguests are here as well, and we are currently in the herb garden.

Prudence and Her Sister Nancy at the Botanical Garden Entrance

Before going much further, I should say that picture-taking was difficult this evening. Any picture with light behind the subject was tricky, even with flash. Pictures and movies of lights in the distance were fine, but most of the lighting along the path was so bright that anything in front of them got underlit.

Guy and Nancy are in front of a light display at the entrance.

There were lots of places along the path where lights were projected down onto the path itself, particularly here near the Botanical Garden entrance.

Before we started out on path, here are Guy, Prudence, Nancy, and Fred.

Part of the kid's garden, these windmills were adorned for Lightscape.

Lightscape is different at each garden that hosts it; here at the Botanical Garden, the path began with visitors walking across "Lone Star" projections on the walk.

As we started out, I made my first movie of the beginning of the tour, and you can use the player below to watch it.

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The Lucille Halsell Conservatory

One of the main features of the San Antonio Botanical Garden is the Lucille Halsell Conservatory, which actually consists of five large greenhouses of different shapes and containing different kinds of plants. These were not open this evening, but in the below-grade courtyard in the center of them, almost everything was lit up. The sloping walkway that leads down to this area was bordered by intricate light filaments, and my picture really doesn't do it justice.

Here are some pictures taken in the courtyard, where the lighting gave the large plants a kind of ethereal quality:

I tried a selfie here in the courtyard, but it didn't turn out all that well.

Movies did better this evening than still shots, it seemed. I made a couple of pretty good ones here in the conservatory courtyard that may give you a better impression of what the area was like.

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The Texas Bluebonnets

Apparently, in the gardens where Lightscape is shown (and it appears to be as much an advisory service as it is a traveling installation of lights), there are usually local elements that are unique to those gardens. Here, it is the Texas Bluebonnets installation. Here is a movie I made of this installation, and one of my still pictures of the field of "bluebonnets":

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The Field of Bluebonnets

As you can see in the still picture and the movie, each "bluebonnet" was made of a stack of globular blue lights that remain on constantly, with each stack topped by three globules that were also lights, but lights that could be set to turn on and off. The effect was much like looking at a single bluebonnet flower.

The Field of Dreams

Near the center of the gardens there is a high point of land, and a circular observation platform that offers expansive views of the garden. On the north slopes of this artificial hill was an installation called "Field of Dreams", consisting of wavy rows of synchronized lights. Each light could be programmed to turn on and off, or change color. And that's what these did, offering light shows where waves of light seemed to move across the field. And all this was set to music. The best way to understand this installation is to watch it in action.

This short movie will give you an idea of what it was like to watch the installation. You can see the observation platform on the hill opposite. (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

This longer movie was taken from a different vantage point to try to show you how the lights were sychronized with the music being played. (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Here are the best two still pictures, even though I think that the movies give a much better impression of this huge light installation.

The Winter Cathedral

The arched lights of the Winter Cathedral certainly give you the feeling that you're in a church, what with the gothic-shaped arches, through which visitors walk.

In this movie, we'll walk all the way through the Winter Cathedral. (Mouseover Image If Video Controls Not Visible)

We are approaching the Winter Cathedral (which was close to the end of the Lightscape trail).

At left and below are good still pictures of me in the Winter Cathedral. It was impressive, even though it wasn't as technologially advanced as the Field of Dreams, or as colorful as the Texas Bluebonnets.

Walking through the Winter Cathedral brought us back to the Entry Plaza and the conclusion of Lightscape. Although it misted and sprinkled a bit during out visit, on the whole it was a really neat experience.

The Entry Plaza is all lit up for the Holidays.

Fred and I at the Entry Plaza

The Lightscape experience was really enjoyable, and once again Fred and I thank Prudence a great deal for her thoughtful gift of a visit to it.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	December 9-12, 2021: San Antonio Birthdays
	November 24-28, 2021: Thanksgiving in San Antonio
	Return to the Index for 2021