Belle Plain, a small Kansas town just off of Interstate 35, a typical farm town with a small fire department, coop and the usual gas station on the corner where everyone seems to gather. On this beautiful, windy Kansas day, this town becomes much more! There is an arboretum that sits on a corner of town and if you did not know it was there, you would drive right past.
Bartlett Arboretum was opened in 1910 and in 1926 they celebrated the first tulip festival. It was closed many years ago and re-opened in the 1990’s. Volunteers make it possible for this beautiful piece of landscape what it is today. Peaceful and timeless!
I loved the vintage laundry hanging on the close line, they also had the original 1926 guest book at the entry for viewing and the entire place gave a sense of the slow moving past that we have all but forgotten. Timeless…..
The cross on one of the paths was breathtaking with the sun filtering through it. As well, the pond in the center of the gardens with no ripples had one single Canadian goose just floating about. There were three trees in a row at a small stream that flowed into the pond, standing strong at the edge.
May you enjoy these few pictures of the Bartlett Arboretum and along your path this week stop, pause and enjoy the small things that surround us daily. Peace.
“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down”. Unknown
