I am pleased to add the 62nd of my GBH Brief-Form Post (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

I normally restrict my weekly photo essays to “wild” Nature, urging readers to Venture into the Out There! Allow me to stray with this brief-form post to Bringing the Outside In at the Gaylord Opryland Resort near Nashville. We’ve been married 54 years, high time for a different level of weekend escape. I’ve published some 500 Great Blue Heron photo essays. Nature wildland purists may scoff at my departure. Romantics will sigh, pleased that the old folks tried something different. We stayed at the opulent hotel March 8-10, 2026.

A water feature within the tropical gardens highlighted a great blue heron, my totem, and my Dad’s avatar. Nothing beats the majestic bird flying and fishing in the wild and free, yet I found magic even in the inside out-there.

I vowed to enjoy the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of our mesmerizing tropical botanic gardens. Contrasting such a manmade, sculpted environment to the delights of wildness will yield only self-fulfilling dissappointment. Alabama’s Cheaha Mountain will always pale to Denali, or Mitchell, or Hood. When my soul stirs within the cathedral hardwood forest along Monte Sano State Park’s Sinks and Wells Trails, I refuse to dampen my joy with too-distant forest dreamworlds (Sequoias, coastal redwoods, and Douglas fir).

Here is the 60-second video I recorded within the incredible enclosed garden.

I’ve learned across 75 years to cherish the moment, the place, the home, the wilds, the weather, my friends, my work, the meal in front of me, and the love of my life. How could I not but revel experiencing two days in tropical wetland luxury just a couple of hours drive from our home?

I won’t burden you with tiresome narrative. Soak up the magic of the place…as we did.

Plants everywhere, masterfully tended by gardeners with the touch, green thumbs, and unrivaled passions.

I recorded this 47-second video from boat that toured the indoor river.

I recently reread Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. No Big Muddy or Mighty Mississippi within these glass walls!

This is the view from our hotel room balcony. Not bad, but I’ve unhesitantly returned to my woodland haunts several times since then. My indoor adventure-spoiling proved temporary.

Sunset shadowed even our sheltered environment, another personality of our manufactured haven.

We had a ball, even as I secured a sabbatical from my own wildness puritanism. Like so many wise ones have counseled, the change did me good!

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, this one cut, modified, and pasted from above:

I normally restrict my weekly photo essays to “wild” Nature, urging readers to Venture into the Out There! Allow me to stray with this brief-form post to Bringing the Outside In at the Gaylord Opryland Resort near Nashville. We’ve been married 54 years, high time for a different level of weekend escape. When we were newlyweds, we camped in a small tent, cooked on an open fire, and applied a far different scale for assessing adventure! Trust me, through my mid-70s lens, to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.

Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!

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