Photos from a relaxing early evening walk at Graver Arboretum, in Bushkill Township, Pennsylvania. I’ve been here a coupe of times and need to make it a point to visit more often. The arboretum is used as an outdoor classroom by the biology and other science departments of Muhlenberg College. Today I saw the first signs of spring in the form of the emerging Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). It’s one of the earliest spring flowers in Northeastern Pennsylvania. These plants are unique in that they can generate heat to melt through snow making them one of the first wildflowers to be seen emerging in the spring. The plant produces a pungent odor if the leaves are crushed. Some compare it to rotting flesh. (I didn't crush the leaves to try it, because I didn't want to hurt the plant.) The odor, while maybe not so pleasant to a human, is attractive to pollinators. Another subject of artistic interest was the early evening light cast on the “knees” coming up from the roots of the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) near the pond. I spent about about an hour here walking, observing and enjoying my time discovering some trees I had not seen before such as the Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana). But as the sun sank lower in the sky, a large dark clouds threatened with stormy winds. I knew the sky was about to open up with rain, but luckily, I was dressed for weather because it started to hail. I loved the sound of the trees swaying in the wind, and the sound of the bark on the limbs rubbing against each other. It made the time even magical to be here at this hour with no one else around listening to the trees talk. The storm didn’t last long before the sun came back out. As I was driving home a gorgeous rainbow appeared in the sky. It was a nice way to wrap up a wonderful evening.

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