florae

When I was a chaplain in Lourdes, France, for a couple of years, at my request, I had a blog in which I posted all the local flowers of Lourdes in the spirit of a little boy enthusiastically picking a bouquet of flowers to give to his mother, in this case the Immaculate Conception. I did the same during a soujourn on Mount Carmel, Israel, for our Lady of Mount Carmel (with many renditions of the Flos Carmeli in Gregorian Chant. This is not a blog post, but a “page”, which will eventually fill up to the brim with all the flowers of Holy Souls Mountain in the spirit of presenting them to our Lady, but this time, on behalf of the Holy Souls, especially the souls of any bishops or priests in purgatory. How could our Lady not snatch them out of purgatory and bring them to heaven?

Flora #001 — Showy Lady Slipper

The first entry is an orchid, an ever so rare Lady Slipper. This is the state flower of Minnesota, where I’m from, so I was happy to see it here in the Blue Mountains of North Carolina. The climate must be perfect for them, since there are dozens and dozens of them in the woods. Amazing.

UPDATE:

I found another patch of Showy Lady Slippers right next to the hermitage site: well over 100 (perhaps 140) plants, with about 40 presently in full blossom. Here’s just one shot with five in the foreground and another five in the background, with others scattered about not yet in blossom.

Flora #002 — Ferns in bloom

Flora #003 — ? ( “the take a bow” flower?)

Flora #004 — Daisies

Flora #005 — Shooting Stars

Flora #006 — Mountain Laural

A new generation coming up right by the hermitage, behind which are all the orchids:

Flora #007 — Brown Eyed Susan

Flora #008 — Maple leaves…

Maple measles? Dunno. Kinda cool lookin. If I was a little boy and could pick these for my mom, I would. But — Oh! — I can. And I just did. I also “picked” these for Our Lady! /// UPDATE: aI saw the same leaves just a day or two later, and they were completely destroyed. It seems the red dots hatch into leaf eaters.

Flora #009 — Flaming Azalias

Flora #010 — Monotropa Uniflora / Ghost Flower / Corpse Plant

These look like mushrooms, but it looks like they have petals…

A couple weeks later: Waxy “flowers”, which grow with no sun, getting nourishment entirely from the ground.

Perhaps some might think that “picking” a corpse plant for Our Lady is inappropriate at best. However, I think appreciates the gesture, since there is no one… let me repeat that… no one who knows the tragedy of death more than our Lady, as she stood at the Cross, received our Lord into her hands as He was lowered from the Cross, and sat at the tomb with Mary of Magdala after the corpse was buried. She is THE Mulier Fortis, the strong woman. Might as well throw in the death angel and another deadly mushroom:

A dead death angel…

…killed off by a more deadly attack moss of the rain forest:

Another deadly mushroom:

Flora #011 — Hemerocallis fulva — Common Orange Lily

Flora #012 — Lichen flowers!

Flora #013 — Wild grapes

Flora #014 — Trumpet Flowers of the Trumpet Vine

Flora #015 — No idea what these are…

Flora #016 — No idea what these are…

Flora #017 — Not a blackberry (too close to the ground)

Flora #018 — Unripe blackberries

Flora #019 — Black Walnut

Flora #020 — Deadly!

Flora #021 — Don’t know about these…

Flora #022 — Without comment

Flora #023 — Edible?

Flora #024 — Rosebay Rhododendron… everywhere…

Flora #025 — super tall yellow flower

Flora #026 — Trees with no roots

It’s such a rain forest here that this holly tree log, cut down four months ago, is sprouting happily…

Here’s a thin log, a stringer, I was using to pile other logs upon. It was cut down to make a trail up Holy Souls Mountain a good six months ago. And here it is sending up shoots like nothing happened. I’m carrying it up to the top of Holy Souls Mountain on Jenny the Jeep along with a wheel barrow (for carrying the logs from the wood piles to the log splitter, which I’ll keep under the hermitage, out of the rain. That one is still up on the wish list.

Another from the same little tree:

Flora #027 — …

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Flora #028 — …

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Flora #029 — …

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Flora #030 — …

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Flora #031 — …

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