These pictures were taken in May, 2001 at Brookside Gardens. Click on an image to see a larger picture.

	These are very healthy purple and white irises. We have a few sickly versions of the purple kind in our front yard. When they first bloomed, neither of us knew what it was. I at least had never seen one.
	Ah, the omnipresent pansies. These things are all over Maryland. In fact, I wonder why it isn't the state flower.
	Brookside Gardens is a huge tract of land in the middle of Wheaton, Maryland. The gardens have been planted in the Japanese style, and in the center, by a lake filled with koi (and Canadian geese, just to make it really authentic), sits a pagoda. This is one of the entrances.
	Linda came home one day recently and said, "I saw a rose that was, like, exploding!" In my most knowledgeable-sounding voice, I said, "I think you must have seen a peony, not a rose." The best way to experience one of these incredible flowers is to stick your face in it and breathe deeply -- which we did at Brookside Gardens.
	Here's Linda at the exit to the pagoda.
	This is me standing next to some azaleas at another pagoda entrance.
	This branch is actually not flowering. The tree is a red maple tree, and it looks like this for most of the year.