Cottonwood Trail again. I took a tennis ball for Boof to play with. He catches it and runs in big circles but won't bring it back until he gets tired of it. We meet Lil'bit and her owner, an athletic couple walking, but who turn back to back and skip together to pass us, another runnning couple (the young man says as they pass "Have you been to Rome?", "Yes" she says, "Can you dance?" he says- I do not hear her answer).
I am shocked by the water in the wetlands. It is a deep, deep red color, studded with the blossoms of wild white rose and blackberry. There are huge clumps of Blue Flag Iris ( Iris Versicolor) growing in the water. (these are usually found farther north on the east coast from Virginia upwards to Canada in marshes and swamps). The color of the water may be due to iron leaching from the soil, but I grew up near the Catawba River where the banks and water ran orange from the iron. This was the soil that the Catawba used to craft their unique pottery which comes out black and white after it is fired.
This day was the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. It was launched on April 10. So was I. That was my birthday and now I am 69 years old (I can't believe it). I am not sinking yet. My mother was actually born on April 10 in 1912 on the very day of the launching of the Titanic. If she were still alive, she would have been 100 years old, but she died two years ago at the age of 98.
I am still thinking of how to honor her. I find myself telling her in my mind about the yellow irises blooming in my yard, the gigantic Knockout Rose bushes laden with hundreds of blooms.
In the grocery store parking lot, I spy a license plate on a SUV that says "IWALK18". Do they walk 18 miles?
Then I see a very fat woman dressed in a strapless white dress with big colorful flowers. She is laughing loudly. I love her on this loud, beautiful laughing day.
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