Everything is hard. It just is. We’ve only been doing “this” for about six weeks, but it feels like an eternity. Everything has changed, and we are forging an existence that is so foreign. To be honest, I don’t feel like I’m doing it very well most of the time. Yet, I try to continue to look for moments of peace, and lately that has been outside.
Every weekend, my family makes it a point to visit one of the natural areas in our vicinity. Some of these places we’ve been before and we are visiting them with a new sense of their importance, others are new explorations.
Twice now we’ve been out to Allerton Park, exploring a side of it we’d previously not paid much attention to. We’ve been to events at the Mansion, stayed overnight in the guest house, admired the gardens and sculptures, sent the kids to 4-H camp, but really hadn’t paid much attention to the extensive trails on the other side of the park until those were our only option (now the gardens are open to the public again). Visiting these trails that begin at the Lost Garden parking lot about three weeks apart enabled us to really see Spring in action.
We first visited in early April and hiked the Green Trail; it was a chilly day and many branches were still bare, but there were still some bluebells and mayapples to be found.
Photo by Julie McClure.
Photo by Julie McClure.
Photo by Julie McClure.
Photo by Julie McClure.
The entrance to what use to be The Lost Garden. Photo by Julie McClure.
We returned this past weekend, beginning our hike in a slight drizzle that soon cleared to bright sunshine. Thankfully the drizzle seemed to keep folks away, as we saw maybe two other people. Isn’t it strange how much that figures into our experiences right now? In just a few weeks time the seasonal changes were striking. We did the Blue Trail this time.
Photo by Julie McClure.
Photo by Julie McClure.
Photo by Julie McClure.
Photo by Julie McClure.
Photo by Julie McClure.