today i visited the botanical gardens with my parents. mums knees aren't doing so great so we went very slowly and stopped often. but it meant that we got to inspect all the flowers and read their information. we stood under a tree imported from japan called a "heaven tree". i snapped a photo of a butterfly perched on its bark, just as it fluttered its wing for a moment.
the garden is located right next to a noisy roundabout, which sort of takes away from the experience as we traversed the outskirts of the area. the topic of cars came up a number of times today. first with the roundabout, secondly when we saw a beautiful vintage bentley parked in a derelict part of town, third when my mum mentioned the impossibility of those new driverless cars, and proceeded to gasp when i told her that i rode in one quite a few times while living in san francisco, and it was just as uncanny as it sounds. and lastly, when our car made the most wretched sound as we drove home and we all thought that it was going to break down at any second. turns out, my dad was just driving in the wrong gear the whole time.
