Taking a Different Path

After sitting in Twin Cities rush hour traffic we needed a quiet reprieve and way to stretch our legs. Nothing beats the traffic blues like the Eloise Butler Butterfly and Wild Flower Garden, a wooded oasis in bustling Minneapolis. 

Actually I have written about this garden before as it is considered the first wildflower garden to view native plants in a natural setting rather than in formal beds. It began in 1907 after a petition by its namesake, Eloise Butler, a science teacher and a group of teachers to the Minneapolis Park board for botany students to study the variety of native plants and here, then known as Glenwood Park. 

 Records state that the park started as 3 acres, a bog, a meadow and hillside area but doubled in a year and Ms Butler introduced over 100 plants herself. By 1933 she recorded over 1100 species.

Now in 2015 some 100+ years later, we encountered all the parking spaces  filled as a university class was meeting here in late afternoon. We scurried past them as their instructor shared the medicinal properties of ginger.

  It was a gorgeous fall day and the path had a new mulch layer. 
 The leaves a couple of weeks ago were just starting to turn and I saw my first red of autumn. 

 The meadow was dotted with blooms... 

 And fewer autumnal blooms were present along the shaded path... 

                                 



 Plant labels help the visitor ...

As in any public space there are rules which allow the next visitor to have the same experience as the previous ones.

 And we are glad for all those rules as we had another delightful visit where we chose a different path for our afternoon... Taking  time to stop and smell... autumn in the big City. And you thought I was going to say 'roses', didn't you?

Thank heavens for all those that thought of the public and created parks for us to enjoy.