In Buddhism, the lotus is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols and one of the most poignant representations of Buddhist teaching. The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the heavily scented flower lies pristinely above the water, basking in the sunlight. This pattern of growth signifies the progress of the soul from the primeval mud of materialism, through the waters of experience, and into the bright sunshine of enlightenment (source).

I do have to say that the lotus at Biltmore are beautiful, the flowers open around noon time, and start closing in late afternoon around 3 pm, this is especially bad for picture taking because there’s too much sunlight during the time that the petals open the prettiest, and how ironic when the sunlight soften in the evening, best time to take picture, but the lilies are no longer open, nevertheless they’re still beautiful to me.

A huge tadpole, there are several there.

There are 3 huge Koi fish that I was able to spot, they’d come to you if you splash or stir the water around, my second sister did that and they came and touched her hand.