One of the bird boxes I monitor is right by an old family cemetary on the grounds of Biltmore at the top of a hill. This is the memorial stone naming the family members buried on the site. On the way back down from the cemetary, I came across a very tall and beautiful thistle that had bloomed and was providing a feast for this bee.

This orchid is one that Jim Rogers grew in the greenhouse attached to the Conservatory at Biltmore. I had never seen a flower with actual black coloring on it before. The fungus below was growing on the Bent Creek Trail in the Arboretum and to me looked exactly like some of the coral I have seen while diving.