1plus1makes5: Royal Botanic Gardens

In the heart of the CBD (central business district) in downtown Sydney is a lush, alive, cornucopia of botanical joy. It is the largest and oldest garden in all of Australia, and so far it is one of my favorite places to hang. I have already been many times. With niños, with BabyDaddy, and out for a day of self-exploration with... myself.

You have to admit that anyplace with entrance signage like this warms your heart and makes you wanna come on in to see how cool stuff must be to make even the authority people jovial and welcoming.

There are many places to plop oneself down and just enjoy.

And there are also odd places with historic remnants that make you go hmm...

But the whole time your like "YEAH, this place is awesome."

There are many visitors to the Gardens. Some, however, are not all that welcome. These are flying foxes and they are all over the place. Hanging from trees, catching a snooze, and mooching off of the free fruit... which is why they are unwanted. Aside from park inconvenience, we thought they were AWESOME!

Cockatoo. Yep, they are all over the place. And, yes they are cool... but man are they loud. Don't seem to mind freaky featherless bipeds sneaking up on they to take a photo either.

And this bad boy, I have to admit is a bit intimidating. There is a pond in the middle of the Gardens that houses eels. No, no they do not put them there, in fact for years it baffled park workers as to why they are there at all. They drain the pond, for cleaning, a couple of times a year and each time they get rid of all the eels. Within a matter of days of the ponds refilling the grouch guests are back. Turns out these eels can travel over land. They were squirming out of the harbor and over the grass to the pond. There are signs around the park that warns that "although it is hard to watch a baby chick being eaten by an eel, please assure your children that this is just part of nature."

I love these trees. I think they are bay figs. Their trunks are knotted bundles of their branch roots that grow together. Seriously, there is no greater sculptor than mother nature.

The water is so clear in the harbor, and surprisingly clean, considering how much traffic it sees. I always feel like looking into super clear water is like looking over the edge of a massive cliff... you know that you shouldn't just jump right in (unless decked out in the appropriate gear) but something involuntary wants to you plunge in.