April in Marietta

Marietta is such a pretty town. October and April are two of its best faces. One of the coolest things about Marietta is that it has several ancient Indian mounds (from the Adina Moundbuilders). And they've been preserved, mostly. One huge conical one was left unexcavated and made the centerpiece of Mound Cemetery. We sometimes picnic with the kids atop that mound. Our public library is built on another loaf-shaped one (I said mostly). And this one, the coolest of all, is the Turtle Mound. You're looking at its head to the right, and two of its legs. Bill and I had our first kiss on the turtle's head, in 1991.The pale pink drifts in the grass are spring beauties in bloom. In New England, Claytonia virginica is pretty rare. Here, it's a town flower, growing freely from its tiny white bulbs in lawns and yards. Gotta love that! In Alaska, grizzly bears gorge on spring beauty bulbs they dig up when they come out of hibernation. I bet there's some medicinal power in them we haven't discovered.Marietta's full of beautiful old houses, with generous proportions and amazing detail and interior woodwork. And there are some impressive tree specimens--I discover a couple every time I bother to look. I wonder when this star magnolia was planted. It's among the largest I've ever seen. Native to the mountains of Nepal, the star magnolia is among the earliest trees to bloom, even beating the Bradford pears to the punch. They're as tough as they are lovely. April in Marietta! Hallelujah!