Cold Day for a Church Picnic! Fine Day for Spring Wildflowers

Our Church Picnic

Looking outside this morning, we saw sunny skies, fluffy clouds, and Spring-adorned trees! When we consulted the weather app, my inner wimp whimpered. “Too cold!”

Breezy, cool, and picnic are words we don’t generally pair together. With the promise of near 60 degrees sometime today, we prepared our food, grabbed jackets, and I threw in a couple blankets for good measure. After all, it only registered 45-50’s in the morning.

First came church.

Worship together, then fellowship. We really do have a nice church family, so gathering afterwards for the Springtime church picnic felt like a large family gathering.

Cherokee Park/Lake was a 15 minute drive from church, made more lovely by the flowering dogwoods, weeping cherries, and redbuds along the streets.

Let the church picnic commence!

Good food, good friends, and encouraging conversation. What more could you want?

Well…I’ll tell you. A hot FIRE! That’s what we got–a blazing fire in the outside hearth drew the crowd! Our pastor even popped out a couple bags of vegan marshmallows and the fixings for s’mores!

After lunch

The sunshine felt wonderful! A few of us ladies ventured out on a stroll in the park, and we were delighted to find an abundance of Spring wildflowers.

Yellow trillium, jack in the pulpit, bloodroot, mayapples, phlox, the little brown jug, and comfrey were some of the wildflowers we found. As a plant nerd, which findings invigorated my spirit!

Man smelling yellow trillium — Smelling then yellow trilliums.

I was happy to find kindred plant nerds to spend the afternoon with!

We also found plenty of Solomon’s Seal plants growing in the woods I poorly explained to my friends about the “seal of Solomon” which is visible when you break the stem from the rhizome. If you use your imagination, that circular scar is said to resemble Solomon’s signer ring. With us being in a state park, we didn’t opt to go breaking apart wildflowers, so I think I’ll test that theory here on the homestead. We do have Solomon’s Seal growing out there.
I found plenty of references to the plant seal/Signet ring comparison, but I never saw any convincing photos.

Of I can find a connection, I’ll post it. In the mean time, here’s an example of what I found: Source below

Info on Solomon’s Seal from Rutgers

Solomon’s Seal

The church picnic ended up as a double picnic opportunity, as we shared a potluck style supper in the pavilion.

A vespers service closed out our day, and many of us had the opportunity to share our favorite Bible passage. I found this part encouraging, as I was reminded of many words of hope and comfort.

My verse was from Lamentations 2:21-23

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness

As the sun set on another Sabbath day, I breathed a prayer of thanksgiving for this special day. Some Sabbaths are quiet, some busy, and some pass by as a kind of ordinary days, but this one will stand out in our memories for a long time to come.