Location Taken: Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, Illinois
Time Taken: April 2008
You know, I don’t actually run across that many fountains.
It seems odd. I mean, you see them in movies and games and books, but really, how many times do you regularly encounter a fountain in real life?
Sure, there’s usually one at a big park, or in a fancy upscale mall, but even those I don’t visit that often. You’d think, with as pretty as they are, that they’d be far more common.
Though I do know part of why every house doesn’t have one. My mom has a pond with a waterfall, you see. It’s not a full fountain, but it’s got most of the trappings. And my goodness is it a pain to maintain. It’s full of sodden rotting leaves every fall, it evaporates in summer, and has to be turned off in winter lest the tubing break. And that’s if everything’s working, which is rarely the case. Either the filter is clogged or the lining is leaking or the waterfall got a bit misaligned and is losing water off the side…
So perhaps it makes sense that only places with a significant landscaping budget maintain fountains. Still, I’d really like for them to be far more common. If only because you can get fantastic photographs of burbling water off of them.
