This Sunday we drove to Brookside Gardens for a bit of outside time. https://bit.ly/3yqMwTu The 50-acre Gardens sit within the larger 556-acre Wheaton Regional Park in, where else, Wheaton, MD, which is, what else, a census-designated place in Montgomery County, MD. I suppose when Wheatonites (??) are asked where they live, they reply with “I live in a census-designated place called Wheaton which is ….” as the person asking drifts away.

It’s amazing what you can be forced to learn on a Sunday drive. A census-designated place is a statistical geographic entity representing closely settled, unincorporated communities that are locally recognized and identified by name but not legally separate. They are, in other words, statistical counterparts of incorporated places. Oh, never mind.

The Gardens are huge, with meandering, paved paths and are divided into the Aquatic Garden, Azalea Garden, Butterfly Garden, Children’s Garden, Rose Garden, Japanese Style Garden, Trial Garden, Rain Garden, and the Woodland Walk. The Formal Gardens areas include a Perennial Garden, Yew Garden, the Maple Terrace, and Fragrance Garden. There are two conservatories open year-round. Admission to the Gardens is free but the conservatories that house tropical and flowering plants require free timed tickets. Check the website cited above for more information.

Sunday was a classic spring day in the Washington area, with comfortable temperatures- humidity and little wind. As natives will tell you, that’s not going to last. Plus, we are told that any day now the cicadas are going to emerge. Anyway, it was a very pleasant experience, not too crowded so distancing was easy. Highly recommended.

The featured image at the top of this post was an unexpected surprise. The heron (more shots below) scooped up a huge goldfish as we were watching. With some effort, he was able to swallow it whole. Fortunate to catch the action.

Below you will find more photos,  a sample of what we saw.

We also saw some interesting animals: