Parsons Cemetery

2 weeks ago

Save the date and mark your calendars! National Wreaths Across America Day 2026 will take place on Saturday, December 19!

#RememberMe ... See MoreSee Less

Parsons Cemetery

2 weeks ago

We left a fallen tree in the water just for this purpose. There are often 3-4 visitors at a timeI'm not sunbathing. I need this.

You see me on that log every morning. Legs stretched out, neck extended, eyes half-closed. You think I'm relaxing.

I'm a painted turtle. And everything in my body depends on what happens on this log.

I can't make my own heat. When I climb up here at nine in the morning, my body is cold enough that I can barely move. By noon I've warmed up enough to digest, to fight off infections, to actually function. That climb from cold to warm is the difference between a body that works and one that doesn't.

🐢 The sun does more than warm me.

The UV light hitting my shell triggers the same vitamin process that happens in your skin — without it, my shell weakens over time. The heat activates my digestion. The fish I ate last night doesn't get processed until I bask. The leeches and algae on my shell dry out and fall off in direct sun. I'm not choosing to sit here because it feels good. I'm choosing to digest, to heal, and to stay intact.

I share the log because there aren't enough good spots. If you see a line of turtles on one log and empty logs nearby — those empty ones are shaded, angled wrong, or too low to the water. We're not being social. We're competing for the warmest, most exposed surface available.

🌿 Every warm morning I climb out of the water and onto this log. Not because I'm lazy.

Because without it, nothing works. 🌱

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Parsons Cemetery

2 weeks ago

Five plants are blooming in your neighborhood this week. Each one is feeding a different part of the food chain.

Here's what's flowering and what's eating.

🌸 Redbud — purple-pink clusters covering bare branches before the leaves emerge. Bumblebee queens just out of hibernation are hitting it hard. A single blooming redbud can be loud with bees on a warm April morning. This is one of the first heavy nectar sources of the season.

Dandelion — bright yellow, lawn-level, blooming everywhere that hasn't been sprayed. Dozens of pollinator species visit dandelions because they bloom in huge numbers when few other flowers are open. The earliest bees depend on the volume.

Violet — small purple or white flowers in shady patches, lawn edges, under shrubs. Easy to miss. But violets are the host plant for fritillary caterpillars — the adults lay eggs near violets and the larvae feed on the leaves. Where violets grow, fritillaries follow.

🌿 Serviceberry — small white blossoms on a shrub or small tree, often at woodland edges. Blooms the same week as redbud in most areas. Bees and early butterflies visit the flowers now. Dozens of bird species eat the berries when they ripen in June — catbirds, thrushes, waxwings, robins.

Flowering dogwood — large white or pink bracts opening this week in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Bees and beetles work the small central flowers. But the bigger role is later — dogwood berries in fall are a critical fuel for southbound migrants. The tree that blooms now feeds the birds that leave in October.

Five blooms. Five feeding chains. All within walking distance of your door. 🌱

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