Palmer Museum and Witness Tree / Sundial

What a glorious, beautiful day! I got to go shopping (and buy silly things). I got to meet dear friends for lunch. And I got to spend an hour at one of my favorite places in the whole wide world: the Arboretum at Penn State.

The weather was summer-like, sunny and warm. Not as hot as Sunday, or as sticky and somewhat overcast as Monday. But with plenty of nice blue skies and puffy clouds, and a comfortable breeze, to put the icing on the cake.

My husband dropped me off at the Arboretum around 2 p.m., after my lunch date, and he went to get gas and run some other errands. I grabbed my daysack, which contained my Tiger and my Anteater and the Moose, and my camera and my tunes box, and off I went into the gardens.

The day was gorgeous, and there were people out everywhere. You might have thought it was a beach scene on the lawn by the Katz building, with girls in bikinis lying out, and boys playing football nearby. Pheromones were in the air, big-time. You could almost smell them. Oh, wait, maybe that was the flowers.

There were colorful fish in the large water feature in the pollinator gardens. A mallard bathed and napped nearby. Birds flew overhead. Bees buzzed around the blooms. It was almost idyllic. Actually, it WAS.

I can remember when this was just a bare farm field, with cows. When I was first hired to Penn State in 1985, I worked for Independent Learning, in Mitchell Building, which was located at the corner of Shortlidge and East Park Ave. The Business Building is in that spot now, directly across the road from the Arboretum. So I have known this place since before it was nothing. I've watched it grow.

I've told you the story of how they took the Witness Tree, which is that tree at the center of the shot above, and carefully dug it up, and transported it to this spot on a flatbed truck. The Witness Tree, or Hosler Oak, was the very FIRST thing planted in the Arboretum gardens, in March of 2005. It was called the Witness Tree because it was expected to bear witness to all of the other things that would be planted around it.

The other thing you can see in this photo is the NEWEST thing built in the gardens, which is to say the brand new Palmer Museum of Art. The building is completed but it will not open to the public until early June. I can tell you that I am watching and waiting with great interest.

I was there as soon as possible when they opened the children's garden, Childhood's Gate. Quite by accident, I was there on the very day that the pollinator gardens opened for the first time, and got a personal welcome from a friend who works there. Yes, I hope to be there quite soon after the museum opens, if only just to see what views I may find of these beautiful gardens from there!

Another favorite spot is the big Sundial, with the stones around it that help the sun's shadow tell the time any day of the year. You may see that in the extras: the Sundial in the middle ground, the campus in the background, and in the foreground, a fabulous display of daffodils and fritillaries. I took the shot, and thought to myself: we count only the sunny hours.

My husband was scheduled to pick me up at 3, and so I wrapped up my garden stroll and was sitting on a little bench listening to music in front of the new museum when he got there. He came in from a direction I wasn't expecting, and so he had to beep the horn a few times to get my attention. "You looked very Zen," he told me, "like you were zoning out."

Well, yes, I was. I had on a really good, soothing, happy John Denver song, and I was walking through my memories, through my photos, through these gardens, in my mind. And thinking about every phase, and how we got from absolutely nothing but cows, to here, and now, and all of this. Wow. What a beautiful day in the gardens.

Here are my two soundtrack songs for this gorgeous day, and all of its beauties and its blessings. First, I've got Crystal Gayle, with Long and Lasting Love, which is how I feel about these gardens. Second is the song that I was zoning out to after a happy hour spent wandering through all these beautiful things: here's John Denver, with Sweet Surrender. Oh, yes, and when you picture me happy, picture me here.

Bonus comparison shot: the same view, with the Katz law school building in the background before the new Palmer Museum was built in this spot.

Fun quotient: A thing I love about this shot, which I take frequently, is the top framing with the Transformation Canopy from Childhood's Gate, the children's garden, and how it throws colorful shadows on the ground to complete the frame. Here's a description of this area I pulled from Penn State's digital archives:

"At the gate, thick sandstone sheets with rusticated, curving edges represent the transformation from ridge to valley over time. The green and red Transformation Canopy symbolizes the changing colors in the central Pennsylvania landscape. The Rocky Ridges area includes sandstone and limestone specimen rocks."

P.S. I just learned today, via a friend, that Penn State is sponsoring a spring photo contest. I have submitted this photo. Let's see what happens next!