Locke was currently leaning over a smooth grey stone to get a better look at the yellow and green-speckled glass spheres half-floating in the shallow pond in front of him. Koi seemed to dart here and there in the water, while pale green lily pads sat on the water unused by frogs or toads. Ferns and fronds lined the edges of the pond, while a few steps behind him were beds of flowers surrounding by abstract glass sculptures meant to look similar to them. He wore a yellow dress shirt with blue stripes, khakis, and cordovan leather slip-ons. For the moment, he was enraptured and suitably speechless at the sights.

Katarina's lean against the same stone was anything but casual, leaning as far as she could go and probably looking a little ridiculous in the process. The heels of her brown boots were lifted in her attempted to lean further. Wearing a matching brown peacoat with a forest green cable sweater dress underneath, it was almost becoming too warm in the room. Still, she made no move to remove any clothing, not even her brown gloves. Currently charmed by the koi, she leaned over to whisper and point and what just had to be the biggest fish, "Look a' 'em. He's so big!"

"I wonder if the children throw him bread or crackers or-" He suddenly caught sight of something out of the corner of his eyes, and straightened up immediately. The sound that came out of his mouth as he clapped his brown gloved hands together was almost a squeal, as he tapped her shoulder and pointed to what had garnered his attention. A few feet away, anchored into the ground by a wooden post, was something that looked similar to a candy dispenser. Only, Locke just knew it contained fish food. "That!"

She laughed at his suddenly excited expression. She shifted to look around him at what had inspired his near squeal. Laughing more, she hurriedly walked up to it and put in two coins to produce two small plastic containers of large fish pellets. Walking back over, she gave him one with a smile. Opening hers, she started to toss one pellet at a time into the water, watching all the Koi's suddenly coming up to the front. "Lor' n' Skies, there's tons of 'em!"

He opened his container and started tossing the brown fish feed in long, loping arcs well over the heads of the fish who had gathered near where Katarina had been throwing them. Some of the koi near the back broke from the pack and darted for the food. "I know! Where do they find room in this pond to sleep?"

She frowned at the question, "I dun think tha' fish sleep.. do they?" She glanced around to see if she could ask someone, but they was no one else around. It seemed that the chilly weather kept most people in their warm homes instead of visiting gardens with sensitive climates. Giggling as the fish tried to swim over each other for the pellets, she threw her last ones towards the largest koi that she had pointed out earlier. "I'm gonna name ya.. Fred." Speaking to the fish, obviously.

He just held up his hands, when the question was asked of him. "Haven't a pot, mate." He tossed his remaining pellets as well with a sweep of his hand, sending them scattering across the water. "Why Fred?"

" 'Cause I used ta know a guy named Fred, an' they hav' a' uncanny resemblance, yeah?" Chuckling lightly, she finally moved from the stone to look at the beds of flowers and interesting glass sculptures behind them, "I think this was a much betta idea than a museum, mate." A large grin over to him.

"He looked like a fish? Hilarious." He chuckled a little, to show he wasn't being sarcastic. He turned back to face the flowers as well, reading the signs placed towards the front of the beds that identified each of the flora present. The one Locke was examining in particular seemed to have nothing but tulips of various colors in it, but the sign also seemed to indicate there was something called a honeyflower in it. He squinted as he intently studied the petals to figure out which was which. "Well, whose idea was it to go here?"

"Yers?" Laughing lightly, she moved on to a collection of roses with striped and mixed colors. She usually ignored signs and just looked, only occasionally looking up the names if she found something of particular interest, "Yanno, there's nah lots o' flowers 'n Hope." There was some surprise when she recognized several bunches of roses, even if she could not say them by name.

"And when have I ever steered you wrong?" He stood up straight, tall, and proud at her admission, posing heroically."There were probably more flowers on Hope than there were in my old neck of the woods. I bet that just made it that much more special when you saw one, correct?" He dropped into a crouch, leaning forward carefully on the balls of his feet to sniff at one of the golden colored tulips. His nose wrinkled momentarily, before he took another whiff of the flower.

She rolled her eyes and laughed at his pose. She didn't affirm his statement, hoping to give him traces of doubt, but she had a feeling the silence wouldn't work. "Well, flowers end up bein' a par' o' mah work now, yanno? Kinda seem 'em everywhere, whetha it's fer th' set er it's a gift. Still, I think they're still special." Raising a brow at his wrinkled nose, she was confused more as he went for another sniff, "Is it bad?"

"So you're most likely entirely fed up with flowers at this point. Like teachers must get tired of students handing them apples, day after day. Just once, just once, I bet they wish they'd get an orange. Or a banana. Or a pear." He waved her over, then stood up a little and moved off to the side so she could smell the flower he'd just smelled. "It smells quite nice, actually, although the odor is a bit...unexpected. Though I suppose with a name like honeyflower, to expect anything else would be daft."

Locke's attention was divided among the yellow and orange blossoms, the Christmas Cheer plant, and a clearly artificial glass flower that seemed to be a mutant combination of the two: long, thin, yellow tubers with red tips, curving and bending in every direction. "Well, that is something you shall have to rectify. I can give you some pointers, if you like."

"Oh, I didn' tha' was gonna be a problem." Grinning over her shoulder, she looked at him through her lashes. "An' jist wha' kin'da pointers ar' ya gonna be so nice ta share wit' me?" Looking away but with the grin still on her face, she reluctantly let his hand go so that he could explore to his liking. The glass flower received a crinkled nose reaction.

"Well, I am a master of language, after all." He tipped his nose into the air, snootily, before looking down with a decidedly un-dignified grin. "You are bound to pick up something new and unique just by being around the likes of me." He decided the Christmas Cheer plant was most worthy of his attention, but when he read the sign, he found little of the usual horticultural information that had been present for the other flowers and plants in the garden. He frowned slightly at that realization.

She laughed and rolled her eyes, "Tha's nah a pointer, mate." Purposely using his words, she giggled again and moved further into the garden finding a large bush named Salvia 'Waverly', to have pretty light pink blossoms. His frown encouraged a curious raise of her brows, "Wha'?"

"This sign isn't very forthcoming as to what the bloody hell this-" He pointed at the thin red flower. "is. All it gives is a name and some malarkey about how 'the origins of this plant are shrouded in secrecy.' What a bunch of hogwash."

"Malarkey!" A quick point at another odd word, before laughing again, "Well, how kin ya be surprised wit' tha'? I bet there's tons o' thin's, particularly here, tha' ar' 'shrouded 'n secrecy.' O' course, they could a jist made somethin' up ta make people like ya happy."

With a dismissive "Bah!", he waved off the plant, heading over to look at the bush that Katarina was looking at. "If they did that, though, they would be lying to me."

"An' how would ya know?" Giving him a sidelong glance, went to walk around the other side of the bush, before making a "mmm" sound. "Pretty." On the other side of the bush was a small gathering of tall flowers with thick stems, and dark red petals that pushed wide for their bright orange fuzzy middle named Scadoxus.

"Curses! You are right again, as always." As a pre-emptive strike for any gloating she might have done, he stuck his tongue out at her, before turning his back on her. He couldn't, however, help but glance over his shoulder, to see if she was still looking, or if she was studying the flowers instead.

The purple tongue did stop her words, but only for a moment. Not even the turning of his back could stop the growing smile on her face, "And when hav' I eva steered ya wrong?" It was too irresistible to use his own words. She was trying to not give him the satisfaction of her attention, but it was particularly difficult. She crouched down to look like she was giving the flowers more attention, but she was sneaking several glances to him.

Whenever he thought he had caught her looking, he turned around that much more quickly, nose stuck up in the air with a "Hmph!" Finally, though, he decided to end the looking game by letting himself get caught staring over his back. "I cannot recall a time when you have, truth be told."