We passed a display of chicory and a field of cabbage.  Joe pye weed loomed tall over a row of goldenrod along a farmer’s fence. Around the corner a cluster of happy faced jewelweed seemed to greet us.  She pointed out boneset.  I opened a milkweed pod and shook the silky platinum hair loose.

It didn’t take long to reach the Blue Ridge Parkway meadow where all the late summer wildflowers have converged in one place.  Our eyes went straight to the spiky blue and cardinal red wild lobelia. We climbed over the fence to get closer.

I remembered the crown of wildflowers she made for me to wear when Joe and I got married.  The dogs drank from the creek as we mingled with the flowers of all colors.  Something yellow in the sunflower family made us happy.  The rich perennial purple of ironweed made me swoon.

We talked about the roots of loneliness and how memory loss can cause people to live from their hearts, rather than from their minds.   The subject of ticks, the best light for photographing flowers, and favorite apple trees for picking all came up before we  hugged goodbye and headed back to our separate houses with smiles on our faces and a spring in our steps.

~ Colleen Redman blogs daily at looseleafnotes.com.