05-20-11 Chapel Hill
Summer attacks early down here. Beautiful hikes at Mason Farm (snowy fields of Penstemon at peak bloom) and
Occoneechee Mountain (a piedmont monadnock that reminds me of our beloved Sugarloaf in Maryland).
Read MoreOcconeechee Mountain (a piedmont monadnock that reminds me of our beloved Sugarloaf in Maryland).
Just past peak for the mountain laurels (Kalmia latifolia) Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, Hillsborough, NC
all nature photostrees and shrubsshrub flowersNorth Carolina piedmontOcconeechee
![Cornflowers (<i>Centaurea cyanus</i>) in roadside field <span class="nonNative">[non-native]</span>
Rural Orange County, NC](https://photos.smugmug.com/SourceGalleries/2011/05-20-11/i-XJJ4r9z/0/3ce00d0c/Ti/2011_P1090040-Ti.jpg)
![Varied cornflowers (<i>Centaurea cyanus</i>) in roadside field <span class="nonNative">[non-native]</span>
Rural Orange County, NC](https://photos.smugmug.com/SourceGalleries/2011/05-20-11/i-SW6cnnD/2/bb966814/Ti/2011_P1090042-Ti.jpg)
![Blue swath of cornflowers (<i>Centaurea cyanus</i>) in roadside field at sunset <span class="nonNative">[non-native]</span>
Rural Orange County, NC](https://photos.smugmug.com/SourceGalleries/2011/05-20-11/i-X7dgJmr/0/a9535f2e/Ti/2011_P1090045-Ti.jpg)