D is for Duke Gardens: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.
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D is for Duke Gardens


I got married in Duke Gardens, so obviously this is a special place for us. 
The first weekend my husband and I ever spent together, we had a picnic there, sitting near the lake. Throughout our long distance courtship, while he was in grad school at UNC Chapel Hill, I'd come visit him, and we'd keep coming back to Duke Gardens for long walks and talks in a beautiful setting. So, when it was time to marry, it made sense to do so in a place that had been such a part of our relationship. 
Since we ended up settling in the Triangle of North Carolina, we still get to visit Duke Gardens regularly. We have a relationship with the ducks, who spotted us a mile away as suckers who will buy multiple bags of duck feed. We named the Heron in the lake (Harry, of course). We have a particular bench inside a magnolia tree where we like to sit and people and bird watch.  It's beautiful in different ways throughout the year. 
It's both cultivated and wild, organized and chaotic. Just like us.