Sunday, two other conference guests joined Mary Kate and I to visit the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

My enthusiasm about visiting the Botanical Gardens must mean that I am now grown-up, which is a fairly frightening idea. When I was younger I thought that visiting a garden was the most boring thing in the entire world, and would kick up a fuss if Mum or Dad suggested it.

�Grown-ups are so boring! All they ever care about is the weather, money, and plants! It�s pathetic! I�m never going to be like that, ever!�

Yeah, right. Last weekend I got excited about visiting gardens, and I am now about to post photographs of plants. So I guess this must mean that I am officially an adult. (The weather is also very nice here today, just so you know.)

So, we spent about an hour and a half trying to get to the Botanical Gardens, which were just a couple of miles away. The main problem was that it was Sunday, and although the MARTA was running as normal, the buses were not. We had to catch a bus from one of the MARTA stations to the gardens, and it was a fiasco. None of the MARTA staff seemed to know which station or which bus we needed, and sent us on a wild goose chase across Atlanta. No two people told us the same thing. We must have gotten off at four different stations and asked four different bus drivers, before finally giving up and calling a cab.

When we arrived, the gardens were so impressive that we decided it was worth the farting around to get there. I immediately took my camera out and started snapping.

First, we visited the conservatory that housed the tropical gardens. Every so often a device on the ceiling would spray mist everywhere � it was intended for the plants, but it did a good job of refreshing the people, too. It was much hotter than the previous day, and the humidity meant that you only had to walk two steps before breaking out in a sweat. After the heat outside, walking through the cool mist was simply glorious.

In the conservatory we found strange sci-fi flowers�

Pitcher plants (which I thought were particularly neat because they manage to be suggestive of both male and female parts � Georgia O�Keefe would�ve had a field day)�

Leaves large enough to use as umbrellas�

An unidentified thing, which I just thought was interesting�

An incredible blown-glass sculpture that gave Bonnie the heebie-jeebies when I showed the photograph to her. It was like something out of The Day of the Triffids. When we first saw it, it was through a haze of mist, then gradually the shapes emerged� it was pretty eerie�

� And a little yellow bird. At one point there were two of them side-by-side on the fence, and I was like: �It�s Sweetie and Fluffy! I have to get this!� Of course this meant nothing to anybody else, and before I could get the shot one of them flew off.

After that we went to the desert room, which was hot, but bearable because it was so dry. There were some stunning cacti, but I took photographs with my Canon rather than the digital and the film isn�t developed yet.

We then wandered around outside a little and found some red plants in pots�

A pond with lilies in�

And another blown-glass sculpture. This photograph creeps Bonnie out also; I think it is probably because it is a bit snake-like, and she is afraid of snakes. I, however, thought it was marvellous.

By then we were drenched in sweat and very thirsty, so we sat in the courtyard and had a drink. I had possibly the most minging drink I have ever tasted. Over here I�m very partial to iced tea; however rather than order my usual �unsweet tea� and put sweetener in it, I thought I�d cut out the middle man and order �sweet tea�. It was like drinking diluted syrup, which I think it actually was. Blech. I will not make that mistake again.

By then it was time to leave. We knew better than to attempt public transport again on a Sunday, so we got a cab back to the hotel and met up with the conference-goers for dinner. We drove back to Chattanooga in the evening� and probably talked about the weather, plants and money. Or maybe discussed the colour of snot. I don�t remember. Do people ever really grow up?