Late spring flowers

A visit to the Biltmore grounds this morning (our early morning walk) found us admiring a couple of flowers, and enjoying the early morning peacefulness.  (Biltmore is a busy place on weekends and summer afternoons).

Woody cooling off

I would have been up for hikes off the Blue Ridge Parkway, but the poison ivy at lower mountain elevations is LUSH (and I'm terribly susceptible).  Woody would be a magnet for poison ivy's urishiol, hhrmph, and a hug would be not a good thing. (I know this through experience).

But Biltmore's gardens and grounds are always fun to visit (we have season passes), and we passed the place where Mocha fell through the ice in the Bass Pond in the winter, and thought about how we actually took Woody home from the entrance to Biltmore (our meeting place).

But check out this wonderful lily flower (on a cart with lots of others destined for planting).

Monarda didyma

And ditto to these fabulous Monarda didyma flowers, too.