Roadtrips: "Virtually there yet?"

Dragonfly at Olbrich

It's Saturday and I have no burning ambition for much of anything. I've turned on my grow lights, checked to see if any of the plant babies need a drink, brewed coffee, diced up a cantaloupe which I shared with Faithful Companion, whom I walked so she could do her duty and read her pee-mail.

What to do?

If I lived in a larger metro area, I think today I would be checking out an indoor botanical garden or large indoor nursery. When I lived in Elgin,IL, one of my favorite jaunts was to greenhouses at the Heinz Brothers' Nursery in St. Charles. Other favorite jaunts have been the Mitchell Park Conservatory at the Domes in Milwaukee, the Elvehjem Museum of Art in Madison, WI (now renamed the Chazen, I guess and is now twice the size), or the Bolz Conservatory at Olbrich.

"Thanks" to modern technology, I can be any of these places-- virtually. Almost, but not quite... A couple weeks ago I visited the Lourve in Paris. Not really, just the virtual tour from their website on my laptop. I've been to the Lourve when I was in my twenties. I've stood before the Mona Lisa, yes, you'd think it was bigger, and touched (don't tell!) the cool marble of some Venus rising from some bath. As a gardener I am visually oriented, but I am also very tactile. I like to touch. I also like my flowers to smell like flowers. My computer doesn't have "smell-o-vision" or a scratch and sniff key, yet.

Or can the pictures capture and convey the delicacy of life we experience when we are actually living in the moment.