I'm trying to think when we went there last, but all I can come up with is that it must have been before The Big Snow, because there were a few more freshly downed trees and limbs (at the time, the arboretum was closed for two weeks while crews went around making sure the trails were safe).
The sun slowly set as we walked various trails. The Child said that he wanted a mostly flat hike, so we went to the swamp bridge, and the wetlands art installation, and the river banks.
I like the swamp bridge, because there's often dragonflies or fish to see. Tonight there were ducks hiding in the lillies. In the grass beneath the bridge a bunny was foraging.
Afterward, we went up (hah! a trick! we had to climb up!) to the incense cedars, which smelled the most wonderful I've ever smelled them.
We ended up in a meadow about a fifth of the way up the slope of Mt. Pisgah; I remember one Winter-solstice-like time about ten years ago, taking a picture of one particular oak while it was shrouded in fog with a wan sun casting beams through its branches. Today it was high white clouds with raptors in a blue sky.
Cow parsnip. Related to the carrot.
The Willamette River. There were raptors of some sort flying up above, but they were too far away to photograph. The swifts over the river flew too fast. Oh well.
Mark said these felt like scritching a cat's ear, and I've forgotten their name.
Um... a pretty purple flower!
Wild Mountain Rose. It looked like something out of a fairy tale.
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