2015-12-27

【Aiden in English】

        I’m not the biggest fan of flowers. Every spring, they take me through pollen torture that kills, and hopefully, that’s a good enough reason. Well, after today, it might not be, seeing the Brookside Garden in Silver Spring of MD.

        For the past few days of Christmas, it had been like my math test scores. They sky-rocketed into the seventies, then plummeted down into the forties and thirties. Just that my math scores didn’t go as low. Today was another rise, and the flowers that should bloom in the glorious, warm, sunny days of May were opening their buds at the end of December. Logic just doesn’t apply to Mother Nature, does it? This looked nice at the present. When the creepy-crawlies come out in the spring, however, there will probably be excessive numbers because the weather doesn’t kill off any bugs over the winter. Nevertheless, it also meant the beautiful scenes we had right now. Since we came with mom’s friends, they were locals and understood that the main parking was always full. A visitor center had a few parking spaces, and we took one. It was located on the opposite side of the conservatory, and knowing mom, that’s the one place we had to go.

        It didn’t seem as if the conservatory had some special flower that was unique to this area and all the other botanical gardens we visited didn’t have because of insufficient conditions or anything. Nor did this place have a national reputation. It’s just a nice place to have a stroll and recharge your energy on a warm, winter day. The conservatory featured some cool tropical flowers called a Bird of Paradise that looked like bird heads with splashes on orange and red. The next room over showed a small track for a long, toy train to run around. It was thirty-two carts long, and I’m telling you, every kid under the age of ten was hypnotized by the train. Okay, maybe it’s because it was traveling in a circle, but the kids were staring at it blankly, like I would to an X-box One- no, no, you get the point.

        The Brookside Gardens was actually pretty big, with multiple lakes and trails to walk around.  The trees and plants outside all had lights curled around them, many of which were simply fake plants made up of duct tape and LED bulbs. They weren’t on, and being a lazy bunch, we used that as an excuse and walked maybe a half mile and turned back. On the way, smells of spring, the scent of flowers blotted out of the entire sense of smell. I had a clogged nose since two days ago, and I don’t think it’s the virus. So, I delightfully played to our gracious hosts some honking noises throughout the entire night in bed, sounding like a Donald Trump on caffeine. Without the humor, that is.

        The spring has come three months early, and I don’t like it. My nose hurts from the rubbing against tissues, and everything tastes like boogers. My eyes water to nearly anything, but the idea of actually not wearing a coat outside is quite appealing though. I just hope the bug problem won’t be an issue this coming spring.

【红霞译文】

        我可不敢当花痴，每年春暖花开的时候，花粉差点把我折腾死，简直让我欲爱不能。今天从马里兰州银泉镇溪畔植物园参观归来，我倒开始喜欢上花草树木。

        圣诞节这段日子，气温犹如本人数学成绩忽高忽低，有时狂升至华氏七十多度即摄氏廿一度以上，有时骤降到华氏四十甚至三十几度，当然我没得过这么低的分数。今天喜逢温暖如春，本应等到阳光明媚的五月方才绽放的蓓蕾纷纷抢在十二月底登上枝头，大自然毫无逻辑可言，不是吗？现在看起来不错，可一旦春天来临，那些癞了吧唧的爬行类动物就会从地下钻出来，到时恐怕数量会多得让人招架不住，因为暖冬没法杀死昆虫，不管怎么说，我们置身于一个田园如画花草如诗的美妙世界。因为有妈妈的朋友带路，身为本地人的叔叔阿姨十分清楚停车场常常车满为患，而游客中心外偶尔留有少许空位，果真被我们逮个正着，这里恰好与公园的花房相对，要知道妈妈定会先睹为快。

        温室本身既没有什么独一无二的特殊品种，又没有至少我们所参观过的其它植物园栽培不了的东西，况且名气不大，充其量只能算作一个在如此惬意的冬天人们放慢脚步仔细品味美好时光的地方。温室里有个别好看名叫“鹤望兰”的热带花卉，它看上去好像一只头戴桔红色皇冠的小鸟。隔壁还有迷你火车道，玩具火车绕圈行驶，上面挂着多达32节各色车厢。这么说吧，凡是十岁以下的孩童肯定酷爱火车，得咧，也许因为火车一圈一圈地转悠，所以围观的小朋友们看得相当入迷，如同我见到X-box One微软视频游戏，虽然算不上一码事，但你明白我想表达的意思。

        实际上溪畔植物园相对较大，内有几个湖及步行小道，树木园林周围布满彩灯，其中有些用胶带和节能灯泡缠成植物形状，灯尚未打开，洋洋洒洒地堆在一旁，我们只漫步行走了大约半里路，乘机找借口打道回府。一路上花草芬芳，到处洋溢着春天的气息。两天前我鼻子堵了，恐怕不是由病毒感染引起的，晚上在主人家睡觉时常打呼噜，听起来很像吃过咖啡因的唐纳德·川普因呼哧带喘，我没开玩笑，事实如此。

        今春足足提前了三个月，我不喜欢季节反常。最近因揉搓鼻子而伤到了粘膜，所以叫我感觉鼻子很痛，吃东西宛若吃鼻妞一般，眼睛看什么都水汪汪的，好在今天出门不必穿大衣，但愿春季别再闹什么幺蛾子出来。