If he were alive, Robert Frost would forgive me, I think, for paraphrasing his famous poem, one of my all-time favorites, in the interest of sharing beauty.

This past Sunday, in an effort to beat the heat (failed), we set out early (for us) to visit Brookside Gardens in Montgomery County, Maryland. Brookside is comprised of 50-acres within Wheaton Regional Park. By the time of our arrival late morning, temperatures were approaching 90 with comparable humidity. We therefore shortened our stay and walked only a few areas close to the Visitors Center, including the conservatories. It’s free!

The overwhelming impression one gets in a place like this has two elements: the astounding array of brilliant, surreal colors of the flowers, and the equally astounding diversity of the flower forms that evolution (and artificial selection) has produced.

Words can’t add much to those, so I will spare you, and simply show you some of what we saw. BTW, in the pond shot, the color comes from algae that covered almost all of the ponds this day. Finally, who  among us does not love a chipmunk?

I hope seeing such stunning beauty brightens your day.