MORE PHOTOS FROM GREEN SPRING GARDENS

I didn't share all the photos taken on our last walk around Green Spring Gardens.  Here are several more flowers.  

I have more to share from the garden, but I will leave those for another day. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

LIKE A PEAL OF A BUGLE...

Like a peal of a bugle

Upon the still night

So flames her deep scarlet

In dim forest light.

A heart-throb of color

Lit up the dim nook

A dash of deep scarlet

The dark shadows shook.

Thou darling of August

Thou flame of her flame,

'Tis only bold Autumn

Thy ardor can tame.

The Cardinal Flower by John Burroughs

(1837-1921)

GREEN SPRING GARDENS, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA - PART 2

Continuing from my previous post of our walk - you can find Part 1 here - in the photo below we are looking back at the front of the house.  There is a gift shop and tea room inside.  We haven't had a meal there yet, but it is on our list when things start getting back to normal.

This is the same house that we had walked behind.  The people who owned this home must have enjoyed their large garden at the back.  It is a very large grassy area and is edged with beds of pretty plants and flowers.

I didn't know whether the fruits were edible or ornamental from the Red Date tree, but from what I read they are edible.  However, there is no way I would eat one without the advice of an expert.  It is the first time we have been here where the fruit has been visible.

I have enjoyed finding out their names, always looking for a marker first and then using my plant app.  If I am not convinced of an ID I will research them on line.  A fun activity when I get home as I go through the photos.

In one of my previous posts there were hundreds of these pods that had dried up and dropped onto the ground.  I am sharing that photo again below.  I checked on line and there is a site that sells 800 of them for $55 dollars.  People use them for crafts, ornament making, wreathes and more practically as a mulch.

The dried pod photo was taken when we were here in February of this year.  Here's what they looked like when we were at the garden the other day.

I am very happy to be able to see the butterflies before the colder months.  There were also a lot of bees around.  I feel the same about them.  Two of the many things in nature that I enjoy.

The first time I saw a Peruvian Lily was in a birthday bouquet Gregg gave me the first year we were married.  I am drawn to them every time now and am very sentimental about this pretty flower.

What an interesting name for a plant.  Its other names are Button Eryngo, Button Snakeroot, Beargrass or Bear's Grass.  Its scientific name is Eryngium yuccifolium.

The bushes were overflowing with these bright red berries.  They attract songbirds, cedar waxwings, cardinals, blue jays and many other back yard birds, and they feast on the berries in late autumn.  They are poisonous for humans and can be mildly hallucinogenic for the birds.

These Rice-paper leaves are very large and can grow up to 20 inches.  It produces white flowers which the birds are very attracted to.  It is a shrub or small tree of the ginseng family, and is native to southern China and Taiwan.  It is the source of rice paper.  The central tissues of the stem are split and pressed into thin sheets used for surgical dressings and as watercolor paper.  Fascinating what you find out isn't it?

I still have a few more flowers but I am winding down this post now, with a promise that I will share others as time goes on.  

A lovely path behind a vegetable garden.  I like to take it every time I come here.

Here's my doggy fix!  Such a cute four legged friend having a walk with his family.

This little chap was making his way along the fence near the children's garden.

And we were very happy to find a Goldfinch before we left the garden.  

Gregg and I both enjoy taking photos when we are at Green Spring.  I have identified his by providing a watermark at the bottom.

I hope you have enjoyed Part 2 of our walk.  

Take good care of yourselves out there and I wish you all a very happy weekend.

GREEN SPRING GARDENS, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA - PART 1

All through this blog I have shared walks around several of our local gardens and parks.  We take turns visiting them and our last walk was around Green Spring Gardens.  If you click on the label with its name below this post, it will take you to all the other visits we have made.

At this link you can read all about its history.  This was the first time we explored the back of the house.  We normally keep to the path which takes us in front.

I have tried to identify many of the flowers, plants and trees, and hopefully my plant app didn't make any mistakes.  I am learning as I go along.  Some are very familiar to me, others not so much.

Below this post you can click on the label "Green Spring Gardens_Alexandria_VA" to see more posts including photos and sometimes history.

Several photos today were taken by husband Gregg, and those I have identified at the bottom of the photo.

Song of the Flower Xxiii

by 

Khalil Gibran

I am a kind word uttered and repeated

By the voice of Nature;

I am a star fallen from the

Blue tent upon the green carpet.

I am the daughter of the elements

With whom Winter conceived;

To whom Spring gave birth: I was

Reared in the lap of Summer and I

Slept in the bed of Autumn.

At dawn I unite with the breeze

To announce the coming of light;

At eventide I join the birds

In bidding the light farewell.

The plains are decorated with

My beautiful colors, and the air

Is scented with my fragrance.

As I embrace Slumber the eyes of

Night watch over me, and as I

Awaken I stare at the sun, which is

The only eye of the day.

I drink dew for wine, and hearken to

The voices of the birds, and dance

To the rhythmic swaying of the grass.

I am the lover's gift; I am the wedding wreath,

I am the memory of a moment of happiness;

I am the last gift of the living to the dead;

I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow.

But I look up high to see only the light,

And never look down to see my shadow.

This is wisdom which man must learn.

I am going to finish today's post right here.  This is in two parts as I have many other photos I want to share.  

IT REALLY DOES....

Tempus fugit - Time flies

OUR FIRST WALK IN A WHILE...

to a quiet part of the Manassas National Battlefield Park last Sunday.  We tend to avoid crowds these days, but we went to an area where we thought it would be very quiet, and get some exercise at the same time.  When we got to this particular parking lot it was full of cars, with only one or two spaces left.  We decided to turn around and go back the way we came.  

On the way down the hill we looked to our right and saw the shell of one of the homes built on this land.  A little further down a sign, also on our right, telling of an old family cemetery.  No people!  When we stopped and I got out of the car, in my peripheral vision I saw something and looked down in front of my feet.  I think it must have been a lizard scurrying faster than my eyes could focus, and the grass covered its body.  It disappeared into the undergrowth in seconds.  My only inkling that it was a lizard, was the way the grass moved, weaving from side to side in a flurry of movement.  My eyes could not pick up any shape.  It was bigger than a frog and a frog would jump anyhow.  Recollecting the way lizards move when I see them scurry in the desert - on nature shows - this is where my mind went to.  

Just as we parked on the side of the road (no proper parking spot but safe enough), another car pulled up behind us.  A couple got out and we all put our masks on and we waited for them to pass, putting plenty of space between.  We were too busy avoiding each other's space to even think of saying hello, very unlike me but I was nervous.  A new norm?  I hope not!  I will make more of an effort to at least acknowledge people I come into contact with next time.  We stayed apart by a whole lot more than the recommended six feet, so it made casual conversation impossible.  None of us got close enough to say one word.  This Pandemic is having more of an effect than I realized, as I truly have not been around a lot of people since this all started, and that was several months ago.  I immediately went back into my introverted shell.  Oh well!

They were maybe ten years younger than us, and we let them look around before we entered the small cemetery (there was only one gravestone in those walls that we could see). They didn't stay long and walked back to their car soon after.  

It gave us a chance to take our time.  The day was glorious and we didn't want to miss a minute of this lovely weather.  Hardly any humidity.  It is as though September has flipped a switch.

I asked Gregg to smile and he jokingly said, "How would you know?"  He had a point!

Our car is the one on the right.  As you can see, pathways had been mowed for visitors.  The grass at each side was well over waist high and it looked beautiful!

This area is called Chinn Ridge, and that solitary grave belongs to Bernard Hooe Senior, as you'll see below.

We found the following on the Manassas Battlefield Trust Facebook page, dated January 22nd, 2015.

"Captain Bernard Hooe (pronounced Hoe) Sr was born in 1740 and was a member of an old prominent Virginia family.  Three generations of Hooe were patriots in the American Revolution.  Captain Hooe's grave is located within the National Park.

"Bernard's father, Howson Hooe, served on the Committee of Correspondence and Safety in 1776.  Howson Hooe married Anne Francis Harris in 1724.  Her father, Nathaniel Harris, obtained the land in 1717.  Howson and Ann then deeded the land to Bernard who built a large two story home in 1809 and called it "Mayfield".  Then in 1853 a descendant of the Hooes, William T. Downman sold the property to Benjamin Chinn.  Today we know this land as Chinn Ridge or the Chinn Farm."

Gregg reminded me that those wispy clouds are called Cirrus.  It certainly was a lovely sky that day.  

These signs mark all the graves of the 1775 Patriots.  Whenever we come to these places we can't help but realize how much we owe to our Veterans, for the sacrifices they made for us and still make for us.  We will always be eternally grateful.

I found a poem called "Grass" by

Joyce Sidman

I grow in places

others can't,

where wind is high 

and water scant.

I drink the rain,

I eat the sun;

before the prairie winds

I run.

I see, I sprout,

I grow and creep

and in the ice

and snow, I sleep.

On steppe or veld 

or pampas dry,

beneath the grand

enormous sky,

I make my humble

bladed bed.

And where there's level ground,

I spread.

Lovely, both poem and grass.

We were coming out of the cemetery and as I started making my way up the hill to another area, Gregg called me back and pointed to this little guy.

Thank you Gregg!  

What fascinated me about this Praying Mantis, its eyes, its head turned in my direction, definitely keeping an eye on me.  I can count on one hand how many times I have seen any in many, many years, so I was delighted when Gregg found this one.

Yes indeed, totally fascinated and mesmerized, as you can see by all these photos!

The other thing that amazes me is when I take photos with my cell phone and they come out better than any other point-and-shoot camera I have ever had.  I cropped a few for a closer look.  

The photos below were taken with our larger camera with the zoom lens and are Gregg's.   

 I cropped a few of these also to get an even closer study.

Again, truly amazing creatures.

Back to the cell phone now.  This is the view while still in the small cemetery, and that was the hill we wanted to climb, which would have led us to other areas where homes had originally been built, the shells of homes at least.  

As we walked up the hill there were grasshoppers jumping everywhere, and dragonflies flying over our heads.  We were all enjoying the sunshine.

When we heard the sounds of laughter from several children just over the hill, out of sight but on our path, eventually seeing a large family heading our way, we decided to walk back to the car.   

We also remembered we would have been heading to a more crowded area, which we were trying to avoid.  The family of happy youngsters was a sign, and they certainly deserved to be out in this beautiful weather, except that the old fogies ran for cover, and yes I am joking just in case you thought I was serious.  We didn't run, we just walked very quickly.  Yes I am still smiling and yes I am still joking but with point made.

We had a wonderful time and look forward to other walks.  It will be quieter during the week and we will come back.