Botannical Gardens

We went today to visit the Botannical Gardens in Birmingham, Alabama.

Birmingham is a beautiful place. I wouldn't mind living here - in fact, I'd enjoy it. It is lush and green with a few mountains, many trees, and the kind of growing conditions that make for one spectacular garden. Unlike the Denver Botannical Gardens, we didn't see lots of drought resistant cacti in this place...and I'm sure touring in 60 degree weather as opposed to 100+ helped me see this place in a more favorable light. I enjoyed Denver, but I enjoyed Birmingham more.

When going through grounds dedicated purely to gardens, I think I understand why God created a paradise that he called the Garden of Eden. There is something so enjoyable about wandering around a place like that I can only attribute to being something in us that's like God: he enjoyed it, and we enjoy it. Why else should we be delighted at finding a hedge in full bloom that smelled like peaches and mangoes? Or looking at beds full of something we think might have been camellias and saying, "Wow. Look at THAT!"

We had a small mix-up getting to the gardens that involved going into a dead-end street and having to exit by driving down a driveway that looked to our dubious eyes like it was set at a 45 degree angle to the level ground. I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but it felt like we were going to land on our windshield. Mom squealed all the way down. Glad she was driving or she would've half killed any of us that tried that trick!