I love the botanic garden, at any time of year when the weather is fair enough to be outside, and if it’s too cold or too hot you can always go to the conservatory. When we finished eating our sandwiches, my husband and sons were going to try to play catch with a baseball, and I went to go turtle watching. I wrote the following in my journal:

Turtles on a small island in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden

“I am sitting out in the botanic garden, enjoying the spring weather with a lot of other Fort Worthians. The focus we have is the turles of the pond at the bottom of the rose garden. Red Eared Sliders. they hiberate underwater in the winter but now, in spring, they rise to the surface to bask and fraternize. Everyone, turtles and garden visitors, seems is a good mood. Voices exclaim with delight at seeing a turtle dive into the water or at counting the 16 turtles sitting on a small island in the center of the pond, with three turtles swimming around, looking for an opening so they can climb up to sun themselves.

Now husband and sons come up. They’ve been busted, they say, by park security for throwing a baseball, which is not allowed. They watch the turtles for a while too, then we all go up to the fountain at the bottom of the rose garden terrace. I give the kids — and us adults — two pennies each to throw in for two wishes. I sigh. The year ahead looks promising, at this juncture, but that could be just a trick of the light, which today seems white and gold like the light of Italy, which sits well on the Italianate rose terrace, as we throw in the pennies and hope.” Thank you City of Fort Worth, for maintaining this beautiful garden, which I love.