I am finding myself stopping more and more when I travel down Water Road. It may be a good thing that I don’t travel that direction too often, or I wouldn’t get where I need to go in a timely fashion many times.
Today, I was headed North to stop at greenhouses, garden centers, and to pick up prescriptions. I didn’t get far before stopping…. I usually end up spotting things on the way home to check out, but stopped on the way down as well as the way back today. What got my attention??? Pink flowers….. What was that pink??? Had to stop to find out…. Azaleas! Soft pink colored Azalea flowers blooming high on the bank at the bases of the trees. I couldn’t get great photos due to the distance, but here is one:
Wild Azalea
A cluster of blooms I was able to get a photo of peeking out from behind a baby Dogwood tree. This group were quite a pale pink, while other flowers were a bit deeper in color. This is the first time I have ever seen the Azaleas…. maybe because I have usually stopped for the Mountain Laurel that bloom later, or I just didn’t pay attention to what I was driving by…. Of course, when I stopped, I found more than the Azaleas…
Fringed Polygala in Leaves
I had only seen Fringed Polygala near home where I grew up… These are really tiny flowers and are easy to overlook if you are not walking and looking…. These little ones were peeking out of a pile of leaves.
Fringed Polygala in Moss
This bloom and bud were growing out of a tuft of moss. The flowers are no more than one inch across.
Fern and Wintergreen
This baby fern was so cute poking out from the moss and leaves with the Wintergreen (or Winter Creeper… I need to pay more attention).
Mountain Laurel Buds
While walking along the road, I had to check on the Mountain Laurel…. Here are what the buds look like now… Getting a little bigger…. There are more clusters of buds this year than there were in past years. They seem to be blooming more each year.
There are more little treasures I found today, but this blog is not behaving well tonight, so I will leave you in suspense…. (update 5-10-2010… The blog did crash and I had to recover this post this morning)
There were more treasures that I found… Maybe things will work better tomorrow…. Many of the photos will be finding themselves in coming quilts. There will be many more pieces based on what I have been finding along Water Road.
I am a former textile artist and new pattern designer with a degree in horticulture, wishing to share my love of nature, flowers and gardens with everyone through my photos, sunprinted fabrics, and now pattern designs. Chronic Lyme Disease has caused major changes to the direction my life. I have to limit the amount of time spent digging in my gardens, and quilting has become more difficult. I discovered pattern design as a way to get art back into my life. I now use my gardens and photos to inspire designs that can be used on fabrics and print on demand items.
Fabulous photos! Thanks for sharing, ann