I can’t help it. Hiking a lush mountain trail, I look at the splendid scene of the rolling Blue Ridge, but then am distracted by fern bordered, mossy boulders, or a clump of Clintonia (Clintonia borealis, below). My wife agreeably stops to view False Solomon’s Seals and trilliums, and any number of ferns that I stumble to identify.

On a family outing, touring Frank Lloyd Wright’s magnificent Fallingwater (below), I am distracted by native rhododendron, and catalpa (below) that is flowering weeks later than in my Virginia neighborhood.

Planted sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus, below), in the mostly native parking area, probably ‘Hartlage Wine’ with later flowering, large blooms, also grabs my attention. This time my son, the landscape designer, stops to admire while my wife walks merrily on, chatting with our daughters in law. There are no bad days hiking or visiting gardens (or architecture), with lots of lovely distractions.