To celebrate Arbor Day (April 24) the Morton Arboretum offered free admission. I was so happy to get to be there for the day that I was actually pulling into the parking lot just after 7 a.m. I’m not usually an enthusiastic early riser, but it was easy to do because I was so looking forward to being there. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, warm temps and a light breeze. Here in Illinois, Spring is finally in full force. All the trees that flower are in bloom, along with Azaleas, Daffodils, and Forsythia. It’s glorious!
The first thing I did was to head over to the China and Japan sections. My first shot was taken before 7:30 so you can see the wonderful morning light and the mist in the background. The colors and scents in the air were wonderful. In the spring I’m always reminded of a line from sweet spring, an ee cummings poem that says, “everybody never breathed quite so many kinds of yes”. That gives a lot of the feeling of the day.
One of the things I most wanted to do was to walk the Joy Path. This was named after the founder of the Morton Arboretum. He used to live on the grounds and was said to walk that path every day after he came home from work in the city. His name was Joy Morton. He founded Morton Salt Company in 1865. The Morton family motto was “Plant Trees”.
Making my way over to the West Side and through Godshalk Meadow, I crossed a bridge over the DuPage River to walk the Joy Path. It’s easy to see why he loved this path so much. I heard that he’d walk down it, and then have his chauffeur pick him up at the bottom of the path. Sweet!
The Arboretum is 1700 acres and has 16 miles of trails. As you can imagine, though I was there from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m., and walking most of the time, there there was more ground than I could cover in the day. It’ll be great to go back and see new areas and the beauty of the ever-changing landscape.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and taking a virtual walk with me.
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- There’s still early morning mist and wonderful light in the woods.
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- Purple Azaleas growing in the shade of the trees.
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- Purple and white Azaleas in the early morning light…
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- This is the bridge in the Godshalk Meadow, over the DuPage River.
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- So much rain has made the water muddy, but the river is still beautiful.
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- Joy Path. To give you some scale of the size of the trees, the bench in the center is a full sized park bench.
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- Look for this tree in the center of the picture called Joy Path. It’s to the right of the tree with white blossoms.
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- Nothing says Spring like Forsythia! This is on the Joy Path.
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- Daffodils growing under the trees on the Joy Path.
You know I love all of these (especially that wonderful grandfather tree) but I must say the composition of the daffodil photo is outstanding 🙂
Karen, you have such a wonderful eye. I felt like I was there. Be sure to post some of them in your shop. I especially love the flowers (but I’m partial to yellow).
Beautiful!!!! after being sick and cooped up in the house, I am so ready to get outside!
RObin