Nature Journal #8 - Fort Worth Botanic Garden

This week has been full of encounters with the outdoors – exploring the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, working at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge, and enjoying the rain and cooler, cozier Fall weather. On Sunday afternoon, my mom and I spent several hours walking around the grounds of the Botanic Garden, looking at the plants, flowers, trees, and animals of the garden. It was lightly raining as we made our way through gardens such as the Pollinator Pathway, the Forest Boardwalk, the Rose Gardens, and the Japanese Garden. We enjoyed the brightly colored flowers, listened to the swishing of the tall grasses, and patiently and observantly took the sights in. My favorite stop was at the Japanese Garden; I enjoyed the feeling of serenity and balance that was preserved inside its wooden gates. Stepping into the garden – with its lush green trees and winding pathways and bridges circling around a calm pond – felt like stepping into a different, almost magical world. I stopped many times to look at the coy fish, big and small, that filled the pond; I admired their different colors, orange and white and black, and their unique patterns. They seemed curious about us, too, and would come up to the surface every now and again to greet us. As we walked on, we saw turtles lounging at the water’s edge – and, while many of them were small enough to have fit in the palm of my hand, there was one massive turtle with a wide, flat shell about the length of my arm. Interestingly, this quiet afternoon with my mom, enjoying one another’s company and observing the beauty of the gardens around us, made me think about my grandma, my mom’s mom. My grandma loved her garden and was so knowledgeable about all things plants and flowers, so I kept finding myself thinking about her. I wondered which garden might have been her favorite, and I wondered if my mom was thinking about her as well.