Doctor HP Flowers

The Forbidden Path

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     Early morning stroll in the Park cleansed by yesterday’s soaking rain.  I brazenly chose to follow the ‘Forbidden Path’, the trail closed last Fall by the great flood of ’09 since posted with ‘do not enter’ signs.  It’s cool, breezy and delicately quiet.  Woods are alive with small talk, bird chatter.  “Ummm, Un-huh, yea…”  (I enjoy eavesdropping on their lively gossip.) 

    

Golden Star, Chrysogonum virginianum
Stone Mountain Park’
DeKalb County Georgia
Sunday 25 April 2010



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Noontootla Creek

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Sweet White Violet, Viola blanda
Crested Iris, Iris crestata
Large Flowered Trillium, Trillium grandiflora
Vernal Iris, Iris verna

Noontootla Creek Watershed
Fannin County Georgia
Saturday 17 April 2010



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"Bring your knee pads"

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Two inches of strawberry fire
Weaves across the granite slab
Finding a fissure
Tip toeing thru broken gravel
Pooling in the low spots.
“Bring your knee pads.”

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Elf Orpine, Diamorpha smallii
Stone Mountain Park
DeKalb County, Georgia
Saturday 10 April 2010



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Creekside

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Arose this morning, packed the truck and split.
Spontaneous.  An irresistible impulse.  Very unlike me.

No maps.  Dead reckoning this time, to an old hangout.
Lumpkin County, Siloam Church Road.  Etowah River headwaters.
To Rufus Despain’s grave.  He’s a World War I vet.
I always visit when the site is decorated with Birdfoot Violets.

Warm sun, clear sky. The Spring Line strolls along
     Hardly speaking, leaf buds peaking.
I doze by the creek and wake myself snoring.
Find nodding trillium, foam flower, golden star,
     Wind flower, wood vetch, smaller pussytoes, bloodroot,
     Toad trillium, early buttercup, and wild columbine
By the road to Cooper Gap.

Cross the ridge, the Appalachian Trail is quite busy
     with the early departures headed to Maine.
Then drop down into Union County, by the Toccoa River
     pausing at Pleasant Valley Church.
The gravel parking lot is sprinkled with Red-eyed bluet.

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Bloodroot.  Sanguinaria canadensis
Red-eyed Bluet.  Houstonia pusilla
Lumpkin and Union County, Georgia
Friday 9 April 2010



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No Easter Egg

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Bass fishing ain’t no Easter Egg hunt,
Mind you.
No white pink-eyed bunny
Lounging in a wicker basket
Lined with fake green grass.

No, it’s kick ass.
Mortal combat
Mano-a-fisho
Destination skillet.

I chanst upon this drama
Easter Sunday morn.
Eight pounds of fury
Eight tons of joy and delight
Hoisting this prize in triumph.

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Stone Mountain Park
DeKalb County, Ga.
Sunday 4 April 2010



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