The greening of the mountains

For just a brief while more, you can climb above springtime...go up the Blue Ridge Parkway (for instance) and find the several hundred feet of transition, a cusp of springtime.

 That's where down below is lush and green, and in the middle the little sparkling blossoms of dogwood against bare trees which have just tips of green on the branches...and then up to further elevation and the only greens against grey are those firs and hemlocks and rhododendrons.

So let's find how it looked on May 3 this year.

At about mile marker 367 to 371 was the transition on that day.  Remember each day it will be traveling higher up!

And where dogwoods have all but finished blooming in Black Mountain, at Craggy Gardens picnic ground turnoff, they are still in fine fettle.

By the time I got to the Craggy Visitor's Center and looked down on Burnett Reservoir, it was so amazing to see that green/brown line.

And returning to full blown springtime I came down the Parkway...

Today's quote:

It takes a person of great heart to see…the wisdom the elders have to offer, and so serve them out of gratitude for the life they have passed on to us.

Kent Nerburn