Faith, Folklore, and Friends

Hub and I spent a few days last week visiting the Smoky Mountain National Park during their Wildflower Pilgrimage. We have many of the same wildflowers in our area, but we love to hike the trails in the park and see what we can discover.  The first part of the photos are from the Chimneys trail. The photos below were made at one of the pull-offs just before the Sugarlands entrance to the park. There are still lots of spring wildflowers blooming here.  Today would be a good day to take a walk and look for some.  

Yesterday, Hub and I went for a ride to see wildflowers.  We went south on the Natchez Trace Parkway, then to Booneville, Mississippi, then home on Highway 72. The wildflowers were not hard to find; in fact, they were everywhere we looked.  I blogged about mayapple  here. Purple trillium and purple grape hyacinths. They are small, but smell so good! This butterfly found the wild phlox before I did. When I was a child, we called these wild Sweet Williams.  We always picked them and carried them home for bouquets.  Maybe that is why I am not bothered with allergies as much as some people are. We saw much more than wildflowers. . .

For a few days last week, we went to the Smoky Mountain National Park looking for wildflowers.  We found some. All these images are from the park.  We found some other things, too. . . . 

The morning broke cold but by early Sunday afternoon, it was warm enough for a walk on the TVA reservation.  The wildflowers are bursting out all over. Dutchman's Breeches were everywhere.  I've never seen so many at one time. They were perfect. Pretty sure this is Jacob's ladder, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong. I can always spot blood root.  Who would think these pretty white blossoms would come from roots that bleed? There were hundreds of trillium plants blooming, covering the hillsides. May-apple was abundant, too. It would be hard to find anything prettier than Carolina Bluebells. There were many other wildflowers just coming up, and will be in bloom before long.  The best part of the day was seeing all the children and parents out walking and riding bikes and laughing and welcoming the springtime.