A gardening friend took me to see these wonderful peonies at Nichols Arboretum, years ago, before I moved out to the ann arbor-ypsi area. Now that I've moved so close you'd think I'd see them every year.
Unfortunately, they prohibit bikes on the grounds, no doubt wishing to protect the trails from thoughtless dirt bikers, and making the seemingly reasonable assumption that no-one would be unduly burdened; after all, when you park your car, then you have to return to your start point to pick it back up again.
Usually my pictures tend to straggle uphill ’cuz I can't hold the camera straight, but for once I'm happy to say the land really does slope.
Cycling, however, lends itself to random side trips through things like gardens—I'd love to be able to walk my bike through there, say on the way to library, then ride a different way home. —Because I can't I have to make a special effort to visit, and thus this is the first time I've managed to see the peonies in several years. I'd assumed they'd already be past their peak—after all my tree peonies are long done and most of the neighborhood peonies are flopping over.
But I lucked out; maybe because these are old-fashioned varieties (or so my friend told me.) The peony garden is at the top of the hill, and I mistakenly went downhill the easy way, missing the close entry to the garden—so I only had a few precious minutes to photograph the flowers before a) I went off to a self-imposed appointment and b) the light got too harsh.
I've heard modern peonies come in all sorts of weird colors, but I'm perfectly satisfied with the oldfashioned magenta, pink and white kinds.
Obviously the varieties with the inner ruffs and puffs fascinate me, as I took a lot of pix of them. You can see the UM hospital complex in the distance (tan buildings)
As I said, by 9am the light was getting a little sharp. But I wouldn't’ve seen the peonies at all except for the sunrise ride, another wonderful way to enjoy early morning light: we ride along the Huron River between A2 and Dexter, enjoying peace, deer, and on this occasion a very large snapping turtle, and many freshly opened daisies.
photos taken 11jun05 coolpix 8400, scaled, and some cropped; file created 12jun05; added tags, 27may2021, added peony tag 07jun22
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
