Eden Redux

Of all Athens's manifold attractions, I spend more time at the Botanical Gardens than anywhere else. It's less than five miles from my apartment, making it the preferred retreat when I want peace. When I go, I read, grade, wander about aimlessly, and (now that I've got a camera) take pretty pictures, such as...
... this butterfly. Butterflies aren't in my field of study, but this looks like a Monarch, or its twinsy, the Viceroy. Gotta love a 10x zoom!

This is a more formal section of the garden. There's an arbor just to the right of this shot; it's one of the places I grade.

This is the physic garden: a collection of medicinal plants much like those cultivated in monasteries and medieval colleges of medicine. This is the sort of garden Brother Cadfael, the herbalist, would have maintained, though without the flashy geometry.

This is the magical Black Globe of the Fountain. Small children, particularly those of Asian descent, are drawn to it by some mysterious force beyond the ken of mortals. It's also fun to spin, like so:

The gardens also contain (predictably enough) lots of flowers. I take pictures of those too -- just don't expect me to identify them. They're pretty, and that's enough justification for them.

And, finally, the gardens are home to many wild critters. This little fellow is a skink. He and his cousins scurry about throughout the gardens, anywhere there's a patch of sunlight within sprinting distance of cover.