A wonderful morning walk

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 actually surprised that there were parking spaces in the lower parking lot, but hey, that's great, I thought.

And there were very few folks out walking on the Bent Creek Rd trail at that time, nor on the Natural Garden Trail.  The Wesley Branch Trail, which is narrow, and my favorite way to return to the lower parking area,  required a bit of scrambling to distance myself from uphill walkers on my way back.

It made a wonderful and lovely excursion this morning. 

The wildflowers and native shrubs in flower were soul boons. And the sound of Bent Creek was magic, as always.  I'm thankful for the access to this special place.

First, I was amazed with the abundance of Fire Pink (Silene virginica) along the Bent Creek Road. 

Maybe it's a good year.  Or maybe I hadn't normally walked there in mid-May, as I had walking pals last year, walking in neighborhoods.

The Silene was wonderful.  Multiple patches on the banks above the road.  I loved seeing them.

Silene virginica

Equally nice were the last flowers of native azaleas in the Native Azalea Repository, along with emerging Kalmia latifolia flowers.

And bear corn was an unexpected sighting along the trail.