Annual Cardinal Flower Trek

I came today to look for the red cardinal flowers at the end of the road where it meets the beautiful East Fork of the Black River, a sort of birthday tradition of mine. 

This balmy Sunday morning left my tennis shoes damp, as well as my socks beneath them, as I trudged through the damp weeds on the trail that leads to the end of the earth like I do every year about this time.

As I approached the river I noticed a pair of pink sunglasses, neatly folded up laying in the center of the wooden bridge that replaced a rusty metal one almost a hundred years ago.  The glasses sat there gazing through their dark gray lenses at the river to the north.  Whether dropped out of a pocket, or neatly placed there for me to ponder about in a blog, ha ha, I'll never know!

I was disappointed because the recent rains and high water appeared to have covered up the cardinal flowers along the river's edge but the Joe-Pye weed that stood tall and graceful, upstream all along the banks, gave me delight, as the morning sunlight focused on lavender blossoms.

As I sat there on the wooden bridge, penning in my journal and swatting mosquitoes, I felt so thankful for another year of enjoying this precious life on earth.  A beautiful blue sky, without a cloud in it, towered over my head, while ripples flowing over rocks in the river below me sang comforting melodies.   I could've sat there forever, yes I could have.

I missed seeing those August cardinal flower blooms but checked carefully in the backed up water's edges on my way home, and I found a few.  My day wouldn't have been complete without seeing them.

The cardinal flower's bright red glow is my favorite color in nature, next to the cardinal itself, or the red glow on the top of a pileated woodpecker's head.

Jared, did you leave the sunglasses for me?  Or was it you, "Orange Truck Man"?

I left the glasses where I found them so they could guard the cardinal flowers and gaze at the moon and stars tonight on the wooden bridge.