gardens – In the Woods

sculptures, flowers, creatures

11.10.26 ~ North Carolina Botanical Garden
38th Annual Sculpture in the Garden

This was the first time I visited the annual sculpture exhibit at the botanical garden without Tim. It was also later than usual, in November instead of once in September and twice in October when we went before. The sun was noticeably lower in the sky and offering a different sort of light for photography. It was good having Sally with me this time, though, and we had a good time identifying plants and commenting on the artwork. There were 74 sculptures but I’m only sharing 13 of my favorites. Even so, this post will be way too long! I just had to add some flowers, a couple of anoles, and a couple of adorable squirrels, too.

“Paperboy” by Stewart Beavers
Paperboy depicts a paper wasp drying its wings in the sun.
It is made from scrap metal including old tools, canisters,
and bearings with the head that spins 360 degrees.

“The Blue Lady” by Marc Chicoine
*A mosaic dedicated to the elusive blue lady, an abstract human form.*
(cement and glass)

“Friends in Low Places” by Mac McCusker
Growing up and traveling in the South, you cannot go far without seeing weird little creatures such as the opossum and the armadillo. These animals are so intriguing and fascinating in their movements, characteristic, and appearance. This piece enables the two to interact, socialize, and (of course) gossip about their observations of the selfish, preoccupied, and distracted nature of humans.
(stoneware)

“Genesis II” by Sam Spiczka
Inspired by industry and organic bone forms, Genesis II is a bridge between these seemingly opposed realms. The overall form radiates outwards from a singular core seed. The marks of my hammer and welding gun linger on the graceful steel form. Metal manufacturing techniques are paradoxically used to create a sculpture which feels fluid, natural, and timeless.
(cor-ten steel with railroad tie base)

“Lotus 1” by William Moore
*Outdoor totem reflecting on the nature of clay and its unique properties. The Nature of clay in the natural world.*
(ceramic, steel, cement)

My apologies to the creator of the sculpture that this anole (above and below, front and back) is sitting on. I neglected to get your name, or any other information off the sign, because I was so surprised to see this tiny creature sitting on it. It might be a baby. I’ve crossed paths with a few tiny anoles in the past week or two and AI tells me late-season anole eggs frequently hatch throughout October and November.

“Mushroom Family” by Michelle Fairholm
*I take great joy in spotting mushrooms that pop up unexpectedly along familiar hikes or garden beds. I hope these mushrooms elicit that same simple yet magical feeling.*
(stoneware)

“Rebel, the Revolutionary Rabbit” by Kathie Young

scrub titi, an extremely rare Florida native shrub

“Bess” by Carol Brainard
(ceramic and acrylic)

“A Tale of Vanity” by Julie Berkowitz
I was inspired to sculpt “A Tale of Vanity” after I heard the Cherokee story of “Why the Opossum’s Tail Is Bare.” In this traditional tale, Opossum once had a long, beautiful tail he loved to show off. Jealous of the attention, Rabbit plotted a trick and sent Cricket — the “barber” — to secretly trim off all the fur while pretending to prepare Opossum for a dance. When Opossum proudly stepped into the circle and unveiled his tail, the animals burst into laughter. Only then did he realize it was completely bare. Shocked and embarrassed, he fell over grinning — just as opossums still do when they are surprised. I hope you enjoy my visual interpretation of the shock the Opossum must have felt!
(clay, glazes, mirror, ceramic shards)

“Owl Nest in Rainbow Eucalyptus” by Meg Henschel
I started this piece by making the baby owls then realized they needed a mama owl and nest. I am amazed by the colors of rainbow eucalyptus, so much more exciting than brown, thus the colorful tree trunk!
(ceramic – wheel thrown and hand built)

As we were leaving I caught sight of this brightly colored maple sapling across the parking lot. A lovely ending to a perfect autumn day.

moderate drought by the creek

It had been seven months since Nina, Susan, and I had taken a walk down by the creek! Mostly because of the unrelenting heat and humidity that descended upon us before summer even began. And avoiding ticks was part of it, too. It was very nice visiting friends outside for a change.

I’ve learned to wait until November for the leaves to start changing their hues. On this day there was still plenty of green left on the trees, but with splotches of fall color here and there.

Not sure how the year-long drought has been affecting the leaves, but the water level in Bolin Creek is very low. Time will tell how long this drought will last. For now, the leaves already fallen looked so pretty floating on the water.

exposed rocks normally covered with rushing creek water

But each leaf too has a hue all its own: one of gold, of blood-red, of the slumbering clouds and the strident sun, purple, violet, lilac, we find it all there. And side by side, hand in hand go the quick, the bright, with the old and sere, just as in our world people go side by side, hand in hand, those who are still young and hopeful and those who are weary and sinking earthwards.
~ Sigbjørn Obstfelder
(Seasons)

To love life, really, must mean caring not only for the garden plot but also the wilderness beyond the fence, beauty and mystery for their own sake, because of how meager a world would be without them.
~ Barbara Kingsolver
(High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never)

fall flowers for ‘fall colors’

In the Walktober post time frame, fall colors in the Piedmont of North Carolina can mainly be found in the flowers. The leaves don’t begin turning in earnest until November. So, while my sister and her husband have been visiting me for a wonderful ten days, we decided to find a colorful walk at Duke Gardens in Durham. It was a lovely autumn day and I hope I get this post in before the deadline!

‘Ryan’s Pink’ chrysanthemums looked so pretty on the stone wall

this little lizard was climbing the steps ahead of us

and then decided to ditch us by going under a step

an oak leaf for my suspended leaf collection

Osage orange fallen from its tree
(I had never heard of this kind orange before)
AI says that while it is generally not poisonous,
eating it causes an unpleasant taste and can lead to indigestion

birdhouse with tatarian aster landscaping

stonecrop, a dose of more traditional fall color

painted lady butterfly hiding in the chrysanthemums

Mexican sunflower (not a true sunflower)

monarch butterfly feeding on a Mexican sunflower
(I hope it doesn’t think it made it all the way to Mexico already!)

This was my first Walktober without Tim. He died six days after our last one, and three days after I posted it. I wasn’t sure if I could find it in me to participate this year, but after the family had a memorial dinner to mark one year after his death I felt like taking this walk in his memory this year. I know he would want me to carry on and find some pleasure in the activities we used to share.

koshyk z kvitamy

“A Basket with Flowers” by Zinaida Serebriakova

As the sun sets and hills grow dark,
as the birdsong ends and fields fall silent,
as the people laugh and take their rest,
I watch.
My heart hurries
to the twilit gardens of Ukraine.
And I hurry.
O, how I hurry with my thoughts,
as my heart yearns for rest.
As the fields grow dark,
as the groves grow dark,
as the hills grow dark,
I see a star.
And I weep.
Hey, you star! Have you reached Ukraine?
Do dark eyes scour the blue sky for you?
Or don’t they care?
May they sleep if they don’t.
May they know nothing of my fate.
~ Taras Shevchenko
(To N. N.)

throwback thursday

9.29.12 ~ monarch in a garden on Block Island
New Shoreham, Rhode Island
photo by Tim

bright wings of autumn
flutter, lighting on the last
sweet sips of summer
~ Barbara Rodgers
(By the Sea)

Fourteen years ago Tim & I took a high-speed ferry from New London, Connecticut, to Block Island, which is 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. The ferry only runs from New London from May to September, and we caught it on the last Saturday in September. (There is year-round ferry service from Point Judith and Newport, Rhode Island.)

We had a wonderful time exploring the island for a day. I wrote this post about our adventure: high-speed ferry ride

Before we left the island, Tim spotted a monarch butterfly in someone’s garden and took this amazing picture. It inspired me to write the haiku. I posted the picture/word combo a few days later and it proved to be one of my most viewed posts ever, with lots of comments. The memory is bittersweet, though, as most of the blogging friends I enjoyed back then are no longer blogging and I miss them.

I’m beginning to have more appreciation for how indulging in feelings of nostalgia becomes such a prominent feature of aging!

slow growing

“Garden of the Hesperides” by Albert Herter

Except the smaller size
No lives are round —
These — hurry to a sphere
And show and end —
The larger — slower grow
And later hang —
The Summers of Hesperides
Are long.
~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #606)

whenever we’re not looking

5.11.26 ~ Race Point Beach, Provincetown, Massachusetts
photo by Jon

In May I took a whirlwind trip to Cape Cod and Connecticut to scatter and bury Tim’s ashes. Five intense days of sharing memories and enjoying the family and friends and activities that Tim used to love. It’s taking me a while to recover but I’ve decided to share a few pictures here to help me remember.

On May 11th, 27 of us headed out to Race Point Beach in Provincetown where I scattered some of Tim’s ashes on the beach where he spent many of the happiest days of his life. Tim’s brother Dan shared stories of their childhood adventures in P’town. And many in the gathering took turns spontaneously sharing their favorite memories. Moments after I scattered Tim’s ashes, we heard the particular call of a laughing gull flying overhead, gently reminding me of Tim’s wonderful sense of humor.

While we were there we took advantage of the opportunity, with all of Tim’s remaining brothers gathered, Dan, Matt, Jed, and Josh, to scatter some of their father’s ashes. Erik had died back in 2008 and also had close ties to Provincetown. And Tim’s cousin Allegra scattered some of her mother’s ashes there on the sand, too. Her mother was Tim’s beloved Aunt Delorma, who died in January, only three months after him.

We all have such happy memories of vacationing at the family home in Provincetown. The current owner of 180 Bradford St. was very gracious to allow us to leave two memorial blown glass hearts in the garden. Allegra sculpted them, with some of their ashes inside, the red one is Tim’s.

The next day, Fran, Allegra and I had an amazing family history adventure, locating 72B Commercial St., where Tim and Dan’s 2nd-great-grandparents, Elijah & Zipporah Rodgers had lived. When Tim and Dan were kids they were taken to the house and met the widow of his great-granduncle, Capt. Neadom Oscar Rodgers (1876-1953), Aunt Lil, and Neadom’s son Oscar. (Oscar was Aunt Lil’s stepson.) Allegra was also taken there, as a very small child, on a separate occasion. Tim showed me the place on our honeymoon but my memory of its location got very fuzzy.

As we were checking it out a man came down the grass-covered lane it was located on and, after explaining who I was, I asked him a few questions. One thing led to another and the next thing we knew we were sitting in the dining room of an elderly neighbor who has lived there his whole life and remembered Aunt Lil Rodgers and playing in the lane. Aunt Lil died in 1979. The information we got from him led me to find more information about the house and its occupants online.

That afternoon I took a walk on Beech Forest Trail with my sons and nieces and nephew and some of their spouses. (No one in my generation was up for the hike!) I told them the story of Tim & me taking this walk on our honeymoon, and how we took it again after getting our first digital camera in 2009. The picture of the squirrel on the sidebar of this blog came from that walk, and was my first taste of enjoying nature photography. Sadly, this time, I, and some of the others, came back with a tick.

I’m thinking the universe may be trying to tell me that fewer nature walks and more genealogy research will be my new direction in life…

At the end of this mile-long loop walk my sons discovered a poem by one of my favorite poets under glass on the top of a picnic table. They brought me back to see it and it seemed like a beautiful reflection of my mood about the changes in focus I’m going through in my life.

For example, what the trees do
not only in lightning storms
or the watery dark of a summer’s night
or under the white nets of winter
but now, and now, and now – whenever
we’re not looking. Surely you can’t imagine
they don’t dance, from the root up, wishing
to travel a little, not cramped so much as wanting
a better view, or more sun, or just as avidly
more shade – surely you can’t imagine they just
stand there loving every
minute of it, the birds or the emptiness, the dark rings
of the years slowly and without a sound
thickening, and nothing different unless the wind,
and then only in its own mood, comes
to visit, surely you can’t imagine
patience, and happiness, like that.
~ Mary Oliver
(Can You Imagine?)

…to be continued

vibrant spring blooms

‘pink sparkles’ phlox
3.8.26 ~ Juniper Level Botanic Garden
Raleigh, North Carolina

Last weekend Susan and I took a Sunday drive all the way out to Raleigh to check out this unique botanical garden, which is only open to the public on nine different weekends over the year. It has 10 acres of plants for education and research and, although privately owned since 1986, is now associated with North Carolina State University.

Our garden philosophy is to promote botanical diversity by assembling the largest collection possible of growable, winter/summer hardy ornamental plants for our region and display them in an aesthetic, sustainably maintained, healthy garden setting. This philosophy includes obtaining plants from all over the world with a strong emphasis on North American native plants, realizing that these are, as a group, no more or less adaptable than plants from foreign lands.
~ Juniper Level Botanic Garden website

We saw these yellow puff balls from afar and couldn’t wait to see them up close and find out what they were. They were very fragrant, and we got a pleasant whiff before we reached them. Some garden websites describe the scent as gardenia-like.

After meandering through several sections of the garden we started to pay attention to the bits of spitting rain hitting us and looked up to see a threatening rain cloud. We headed back to the car, with me protecting my camera under my jacket. We missed one last garden section but were happy we did manage to see most of the place.

rain cloud, time to turn around and head home

The plants were very well identified and I took 146 pictures. It was difficult choosing which ones to share for this post!

eye contact

12.19.25 ~ North Carolina Botanical Garden
northern mockingbird

On a mid-December visit to the botanical garden with a friend there were a lot of birds, all of them strategically avoiding my camera behind twigs and branches, but keeping a good eye on us.

The botanical garden had posted on its Facebook page that a yellow garden spider (aka a zipper spider) egg sac suspended between two Okefenokee hooded pitcher plants had been spotted in the Carnivorous Plant Collection – and we found it.

one side *(above)* and the other side *(below)*

Inside are up to a thousand or more tiny, dormant eggs. Creating this warm silk sac was one of the last endeavors of their mother’s life – yellow garden spider adults usually don’t survive the first hard frost. If all goes well, the eggs will spend the winter safe in this sac, emerging as itsy bitsy spiderlings in spring. … This particular pitcher plant variety is native only to the Okefenokee Swamp in southeastern Georgia. (There’s also an introduced population in North Carolina.)
~ North Carolina Botanical Garden
(Facebook, December 17, 2025)

Quite impressive. Silk is very strong, but can be weakened by wetness and sunlight. Time will tell if this egg sac will make it though the winter. We’ve already had some morning temperatures in the teens.