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OBSERVATIONS
October 24, 2019 |
 |
 Wingate Lassiter |
A beautiful site for preservation
--- and it's connected to history
The photograph above was taken this week from the edge of the 1,120-acre tract purchased by the Triangle Land Conservancy, looking across Grabtown Road toward Avenue Road in front of the birthplace of Ava Gardner (barely visible behind the trees).
That historical linkage isn't the best reason for celebrating the land trust's acquisition of its newly designated "Brogden Bottomlands." The Ava Gardner connection is more like "icing on the cake" of TLC's preservation of some of our region's most fascinating unspoiled land, which extends from Grabtown Road about two miles southward to the banks of the Neuse River in the mysterious "lowlands" below Smithfield.
TLC's plan calls for the 1,120 acres in the future to be open for the public to enjoy in its natural state, which includes beautiful woodlands and an ecologically rich floodplain as well as the river frontage.
A couple of miles east of the Ava Gardner birthplace beside Grabtown Road is another piece of history: the site of the long-gone residence of Benjamin Williams, one of North Carolina's early governors following the Revolutionary War. Thanks to the Johnston County Heritage Commission, the Johnston County Visitors Bureau, and the Smith-Bryan Chapter of the DAR, an attractive historical marker (pictured below) was recently erected beside the road in the vicinity of the Williams plantation.
All of that should put Johnston County's Brogden community "on the map" for folks who enjoy exploring special places of nature and history. We can thank the Triangle Land Conservancy for that.
It's late October and we're still
looking for fall
U
nlike North
Carolina's mountains, or the New England countryside,
Johnston County usually doesn't get to experience the full
color explosion we call "fall" until the leaves on most of
our trees finally start changing in November.Even so, this week we began to get a glimpse of what's in store. Our dogwood leaves are beginning to show dark red, and our maples are next in line. A "teaser" is this half-turned beauty (right) near the corner of Vermont and Woodlawn drives in South Smithfield.
We'll be on the lookout during the next few weeks for Smithfield's most spectacular specimens of fall color.
And you're welcome to submit pictures of your own taking for us to share with our readers. (Or should we call them "viewers"?)
There's been some concern that last month's unusually hot and dry weather may "dampen" the leaf show this year. We'll see.
A PHOTO WORTH SHARING
Downtown Smithfield Development Director Sarah Edwards got this sunset shot on Market Street following Tuesday evening's rainfall. She posted it on Historic Downtown Smithfield's Facebook page.
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