I didn't expect to tear up encouraging a group of participants about keeping a garden journal via blogging, for the NC Arboretum this afternoon. But I did. Showing them how I connected images with prose, I revisited a post that I made in May of 2020, after a walk along Bent Creek in the Arboretum.   The visual was Fire Pink, Silene virginica, a wonderful native plant. It graces the cover of Tim's Wildflowers and Plant Communities book.  I've posted about Silene a lot. Revisiting this post, and reading what I'd written, well, it was so wonderful to be back in nature then.  I'm teary now even writing this (Bent Creek is magical).  The Arboretum had just reopened to members in that first pandemic spring. This is what I wrote then, in mid-May, 2020.  Reading it again just now makes me grateful for this special place. A wonderful morning walk The trails at the NC Arboretum opened up last Saturday again for members.  I went out this morning at 9 am.  I was actuall