Patch Picks: Places to Enjoy Spring

The next few weeks are a lovely time in Atlanta as spring reaches its peak. Here are some places to enjoy the season's beauty.

• North Buckhead Park, corner of Wieuca Road and Phipps Boulevard. With benches and a wonderful selection of native trees and plants, this small park near the Peachtree Road business and shopping district is a nice place to sit and read or enjoy some quiet time. For the botanically minded, a manual lists all of the plant species with scientific names.
• The preserve's walking trail along Nancy Creek is a great place to explore. You might see a heron, ducks or geese.
• . Outside of the exhibits in the museum, the 33-acre nature center offers lovely trails burting with spring color. The Swan House Gardens and Grounds are a special treat.
• . While golf, tennis and youth sports make for a busy scene, the park also offers scenic benches off the PATH trail where you can sit and hear Nancy Creek  burbling.
• Tanyard Creek Park. A PATH trail leads over the creek and to a now peaceful meadow where a bloody Civil War battle was fought. The park's entrance is at 460 Collier Road N.W.