Thought it would be a nice change to go wander around the Botanical Gardens here in the Asheville area. Ended up spending 5-6 hrs there as they have more than 400 acre's of hills, creeks and hiking trails. On top of the main hill they have their visitors center and about 40 acres of formal gardens and trails. I spent most of my time wandering around reading signs and looking at all the trees, bushes and other plants. The only disappoint was that a lot of the plants were still pretty much dormant. They had a few things coming out of course, the standard Dogwood and Red Bud trees along with lots of more domestic type flowers. But I was disappointed that the rhododendron's still weren't out even though they all had huge buds just ready to pop. I did get to see my first Magnolia tree in bloom though. It was a small one, only about 35' high, but still stupendous. Can't wait to get down to Charleston next week and see if they are still in bloom there.

    The best part of the gardens had to be their Bonsai exhibit, even though a lot of those were also in storage until it warms up a bit more. It's hard to remember that it is really still quite early in the spring time even if the temperatures are already well into the 80's up here. They still had some really nice examples out and there are a couple of pictures of them below.

    They also had one whole section and a small greenhouse dedicated to common house plants, shrubs and trees that can do serious medical harm to humans or animals. I was a little surprised, but very intrigued, by all of them, many of which I recognised and some of which I had actually grown or had in a garden at one time or another. Of course some are still in use even today as some sort of medical treatment, just in a more controlled manner. Really quite fascinating.

    Got back to the trailer late in the afternoon and spent the remaining daylight hours just hanging out by the river and reading a book. One low point this afternoon; came back to find that someone stole the cover off of my gas generator on the back of the trailer. I have the feeling that they would of taken the generator to if they could of, but with three locks and a couple 1/4"x 1" steel bars bolting it on to it's tray it would probably take a while for them to do it. Just need to go get another cover for it tomorrow is all.

A nice example of a Rhododendron Bonsai. This one is just so pretty with it in flower like it is.

Another example of the art of Bonsai. This one is a nice maple. The trunk on this one makes it look as though it could be more than 100 years old.

This one is a Cedar Tree. Also very pretty.

I joke that a lot of my time is spent chasing butterflies from flower to flower, most of the time in a fruitless endeavor to get a picture of them. I finally managed to sneak up on this one and got one shot of it before it took off. It's not a great picture, but it will do for now.