May 2026: Celebrating Family and History on the Road

Canada Geese family swims in mid lake near the fountain, on a warm sunny May 5

In this month’s blog:

Celebrating Family and History on the Road

Garden Update: One Month of New Growth

Climate Log: Extremes of Heat, Drought, and Rain

The May 2026 Photo/Video Gallery: Virginia, Georgia, Maryland

Restored farm buildings and Bur Oak at New Echota Cherokee State Park, Georgia, May 22

Celebrating Family and History on the Road

Road’s eye view of the 15-mile long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on our return trip, May 27

To celebrate our eldest granddaughter’s graduation from high school, we took a road trip to Georgia to be with her and her family for three days. On the way, we visited a naturally beautiful place I hadn’t seen for six decades and Jean had never seen, plus two very different places we never had visited, but which are important in American history for different reasons.

The week-long trip, May 21-28, also immersed us in an extreme weather event that typifies our changing climate, as this month’s Climate Log briefly describes.

Three places we visited on our way to Georgia:

1. Virginia’s Natural Bridge State Park (May 21)

The million-year-old limestone arch 200 feet above Cedar Creek at the Natural Bridge State Park (VA), May 21

I first visited this park as a child on one of my parents’ yearly road trips each summer, these trips nurturing what has become my love of both history and in-country travel, loves that Jean and I share. Though the limestone arch created by a million years of flow by tiny Cedar Creek is dramatically memorable, and though the park in not far off the well-beaten path of Interstate 81, the park is not visited as much now as it was a century ago, and so it’s a wonderfully quiet place for a walk on its trails and for conversation with its local staff of rural Virginians dedicated to natural conservation and preservation. Here are a few pics and vids from our walk on the trail through the gorge built over eons by the quiet creek.

Panorama of the natural bridge and woods around Cedar Creek, May 21

“Saving the Pollinators” plaque at Natural Bridge State Park, May 21

Black Swallowtail on Whiteflower Leafcup at Natural Bridge State Park, May 21

Eastern Phoebe at Natural Bridge State Park, May 21

Cedar Creek Falls at the end of the 1-mile trail in Natural Bridge State Park, May 21

2. Tennessee and Georgia’s Chickamauga Battlefield (May 22)

Artist’s rendering of Chickamauga battlefield, September 1863

Just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and across the border into Georgia, Chickamauga Battlefield, named for the creek that still runs through this hallowed and deeply scarred land, commemorates in its hundreds of plaques and monuments several horrific battles in 1863 between the Union and Confederate armies. Like the Antietam (MD) Battlefield that we visit almost annually (see the August 2024 entry, for example), the natural beauty and quiet of the parks today never fails to stir our hearts with mourning for the horrific losses of thousands of lives in these now serene places. The film at the Visitors Center about the battles at Chickamauga is startingly horrible/effective at portraying just how brutal human hatred and injustice are at destroying love and lives.

Hundreds of monuments and plaques from the 1890s onward commemorate the 1863 battles in Chickamauga and Chattanooga (photo September 22)

This restored building from the Brotherton family farm at Chickamauga. The family’s 4 cattle who survived the battle provided milk for wounded soldiers (photo, September 22)

3. Georgia’s New Echota Cherokee State Park (May 22)

The Trail of Tears marker at the New Echota Cherokee State Park. As capital of the Cherokee nation beginning in 1825, New Echota survived only 13 years before all Cherokee were forced to walk or ride across the South to what is now Oklahoma, with 4000 of the 12000 persons dying along the torturous way. (Photo May 22)

Cherokee people tried in many ways to adapt to white settlers’ ways, such as through homes, like this simple one, which they built at New Echota. But homes and lands were steadily stolen by settlers and the Cherokee people eventually imprisoned then banished. (Photo May 22)

If the many monuments at Chickamauga demonstrate how present the conflict of the US Civil War still is for most Americans, the small and almost unknown Georgia park devoted to the erasure of one people’s Native American history demonstrates how five centuries of that steady erasure of Native cultures and people have gone on with way too little attention. Still, the several restored farm buildings, a tiny garden, and the dignified Visitors Center at New Echota exert a quiet pressure and dedicated attention that keeps the flame of recognition of Native strength and suffering alive. In planning our road trip, Jean noticed New Echota on one of our maps, and it immediately became for us a place we had to visit.

The Cherokee community continues to venerate New Echota, as through this current thriving garden in the Park devoted to the traditional “3 sisters” crops: corn, beans, and squash. (Photo May 22)

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Jean’s multicolored Snapdragons, both returning and new plants, May 29

Garden Update: One Month of New Growth and Care

Our 225 sq. ft. plot in the community gardens, viewed toward north. with several other garden plots beyond, May 29

After the sudden April freeze in mid-month that wiped out a few of our plantings, our plants from April 25 onward have grown from seeds and seedlings to steadily maturing beings that have grown leafier and taller by the day.

Colorful Bloomers

Transplanted Hibiscus, May 29

The flowers in about 60% of the garden feature

(1) returning varieties: hearty Snapdragons, Dianthus, Buttercups, Sawtooth Blackberry, and Wild Blue Aster, as well as

(2) newly-planted seedlings of Peonies, Petunias, Snapdragons, Calibrachoa, and Blue-eyed Grass, plus a 2-foot high transplanted Hibiscus rooting and thriving in the clay soil 18 inches below the surface.

Blue-eyed Grass, new planting, now 3 weeks in, May 29

(3) Growing slowly from sown seed are Marigolds and Zinnias, both of which succeeded last year.

(4) Among the “volunteers” in our soil are fast-spreading Blue Speedwell (AKA Ground Ivy), whose green leaves and tiny blue flowers (which Bumblebees love) will take over everything, if we let it (so we pull out the new Speedwell every few days).

(5) Other new “volunteers” this year are a yellow Coreopsis, an early-flowering Chive, and at least two Common Violets, which have yet to flower.

Calibrochoa, new planting 3 weeks in, May 29

Veggies and Fruits

Husky Cherry Red Tomato, with first green fruit, May 29

Tomatoes: 5 seedlings this year–Husky Cherry Red, Sweet Millions (2), and Sweet 100 (2). Now in just a month, all 5 have grown to over 2 feet tall, so are already in cages, and with two plants already producing a few green fruit

Mild and Hot Peppers (4 seedlings): Mild Yellow or Orange (3) and Jalapēno

Squash: Crookneck (4), already in bloom and with tiny fruit, and Zucchini, spreading already to a yard wide, but no fruit as yet

Strawberry: 2 shiny new plants, with several white blooms

Blueberry: the two small bushes planted last year have returned, and with tiny fruit on one, but these bushes have not yet flourished or expanded–they are works in progress

Zucchini, Mint, Tarragon, mild and hot Peppers,, Strawberries, Rosemary, Basil, Oregano, Nasturtium, Crookneck Squash, May 29

Herbs

New plants: Italian Basil, Tarragon, Dill, Nasturtium, all healthy and growing

Returners: Chives, Oregano (really spreading), Mint (spreading)

Prognosis for the entire plot: From April 25 to May 20, the weather was mostly dry, with no more than 1.5 inches of rain, plus what we added with hand watering, so plants were rooting but growing slowly above surface, except for the returners, almost all of whom had expanded significantly.

Then the rain. On the day we left for our trip, May 21, the heavy rains began across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast US, with close to 3 inches of rain on our plot for the week. Since we’d been gone, we couldn’t monitor progress and we feared that a few of the plants might founder in the deluge. But no worries. When we got back on the 28th, everything had grown at least a little, all were healthy, and some, like the Zucchini and Tomatoes, had at least doubled in size. The colorful bloomers were magnificent.

So at this point we have high hopes. We’re looking forward to more Bees, Bumble Bees, and Butterflies, and to a steady, but not overwhelming rainfall. Fingers crossed.

Aster, Tomatoes, Hibiscus, Buttercups, Petunias, Dianthus, Coreopsis, Blue-eyed Grass, Oregano, Coneflower, Dill, May 29

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Europe heat map, setting records, May 30 (United Nations photo)

Climate Log: Extremes of Heat, Drought, and Rain

A few items from the many possible stories this May, with links:

1. Record-setting heat waves across Europe

Associate Press: “Think It’s Hot Now? The Next Five Years Will Smash Records, UN Says”

Scientists blame the intensifying melting of the polar ice caps for the massive heat dome covering Europe from the Arctic nations to the Mediterranean (see map above). All of these changes to the environment are the result, scientists agree, of the burning of fossil fuels intensifying the portion of heat-trapping carbon in the atmosphere. Fortunately, if there is any good news here, it’s that Europe’s rapidly growing transition to solar power is bringing down the cost of energy for cooling. But the turn to renewables like wind and solar will need to intensify further if the heat records are not to continue being set.

2. Corpus Christi, Texas, facing a water emergency.

3. Massive Fish Kill in Atlanta River Caused by Drought, Intense Rains, Flows of Pollutants and Sewage into the Chattahoochee

Just two days before we arrived in Georgia for the graduation celebration for our granddaughter, torrential rains in the drought-plagued region overwhelmed the pollution control system and sent into the river that flows around Atlanta the toxic mix of multiple pollutants and sewage that had built up during the drought. One result was the death of thousands of fish. Another was the threat of ongoing damage to the water system as these extremes of drought and flood will continue as long as fossil fuel companies retain their dominance in energy generation in the US.

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Three Honeybees feed on Oakleaf Hydrangea blossoms east of the lake

The May 2026 Photo/Video Gallery

Because of our travels during the last week of the month, this May’s gallery presents photo art from our local lake refuge and from the sites we visited in Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland.