If some of those beech trees in the Culbertson Asiatic Arboretum left me with the feeling that I was being watched, I suppose it was only fair.  I had been staring pretty intently at them too.  Just as I had been peering intently into a thousand other scenes that caught my fancy, rearranged my breathing and felt for all the world like haiku poems whispered and then scribed by nature herself.

Yesterday I was privileged to wander the wonders of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University for a few hours.  There were six hundred and fifty of us visiting, in addition to the regulars and students:  Garden Writers. 

You see, we're all celebrating together again.  It is that time of year; time for our annual symposium.  And this year we have all managed to gather from the far winds and corners of this nation to meet and share our best together here in Raleigh, NC.  The people are so generous, so very gracious . . . The food is delicious.  And the gardens are 'powerful beautiful'.

Some things grow much bigger here than at home in Seattle.  More heat units and humidity units.  Sometimes that translates into more beauty units.  It also means more sweat units.

I couldn't begin to capture or explain all that there was to see and feel in the Sarah P. Duke gardens, certainly not in those few hours I had to wander and explore, and really, that became apparent in the first moment I stepped off the bus and onto those hallowed Duke University grounds.  So I have opted here for smaller glimpses.  Minor miracles.  Wabi-sabi moments in time and space.  Images I thought might just translate into food that your eyes could devour as mine have.

Bon Apetit