Bee photography in my friend Joan’s garden has been an interesting experience. Joan keeps two hives of bees. When we walk through the garden she knows which bees are hers. When I left the first time she gave me a jar of honey
My return trip to Joan’s I took her a hat of apple butter. As we sat outside, I was determined to photograph a bee on the purple asters. The bees wouldn’t land for long and my hand wasn’t that steady, coming up with lots of blurry shots.
My mother loved asters. Joan said last year she inadvertently cut them down to the ground thinking it a weed. And look at the gorgeous flowers now.
Ailanthus and asters amongst the weeds.
In fact the tree is a weed tree.
The asters pushed up and survived despite neglect. As the sun was setting the colors called to me through the kitchen window and I went out and caught them. 
My friend G, visiting this weekend, spoke of a fountain with two elephants in a park near Short North in Columbus. Goodale Park, surrounded by Victorian Village.
I’d never seen the fountain or the park and so after breakfast , I asked my daughter if she knew of the park with the two elephants. Sounded like a good blog post to me. (Thanks, G)
Not only did she know how to drive to Goodale Park, she said, “James and I had our engagement photographs taken here”
AND
when we got there and were reading the memorial plaque for Dr. Lincoln Goodale, the first doctor to live in Columbus who founded Trinity Episcopal Church downtown where she and James were married almost 3 years ago.
Laura and I had a had a lovely time walking through the park and she told me that the perimeter is a mile around.
The last Sunday of summer was a perfect day.
The granite and bronze fountain with the pair of elephants (2011) by Malcolm Cochran, OSU Emeritus Faculty
Another view of the pond and fountain.
A tall tree-
My father was really good at identifying trees, knowing their proper names, looking at the leaf shapes, the bark.
How I wish I’d paid better attention when I was young.
The park is noted for its wonderful and varied tree collection
We saw Catalpa Beans but don’t eat them!
and the asters were my mother’s favorites. I was glad to be able to tell Laura that as she held the asters so they didn’t blow around in the strong wind. (Aster is the name of the colorway of wool I am knitting Laura’s cowl)
Laura was right, that the sign was hard to read. But you can read it below.
Here’s the bust of Dr. Goodale
Dr Goodale, the founder of the park.
A man and his dog in the park
