Beauty isn't everything

Bainbridge Island has a lovely 150 acre nature preserve called the Bloedel Reserve. It's a wonderful place to wander through on a sunny day, and they control the number of people allowed in at any one time, so it's never overrun with crowds, and always very peaceful.

So my husband and I decided to go wandering through a week or two ago -- and, of course, I always take my camera. I was amused to see these sweet pink flowers along one section of the path: we used to have hundreds of them in our front yard when we lived in the woods of Issaquah. And pretty though they are, we got in the habit of pulling them up and tossing them, because they have a fatal flaw: they STINK.

We would walk out our front door in the morning and wonder if a skunk had decided to let loose in our driveway, the smell was so bad -- and as far as I can tell, we don't even seem to HAVE skunks in this part of the world. But then, we don't need them, with flowers like these and the ubiquitous skunk cabbage.

So, even though the plant is quite charming and decorative, and makes for a lovely lush groundcover, we decided it had to go. Which just goes to tell you: beauty isn't everything!

I have to say: as I age, I find that enormously reassuring...