Any botanical garden worth a nickle handles the standard variety of perennials, roses, and shrubs well, and the Atlanta Botanical Garden is no different. Thus, our visit reportage focuses on those qualities that elevate the Atlanta Botanical Garden. If you’re in Atlanta and manage to survive the interstates, the Atlanta Botanical Garden is nestled downtown, which is a hop, skip, and a jump from the Atlanta High Museum of Art and not too far from the Georgia Aquarium. Compared to the Georgia Botanical Garden and the Chicago Botanic Garden (note: botanic in Chicago, not botanical), the Atlanta Botanical Garden is fairly smallish, but…it packs a punch, and further, the Atlanta Botanical Garden most definitely caters to children. There is a children’s garden, in which all manner of childsplay (splashing in fountains, screaming, running - and that’s the parents) is on display.







I know it’s unseemly to go around awarding oneself your own award, but in this case, the
One day, not long ago, my daughter Flynne asked me if I knew how the moon got its name. No, I said, and she replied, then let me tell ya. Well, if your children have something to say then you listen. Thus, the story of how the moon got its name… Many years ago, before humans, Earth was ruled by cows…
So, I’ve been away a while. I had an accident and was in the hospital, but now I’m back. I ride motorcycles…quite well. I ride bicycles (more dangerous than motorcycles in my experience). Until two weeks ago, I used to ride skateboards…quite poorly. An ill-advised Thanksgiving ride on a skateboard. I won’t go on and on about how horrible it was. (It was very horrible). But, I’m back to normal, if such a thing is possible, with implausibly, almost no scarring. Thanks to Saint Mary’s Hospital in Athens, Ga for being consistently kind. Thanks to Gary Friedman for the use of the photograph to the right. Please visit his site at
So I was sitting around planning my latest bit of
When I was 22 or so, I read the following essay by Aldo Leopold. It stuck with me through the years and has shaped me as a man. Thoreau and Leopold warn us about losing a part of ourselves. I give you “Thinking Like a Mountain” by Aldo Leopold…
I just finished my annual cross-country trip (see 