“Arboretum” Sounds A Little Pretentious, But Hey, It’s Brentwood.

It was a balmy, sunshiny 55 degrees today, the kind of gorgeous weather that makes you understand why…

OK, originally I finished this sentence by writing “… druids worshipped nature and ran around naked hugging trees and whatnot.” But something about that didn’t sound right, so then I Googled ‘druids’ and found out they were not so much about the hugging of the trees, they were kinda more about the sacrificing of the humans, so I had to come up with another reference and then I thought, “Pagans! I bet that’s what I meant, pagans!”

But Wikipedia pretty much rained on that parade too, though they did start out by saying the Latin definition of pagan was “rural, rustic, of the country”– which fit, because HELLO, Bell Buckle!– but then it went on to talk about Stonehenge and worshiping idols and stuff, and seriously, who has time for that?

So I guess what I meant to say is that today’s weather makes me want to run around naked and hug trees, but the important thing to take away from all of this, is that I DIDN’T.

So, it’s safe to keep scrolling down. You can go ahead and look at the pictures.

Here’s what my walk today at the Deerwood Arboretum looked like. (Where do you guys like to walk?)

 

**It’s all paved and everything. Depending what time of day you go, you can more or less have the whole place to yourself. **Are these crocuses? They’re always one of the first signs of spring around here, sometimes they even beat the jonquils. **The path winds down beside the Little Harpeth River. Where I come from, this is what’s known as “a creek,” but whatever, Tennessee. **Because it’s an arboretum, they have all the tree species helpfully numbered and identified, you know, in case somebody ever puts a gun to your head and says, “QUICK– tell me what a green ash looks like!” **Beautiful carpet of blue… somethings. Anybody? I used to know this stuff. **Squirrel’s nests always look like they are rather haphazardly put together. This one does appear to have two stories, however, which is kind of impressive when you think about it. **Ya’ll remember a couple of years ago when my back got all jacked up and I had to stay in bed for-stinking-ever? This is EXACTLY what I looked like when I tried to walk, I am not even kidding. **They also thoughtfully provide benches so you can sit quietly and think deep thoughts. Or meditate. Or in my case, try to do a mental inventory of my refrigerator and figure out if I have enough corn beef and cabbage leftovers from our St. Patrick’s Day dinner to feed everybody without having to stop by the grocery. **Yeah, I can make it work, leftovers it is– I’m outta here!

(See? TOTALLY wearing clothes.)

27 Responses

  1. LindaB

    Well, you were all “back to nature” today, huh? The park is so pretty. Believe it or not, we have a similar nature walk here in Clio, only they call it a bike path. It does for miles too. And there are pretty patches of wildflowers along side of it and it’s through an all wooded area too. There’s also railroad tracks running through the woods and the path goes underneath it, and when we hear a train coming, we rush to get under the tracks inside this huge culvert and it feels like what we think being in an earthquake is like! The kids love that. When you come to visit me, we’ll go walk it…..and hopefully a train will come!

    Cute picture of you! You cannot take a bad picture, I believe.

  2. meb

    We have the “Power line Trail” which is as it’s name says, a trail that runs under the power lines. It’s not paved, but it is a very popular place to walk, bike, run, ride horses. Yeah, you gotta watch out for the horse poo when you’re out walking there. I mean really, we have to clean up after the dogs, why don’t these people clean up after the horses too?

    The little blue flowers kind of look like Forget Me Nots (or as we called them Remember Me’s) but then again… I’m not a master gardener. And yeah, that’s a creek. For me a river is something large enough for a barge to travel. Growing up in Pittsburgh, well we had three rivers, so that gives you some idea of what I’m used to. :-)

    Please send some of that sunshine out here to Seattle too. While everything is blooming out here and looks beautiful, I’m done with the rain/grey for now.

  3. GracieD

    Tori, as always, you look fabulous!

  4. jonny

    A really nice looking Arboretum ! I enjoyed the one in So Cal when younger. Some Tarzan films were shot there in the 40’s = ) As for walking, I pretty much walk everywhere, but there are some truly nice un-paved trails in the Nuuksio National Park just outside of Helsinki = )

  5. Cynthia

    Tori,

    Were we supposed to finish your sentence; if so here you go, not even a mention of the ancients running around doing things they ought not be doing.

    “It was a balmy, sunshiny 55 degrees today; the kind of gorgeous weather that makes you understand why following Bucolic pathways in spring time is so refreshing to the soul.”

  6. Cynthia

    meb,

    You were right; they are Forget-Me-Nots, and they are one of the 50 species in the Genus family (Genus – low-level)

    In a German legend, when God named all the plants a tiny unnamed one cried out, “Forget-me-not, O Lord!” God replied, “That shall be your name.”

    The Crocus is also in the same biological classification; and they don’t just grow in Spring; there are varieties which also grow in Autumn.

  7. Gramma Jac

    FYI, around here that’s a creek–but here it’s pronounced “crick”!

  8. bettyrwoodward

    That just looks amazing. I can’t wait to get to Tennessee! I love to walk by a babbling river and hear the water finding his way through the stones and watch the birds drinking. The flowers certainly are forget me nots we have them too. Near to where we live we have some woodland that soon will be full of bluebells and the smell of those is truly amazing.

  9. auburn60

    Betty- Are you coming to Tennessee !?! Tell me where and when, we’ll meet up! That would be so cool.

    Yes, Tori, I TOTALLY remember when you jacked up your back and had to stay in bed. I was ready to stage an intervention and find you second and third medical opinions because you were in so much pain and healing was coming soooo slowly! Don’t do that again,OK?

    I noticed some of my spring bulbs poking their little heads up on Sunday but I don’t want to look today; I’m afraid the 28 degree weather this morning may have killed their little spirits. ((You have druids and pagans, I have flowers with souls. Small,tender souls.)

  10. bettyrwoodward

    Auburn60. I am at Family fest and then from the Monday afterwards staying in Townsend. Are you anywhere near there?

  11. auburn60

    We live in Knoxville. I would love to go to FF this year but don’t know yet about family obligations in May yet. (I’ve been pretty lucky about getting tickets at the last minute in years past!) But,yes,Townsend is about an hour, depending on traffic…and I love Townsend cause it’s QUIETER than Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge. Maybe we can even get Tori to meet for lunch one day or something!

  12. auburn60

    Obviously, I don’t “yet” know what I’m doing in May…what an awkward sentence…

  13. bettyrwoodward

    We are staying at the River Terrace Resort and Convention Centre during Familyfest. It would be good to meet up then or later in Townsend.

  14. jonny

    When is that ??

  15. jonny
  16. bettyrwoodward

    It is indeed jonny!

  17. jonny

    Well, if a lot of Bloomr’ peeps are going to be there, I could see about being there myself for a first attempt at a Bloomr’ hang-out together = )

  18. JanetB

    Someday, I’m going to Family Fest…the Lord willing. You all have a wonderful time!
    My sister and I did go to see the GVB last week in Springfield, Mo…and a wonderful, glorious evening it was, too! Sat in the front row and soaked it all in…almost tripped poor little Wes during Winds of This World, though…oops. And I’m pretty sure that at one point Mark ran over David’s foot with his scooter – the look on Mark’s face was priceless! (Tori, Mark needs one of those big bicycle/clown horns for his scooter…the ones with the big red rubber ball on it, you know? Even better if it sounded like an old Model T horn. hehe Just a suggestion.) Who knew that a GVB concert could be so fraught with danger?

    Looking at your pictures, I’m reminded of Nowhere. 40-plus years ago, my aunt and uncle, Lola and Bob, bought some land across the river over in rural Missouri. (That river is the Mississippi…everything else is a creek.) They cleared some space for a campsite and left the rest of it pretty much untouched. Lola made a sign for the shelter structure; when we were there, it said Now Here…when we left, it was pushed together to say Nowhere. (“Where are you going this weekend?” “Nowhere.” “Oh…okay…”)

    We spent almost every free moment we could over there with them…did a lot of hiking through the woods…looking at gnarly old trees and wildflowers and rusty bridges….mushroom hunting in the spring…fishing and swimming in the Fabius in the summer…collecting leaves and pinecones in the fall. It was Church in the grandest sense – learning about the Creator by being in the midst of part of His creation.

    I’d share pictures if I could. I have one of my dad and my sister in the woods…Daddy has a cattail stuck in his back pocket, with a roll of toilet paper hanging on it. Because, you know, you gotta be prepared… :)

  19. tori

    LindaB: I just got a total mind picture of you and I, standing in that culvert under rumbling train tracks and laughing our fool heads off!

  20. tori

    meb: That trail sounds amazing– it would be worth dodging poop piles to see some horses go by… But some PR/marketing person needs to work on that name– “Power Line Trail” doesn’t sound very user-friendly!

  21. tori

    GracieD: I love that story about your mom’s house– and what a JOY to have people in it that you like so much! (Also you might want to check your reading glasses… Or I might have to start wearing sunglasses 24/7… Either way, thanks for the compliment!)

  22. tori

    small-j: I’ve only been to Helsinki once, but I do remember how beautiful it was all around that city… Of course, being me, what I mostly remember is eating at a really good Indian restaurant!

  23. tori

    Cynthia:I love that Forget-Me-Not story! And the way you finished my sentence was ever so much classier than mine!

  24. tori

    Gramma Jac: EXACTLY! A crooked little crick!

  25. tori

    bettyrwoodward: You will definitely see some beautiful nature around Townsend!

  26. tori

    auburn60: We had a 28 degree morning two days ago, but it warmed up fairly quickly– my pansies look a little shell-shocked, but they’re snapping back! And yeah, I have NO plans to wack out my back– ever!

  27. tori

    JanetB: So glad you had a good time at the GVB concert! (But seriously, think about it– do we REALLY want to give Mark a clown horn???) Love your Nowhere story– reminds me of a lot of my childhood in Arkansas, too.

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