A Mother's Day Walk

Theo has to work tomorrow, so he and Wally came over today to celebrate Mother's Day. We were lucky that there was a break in the rain and the sun peaked out from among the clouds for our outing. Temperatures were in the low 60s with a gentle breeze blowing. Theo commented that the weather was just about perfect, and we all agreed.

After lunch at a local restaurant, we headed out to my request for the day -  a walk in a local azalea garden. The garden is rimming a reservoir lake that provides water to Washington, D.C. The garden was planted in the 1950s and 1960s and covers 5 acres with over 22,000 azalea bushes among hardwood trees. 

It had been a few years since Ward and I had visited, and Wally and Theo had never been there. The blooms were past their peak, but there were bursts of late bloomers here and there. As we wandered among the bushes, Theo was telling us interesting things about the "intelligence" of plants, including one vine that mimics the leaf shape of whatever it is growing next to. It's always curious and, sometimes, surprising to me to hear things that my kids know about. Theo is not one who is interested in the green world outdoors, so I was surprised that he knew so much about it. 

We had a pleasant walk and then hurried home to beat the rain. And speaking of rain, unfortunately, we won't have a chance to see the rare appearance of the Northern Lights in our area tonight because of rain. But a walk in the woods with my family is almost as good, if not better.

Below are a few pictures of our afternoon. 

You can see that most of the blossoms had faded.

I found this fringe of suckers on this tulip poplar stump interesting. 

Wally, Theo, and Ward

This bush actually had buds on it, promising more blooms.

Unfortunately, we also saw a lot of poison ivy.

After the garden, we walked along the bridge over the dam so Ward could check out its structure.

While he was checking out the workings of the dam, I was watching the geese. :)

Until next time...