Marie Aull, I Love You...

...because you created beauty, and then gave it away.

My friends, today I'm rather blissed-out on beauty and sunshine.  Remember that feeling after your mom let you spent an entire afternoon at the pool? Where you're tired, slightly sunburnt, and have enjoyed yourself to the point of exhaustion.  Well, that's me right now, and I owe it all to Marie Aull.

This afternoon, my aunt and I took a leisurely stroll around Aullwood Gardens.  We talked family history, green (or black) thumbs, and admired thousand upon thousands of specimens of ornamental plants. Of course, I had my camera with me. I took about 200 luscious photographs, but have picked only the top 20 or so to share with you.

Aullwood gardens was the personal passion of Marie Aull, wife, then widow, of a well-to-do local businessman.  Mrs. Aull designed the gardens so that each of the spaces and plant specimens harmonize with the natural beauty of the locale.  The borders of the garden naturally fade into native Ohio woodland.  The spaces flow one to the other.  Most of the plants are native to Ohio, and none are invasive.
It is a ridiculously peaceful spot of heaven.  It's as if time flows more gently there.
Every time I'm there, I just keep thinking of the word "sylvan." I bet Marie did too, everytime she looked out onto her garden from her house, perched on a central, small hill.

Back in the 70's, Marie decided to share her personal patch of ground with everyone else.  She donated the farm and grounds to the National Audubon Society.  The garden is now part of the county-wide parks service.  Even though she had donated her land, Marie still lived in her house, perched at the top of the hill, until her death last year.  She was 105.
What a wonderful legacy to leave behind you.

I took ever so many pictures of flowers, but my eye kept being drawn back to the algae in the ornamental creek (an artificially diverted off-shoot of the Stillwater River).  It's not usually like this, but something about this warm spring has caused every rock in the creek to grow a refulgent, vibrant green "beard" of algae.  It was both beautiful, and rather disgusting looking.

back to the pretty flowers.