Secret Garden

There's an old street, Milledge Avenue, that leads to Athens' 5Points. It's studded with classic southern mansions and older brick homes, most but not all, now housing the sororities and fraternities of UGA undergraduate students. One of these spectacular brick houses appeared to be unoccupied. Original wavey, handblown (?) glass covered the windows, its heavy shutters would keep out the highest winds.

Next door? A secret garden. Bricked in except from the sides, Maman was reluctant to tresspass. Thankfully, one spring morning, I persuaded her.

We may have been among the final visitors for soon, heavy construction implements were rolled in & the secret garden was razed. Now there stands a tasteful but nonetheless brand spanking new mud-brick house, home to many college boys and with a spacious parking lot for their SUVs, Jeeps, and sporty BMWs.

The secret garden was dark and cool, almost magical in its offerings of pretty plants,  mossy rocks, winding pathways and near silence. What a refuge, right off Milledge Avenue, what Maman refers to as the "noisy street," Athens' central north-south through-way. And finally, we stumbled across a small marble seat, placed as if for us only. An oasis for us alone.

The brick house still stands but it seems to be an administrative structure, a house mother of sorts for the brand new frat house. The boys hire a service to keep up their lawn and landscaping, their cars are hidden from view and it's all a nice bit of urban planning.

But my ever lasting thanks to Maman for permitting me to survey the secret garden, now only a memory. In the photo above, you can see the pathway into our very own secret garden, my back yard.