Tag Archives: spring

One of the prettiest places in Tallahassee during the spring is Maclay Gardens. I visited for the first time my freshman year of college and have been taking visiting friends and family ever since. The best visit I ever had was with my mom; it was the very beginning of spring and the trees and flowers were blooming so fiercely that you could scarcely see the leaves. The entire garden looked like it had been covered in pink and white snow. This year I missed the sweet spot, but my mom and I still decided to make a morning of it this weekend.

The main walk of the garden is shaded by massive trees dripping with Spanish moss and flanked by numerous camilla bushes (trees?). It’s such a picturesque setting; in fact we ran into several groups taking advantage of the beautiful weather to do everything from birthday photos to engagement/save the date shoots. There were even a few groups from the college.   Frequently on this blog, you hear me lamenting the hot stodgy weather that blankets Tallahassee for the better part of the year, but during this brief period where the flowers are blooming and the weather is fine, I can see why so many people fall in love with the sunshine state.   This knurled old tree seems like something from a storybook, and it’s one of my favorite places to go to in the garden. Its lowest branches gracefully rest on the ground and are covered in moss and tiny ferns. The upper branches reach up and out, providing the perfect amount of shade. I love watching the light filter through its leaves and wondering how many people have stood there before me and how many stories must this old guy have born witness too?   This tiny gated garden is my mother’s favorite. It’s a bit too orderly for me, but the walls around it remind me very much of reading the Secret Garden and how Mary Lennox must have felt stepping through the gate for the first time. 
It was a really nice way to spend a morning, even if we had to share it with a lot more people than we’d initially thought. We’ve hopefully got another week or two of nice weather, so I might try to make it out there once more before the season is over and my vampiric tenancies reemerge.