Bull Run Regional Park, Manassas, Virginia April 3, 2023
When we arrived at Bull Run Regional park in the early afternoon of April 3rd, 2023, we were so ecstatic to see the seemingly endless Bluebells covering the vast floodplain. I wanted to capture the astounding visual beauty on camera for all to see and feel. I was able to do live reporting on site, posting photos on the Sanguine Root right from the spot, as we were viewing the spectacle. It was so exciting to see the freshly blooming Mertensia virginica, in such a magnificent display, the species had arrived into the above ground world from dormancy and created this impressive atmosphere of spring, color and rejuvenation. The excitement of this worldly display, having us both ensconced in this novel botanical marvel of spring, quickly evolved into an interesting meditation about the ephemeral, the eternal and oblivion. The next picture describes the mood of the scene: the fresh astounding beauty of the newly emerged Bluebells against the backdrop of a long dead tree. Within weeks of this photo, the Bluebell pictured below will be a withered yellow form of itself, following the path of its tree neighbor.
The images and the landscape before our eyes became so iridescent and its sublime beauty bubbled up starkly! Those gorgeous and fresh Bluebells, so magnificent and startlingly beautiful this afternoon, both contrast and compliment the dead trees in their midst! We know so well, both having lived ourselves over half a century, that those Bluebells will be gone as quickly as they emerged.
In a way, we are staring into space. Each flower is a galaxy. We are observing eternity in full color, in full bloom and it is completely ephemeral.
