Soul Food to Go

Shareable bits of wisdom

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

~ Harriet Tubman

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🌳Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is

🌳Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill. ~ John Muir

Bryophytes are moss and other tiny plants who get their hydration and nutrition through their leaves. 🌿Since they don’t need roots, these ancient species can grow where others can’t - like on rocks.

Waterfall spray zones💦are bryophyte heaven, though they’re often scraped off by careless humans. 🥾So, it was a special joy to visit a thriving community of green goodness the other day - worth bushwhacking through stinging nettles and poison ivy.

Close-up: 🐍Snakewort (Conocephalum salebrosum) The little holes in the middle of each green snakeskin cell are air pores.

Deep breath time… Yay for nature breaks!

Wishing you a day “forgetful of all ill.” 🌿xx
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✨ Appreciate again and again, freshly and naivel

✨ Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy, however stale these experiences may have become to others. ~ Abraham Maslow

Look what I found on the back deck munching their way through one of my flowerpots…!!🐛

Saddleback Caterpillar Moth (Acharia stimulea) Larva stage

Happy weird and wonderful Wednesday!

🌿 XXX

#saddlebackcaterpillar
#weirdwednesday
#achariastimulea
#yes_busa
#usa_naturehippys
#GreenLeafCynthia

🌱 Curiosity is a delicate little plant that, as

🌱 Curiosity is a delicate little plant that, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom. ~ Albert Einstein

Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia asarifolia) is a locally rare wildflower named after Mount Parnassus in Greece - a place sacred to the Muses 🎭 and the home of poetry, music, and learning. It became an "honorary grass” since cattle on Mount Parnassus enjoyed munching on it.

Known more humbly as Bog Stars, these beauties enjoy damp feet and live on wet cliff faces and seepage ditches in the Southern Appalachian Mountains - 5,000 feet plus. With drops of water plopping on them, it can be tricky to get a non-blurry shot as flowers dance in their shower. And tragically, there were fewer to admire since swathes of them had been recently mowed to the ground!

This treasured “vertical bog” along the Blue Ridge Parkway is home to a remarkable variety of special and rare plants. Supposedly, there was an agreement to spare this small, unusually biodiverse area from the carnage of mowing. “Do Not Mow” signs (no longer there) suggested a reprieve from the Parkway mowing crews I call “Orchid Annihilators.” Grass of Parnassus along with at least two kinds of wild orchids, Sticky False Asphodel (a carnivorous plant that’s quite rare for the Carolinas), Pink Turtleheads, Appalachian Gentians and other unique plants were all leveled right up to the cliff face. What the heck? This isn’t supposed to be a suburban lawn - it’s a National PARK to protect nature.

Isn’t the point of a National Park to preserve flora and fauna for future generations - not to mow them into oblivion??? 🤦🏻‍♀️

Jim Fowler wrote “This site is a very rich botanical gem, overlooked (no pun intended) by most who pass by. Many of the species found in the higher elevations along the Parkway are those which are more commonly seen much farther north. They are part of the small remnant of flora that managed to stick around after the last ice age.”

🙏🏼If you know Blue Ridge Parkway officials or influencers, I’d be grateful if you’d put a bug in their ear about this.

✨ Hope you nurture your curiosity this week! XX🌿
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