It’s gone a little crazy here. This bizarre early Spring is a month early which is not to say I am crying tears of Rage over it. That would be laughingly inaccurate.  😉

We took a small trip to Bernheim Woods because that’s where one goes to find out what the best things in this world are – and Bernheim delivered. Nor is this to say I did not have a hallucinating great time walking my local ville and even Owensboro, where I spent time with two wonderful people, one my very original old flame the other my most influential adult growing up. I could have easily and happily spent more time with each but I also left each feeling refreshed and soulful. And wanting more.

(enlarge all images – and please do – by left clicking)

The colorful Crabapple grove below is one of Bernheim’s greatest tricks. They tend to mass blooming things in fabulous arrays of sumptuousness for the eyes (and nose!) as the flowering Crabapples below testify.

It was further up the car-directed trails where my Ma and I were most driven to visit – all curious about what the Forest Canopy Walk would offer. The little succulent lime green leaves of Kentucky Spring are just trotting out some muscular leaf activity on these forests of crazily- and widely- mixed species.

The view over the edge goes forever, with beautiful punctuations of subtle colors which you must see to really understand. Great forest scents are out, with both the native Dogwoods and Redbuds pushing blooms like hot dog salesmen in the Manhattan business district.

I absolutely adore the iron work on this forest canopy walk. Simple, safe but still somehow visually arresting, the Bernheim Forest has themselves an absolute feature with this outstanding edifice.

This is my Mother, just before she jumped. Yes, I tried “talking her down” – I mean, I watched Dirty Harry – but she was having too much fun. I’ll probably miss her.

It’s actually a long way down and, no, she didn’t jump. I was just funnin’.

Notice my accent changing?

But it is the distant views that bring home the season like few other images. One can see Winter still has the slightest grip on some dubious trees, a little reluctant to bust out like their neighbors.

Lacy blooms adorn these dense hardwood forests like gorgeous necklaces around the loved ones nearby. Shared in scent, color and texture, the very depth of Nature’s Beauty shows off here in 360 degrees of fulfillment, delicately and yet boldly.

The subtle graces of these stunningly rich Spring forest views reveal themselves to a delighted populace who universally speak of and enjoy these forests with pride and a very real Kentucky wonder.

Almost diabolical in their tactics, planners of this luscious resource obviously take a perverse pride in augmenting these forests views with sneaky Fuschia coloring in their foregrounds, a trick of designing which never fails to absolutely hypnotize the rest of us idiots with a smiling pleasure. Honestly, this view is outrageous. Please enlarge.

Truth is, Mom and I caught more than one mere day’s worth of glory out there. For example, when we came back to town, we tripped over to Audubon Park where various crazy neighborhoods host a Dogwood Festival each year.

I mean, its hard to imagine why!