Cheekwood Botanical Gardens

 

Located in Nashville, Tennessee, Cheekwood was formerly the family home of Mabel and Leslie Cheek. It's a gorgeous 1930s estate with a 30,000 square foot mansion and 55 acres of cultivated gardens. Today it serves as a botanical garden, arboretum, and museum. Also on the grounds is a 1.5-mile woodland trail featuring monumental outdoor sculputures. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

My personal favorite is the children's garden with the miniature trains. So fun!

The mansion and gardens are open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM. The cost of admission to see the mansion and gardens is $30. 

This month's IWSG question is:  What is my favorite thing I've written? This is a tough one. I think my book, Don't Feed the Elephant is pretty funny.  I had to imagine what an elephant could do with food beginning with every letter of the alphabet! I also like Bubba and Squirt's Big Dig to China because I think it would be cool to dig a hole and end up in Xi'an China where the Terraccotta Warriors are.

What about you? What's your favorite thing you've written?  Have you ever been to Cheekwood? 

Agatha Christie Gardens

 

We know Agatha Christie for her murder mysteries. But did you know the Queen of Crime was a garden lover? As a child growing up at Ashfield House, her favorite spots were among the trees, plants, and woodland paths. After her success as an author, she was able to afford her own country house and gardens at Greenway, in Devon, England where she restored more than 30 acres of gardens. 

  

The property includes several distinct garden areas including two walled gardens, a vinery, a kitchen garden, and a fern garden restored with a central water fountain. 

Two of Christie’s most famous mysteries, Five Little Pigs and Dead Man's Folly are clearly set at Greenway, under fictional names. These stories include many scenes in the gardens. (The murder weapon in Five Little Pigs is local spotted hemlock.)

Christie’s use of poisonous, plant-based chemicals as the “murder weapon” in so many of her mysteries reveals her gardening expertise. Many of the poisons in her stories come from plants that she knew well because they were growing in her own garden beds and in the surrounding woodland areas at Greenway.

The cost to see the house and gardens is 36 British pounds per car. The gardens are open daily from 10:30 AM-5:00 PM.

And now for the IWSG question of the month:  What are my thoughts about using AI like ChatGP? Would I use it for research, creating outlines...?

Well, I haven't used AI for regular writing jobs that apply to writing the actual book. I like going down my own rabbit holes for research and creating outlines and writing. That's part of the fun. What I have been doing, is using AI for marketing:  coming up with keywords for search optimization, coming up with ideas for YouTube posts. I find it very helpful for those things. If you let it, ChatGP would do all the thinking about these things. And maybe that's good. Less time for me to think about it, and more time to write what I want. What are your thoughts?