west virginia botanic garden

saturday afternoon mmm was gracious enough to wrangle the kid so that i could have some quality time with rem and cars before they left.  we set off with gram on a nature hike through the west virginia botanic garden.  we mostly stuck to the reservoir loop but we did lots of meandering through side paths.  

the place is gorgeous.  something about it that stokes my creativity.  maybe because the early spring landscape is still rather barren.  you have to slow down and look very closely to catch glimpses of color and glimpses of life.

the girls made me proud.  they pushed through trails and explored natural and manmade wonders without an ounce of fear.  it was heartening to hear their imaginations run on, concocting stories of what different ruins might have been or how old a particular tree might be.

we saw a turtle!  that was my favorite part!