As I make my way from the tar-black parking lot, over the wooden footbridge and into the Florida Botanical Gardens proper, the street noise fades completely away, muted by the walls of trees and softened by the winding flower paths. It’s quiet here, at least to the ears. The eyes, on the other hand, don’t know where to look first. The Florida Botanical Gardens, part of Pinewood Cultural Park, comprise over 140 acres of natural and landscaped gardens. I haven’t been here since it first opened, but I’ve longed to get back and stroll through the gardens, both the neatly manicured flower beds and…

Turtles slap each other's eyes as part of their mating rituals. I had no idea until I saw this seemingly taunting behavior at George C. McGough Nature Park, a spot of wilderness in Largo that borders the bay by the Narrows. I'd heard that the park had many bales of turtles (that's what you call a group of turtles, either a bale or a nest), but I had no idea there were so many in a relatively small area. The pond by the entrance has sliders, softshells and other species of aquatic turtles. Some are native while many are that they're descendants of former pets. Visitors can feed the turtles if …

Eagle Lake Park sparkles in a thousand different shades of green. When I was a child my grandmother used to love to visit a donkey that resided in the property that's now the park. I heard stories about it, but I never saw the donkey. It’s one of my fondest memories of the park and it keeps me coming back. Eagle Lake Park is bordered by Keene Road and Lake Avenue with its north edge running alongside Belleair Road. Local legend says that the Taylor family owned the citrus groves and kept a sparse collection of farm life on it, but as the property owner aged the family sold off all of the …