Green Peace

Traffic was brutal when I set off to meet a friend at the National Arboretum this morning, and my map app predicted that the 8-mile journey would take 55 minutes. Thankfully, after a long stretch of bumper-to-bumper, things cleared a bit, and I made it to the visitors center in 45 minutes instead, pulling up right around 9:30. 

The day was clear and mild, but since not much was in bloom, the two of us and our dogs seemed to have all 446 acres to ourselves as we rambled first to the 22 Corinthian columns that were part of the U.S. Capitol from 1828-1958, then through the state trees and on over to the Asian collections. We spotted several juncos, nuthatches, and downy woodpeckers along the way, and then, down by the Anacostia River, we saw a bald eagle riding the early thermals way up in the sky. 

On our way back up the hill we found what I consider to be the coolest plant of the day, a flying dragon tree. This cold-hardy member of the citrus family looked for all the world like the shrubs surrounding Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Next, we made our way through the conifer collection and on down to an open field with an enormous tree stump sprawling like a little stage. Lucy took the opportunity to grab the spotlight and hopped up on her own for a photo op. 

From there it was past the pond where turtles were sunning themselves on every available surface above the water and down a wooded path where an eastern phoebe called her name over and over as we passed. Then we were back to the visitors center where we peeked through the windows into the bonsai greenhouse (no dogs allowed inside) before returning to our cars. 

After a couple of peaceful hours wandering through the gardens and forests I had almost forgotten about the traffic of the morning, but it was there waiting for me as drove through the gates and turned toward home.