When we woke up on Labor Day, James asked what I wanted to do that day, and the most random thing popped into my head. Weeks earlier, while out and about, I had passed a pond by the side of the road brimming with lilypads and bright yellow flowers and I couldn't stop thinking about it. We already had plans for the afternoon, but before we left for that, I wanted to find it, those lilypads, that secret, magic-gardeny place.
We had breakfast and then set off to retrace my route--or what I thought was my route--from that long ago day. We followed my spidey sense down Oceana Blvd to General Booth Blvd to Sandbridge Road. We drove and drove and then finally I saw it: tons and tons of lilypads. And I saw a plaque that gave my secret place a name: the Crezia Covington Reed Lotus Garden.
The yellow flowers had long since bloomed and died but the lotus leaves still filled the pond so thickly that the air seemed green. We watched the pond for a while -- there were tons of dragonflies skittering low over the water. The sounds of crickets and bullfrogs were so loud that we had to almost shout to be heard over them.
I badly wanted for there to be a path or trail to take us to the other, more thickly wooded side of the pond but there wasn't. There was, however, a shady picnic spot where we Baby Anne could run around, with picnic tables where we could sit for snacktime.
I wanted to know more about Crezia Covington Reed, but couldn't find anything except what was written about her on the plaque (she made "untiring efforts in furthering the preservation of the native American lotus.") I think this is enough for it to be an inspiring story for young people, though...work hard enough and maybe one day someone will name a really beautiful lotus garden for you. Stay in school, kids.
Did you know the lotus is the official flower of Virginia Beach?
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