Morris Arboretum on a hot spring day

A riot of greenery.

Bridge to: take your pick: Terebithia (great children's novel) - over troubled water - or at Morris Arboretum over green plants and shrubs.

All is green now after the long winter. Dyou think our eyes crave green? Mine do.

Ginny is a tree feeler. She said that the bark changes as the tree gets older. Hold on, lemme check my bark at age 67. Definitely different than

the bark on my grandson Max. Just did a doubletake when I wrote the word grandson. Really?  How'd I get this old this fast?

Help! A giant spider.

It's so important to teach kids the importance of insects in our ecosystem. We all need each other.

How bout this huge robin's nest?

There were several trees which grew up from the ground and were surrounded by decks or in this case netting where children ran round.

Larry Kirschner mentioned he always wanted a tree coming out of his deck. He also mentioned the importance of rich people to endow places like Morris Arboretum, the 92-acre estate of brother and sister John and Lydia Morris.

They bought the estate in the 1800s. John was interested in growing plants from around the world including China. His friend E. H. Wilson brot plantings from China, most of which remain today.

Hmm. Wonder where this stairway leads. I just love the groundcover on the right. Stairways are so dramatic. Look! There's Scarlet O'Hara being nasty to Rhett Butler.

The smoke bush is one of Ginny's favorite plants. There were several of them which Ginny, Larry and I explored.

Here's Larry telling one of his great stories. As a filmmaker, he knew fellow filmmaker Larry Stromberg before he stabbed his wife and mother/law to death in 1996. He now communicates with him by letter from the newest prison in the state of PA. A movie is being made about Stromberg's life. He got life imprisonment with no parole. But, said Larry, there's a new dev'mt in the case, which may call for a new trial.

Hastas.

Columbine. Mine didn't come up this year. I bought it at a now-defunct nursery where the manager was drinking a Rum Coke. B/c he felt comfortable with me, he started snorting cocaine. I took my columbine and got the hell outa there.

 Beardless iris. The sign tells us what creatures pollinate this part of the garden.

 Huge ferns. Someone said they planted the very same variety and they overran the garden. So did my smaller ferns. So beautiful! Feathery and light. When we walk the gardens, we must touch many of the plants we see.

 One of many fountains at the arboretum, which - from Wiki - Egyptian Pharaohs planted exotic trees and cared for them; they brought ebony wood from the Sudan, pine and cedar from Syria. Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt returned bearing thirty-one live frankincense trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage

Tree stumps host succulent insects, as well as providing a perch for birds and weary travelers.

The famous trains at the Arboretum.

This is a famous bldg from Philadelphia. I couldn't recognize it, can you?

But I didn't forget the name of these tiny blue flowers - forget-me-nots.

Every time the train would drive by, I'd snap it.

Japanese dogwood, the last of the flowering dogwoods. Ginny and I both watch the Japanese news- NHK World News - which gives a different perspective.

Here on Cowbell Road everything is so calm and peaceful. But when you watch the world news, terrible things are happening around the world. 

Engler Beech Tree. After I finish bloggin, I'll read what's so special about this.

Pond with swan and Roman ruins.

Oh no! Ginny help! What's the name of this tree?

This one was hollowed out and oh-so-beautiful, like a sculpture.

Hello Ginny!

Ginny looks a little like my grandson up close.

Such colors!

Boy Scout Master Rich Fleisher, who never was.

Greg and Carole Hodges. Tiffany got a FT job in the fashion industry - hurray! - and Kimberly is completing her app to be a teacher, like her mom, for Teach for America, a highly competitive position.

Hot and tired, we sat inside a tent on the grounds for lunch.

Rich told us that Michael Jordon had just gotten married in a tent in FL.

Look! You can't tell the difference between my garden and Morris! Thermometer reads about 86 now.

Gerri ordered a Coca Cola in a slender bottle, which I brought home to put flowers in. I also brot home my hot decaf which I turned into iced decaf.



Had a delicious salad Nicoise for lunch and ya know what? It's time for a healthy snack. The usual. Whole Wheat Pretzels and peanuts.