Get Thee To The Woods, Vol. 23: Springtime at the Botanical Garden

Welcome to my first Get Thee To the Woods post of 2011! In this series I like to share the ways we have celebrated God's wonderful creation.

Last week I took a trip with the fourth graders to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond.

There is a mulberry tree here that is over 100 years old.

A chilly rain shower brought our group indoors for a while.

Our tour guide showed the kids a bin full of food scraps and newspaper, and how the worms and bugs work to make mulch for the gardens.

After an indoor picnic,

the rain stopped and we were able to explore the beautiful gardens.

We found more beauty inside the glass conservatory.

The treehouse was by far the kids' favorite feature on this trip.

We enjoyed some nice views of the gardens from inside.

Before boarding the buses back to school, the kids did some planting in the vegetable garden. Here's Moe planting lettuce.

I've put myself on a bit of a blogging hiatus. I've got some home and work projects that need attention. I hope I can pop in here between now and Easter and share a little bit more about my Lenten journey this year, and in the coming weeks I'm planning to make some minor changes here--deleting some old posts (not many) while I re-examine the direction I'm going with this blog. You probably won't notice much of a difference, frankly, but somewhere down the road I may be asking for advice from you, my blogging friends.

Until next time, then!

Oh, I almost forgot! We had a dusting of snow here last weekend, but wouldn't you know I haven't downloaded the pictures from my camera yet? I'll try to share some of those with you soon. I love a spring snow, don't you?

Oh, and one more thing!!

This morning I realized that today, April 2, is the anniversary of the day Pope John Paul II died. He will be beatified on May 1 of this year. This means that from now on, April 2 will be the feast day of Blessed John Paul the Great! How cool is that??

Blessed John Paul, pray for us!