Ninth Street Garden

Sandwiched between the downramp into a highway tunnel and the parking lot of the natural history museum, is the Butterfly Garden. It's a long, narrow corridor, full of daisies three feet tall and hostas with leaves the size of dinner plates. This year, the hotness of the season meant plants usually knee high are head high, creating a tunnel of blossoms and branches from Madison to Constitution. For just a few brief minutes, the madding crowd of tourists fades away. Petals flutter, branches swish, squirrels scurry. And, then, the rumble and roar of downtown traffic - cars plunging down the highway, buses sighing and stopping along the avenue. A waste space turned into a small oasis.