The Most Wonderful Day!

I woke up early yesterday, knowing I had a long day of house building ahead of me, and went out to take a walk. I decided to walk around the land to places I hadn't gone before. So, down the hill I go into the rhododendron area thinking, "What am I going to find here? Nothing grows around the rhododendron." But then, the flora changed and the forest opened up and I saw her... Pink Lady Slipper (Cypripedium acaule)! Then... I saw another! And another! (I have never found more than 9 lady slippers at one site. She was severely over harvested in the 1900's for medicine, and has never recovered. She has a symbiotic relationship with the microbes in the soil and only grows in specific areas and it is extremely hard to transplant. So, I began bawling when my count got to over 160 lady slippers, and I decided to stop counting and just enjoy!! There were so many that I had to watch where I stepped so as not to step on them! I can't begin to explain the feeling I had yesterday morning walking on this amazing, sacred land in the Blue Ridge.