I had an unexpected blessing yesterday.
The developers of the formerly parklike campus behind me announced
last year that they were going to replace the Asiatic lotus plants in one of
the three ponds on the property with American lotus—on the alleged advice of
someone at Reston Association that the American variety are “hardier and easier
to maintain”. So they were clearly indifferent to maintaining them during the construction process. (They couldn't even be bothered to pick up trash that someone clearly fly-tipped from the W&OD Trail; a story for another day.)
N.B.: Those Asiatic lotus have been in that pond for longer
than I’ve lived here, and they’ve weathered violent storms, blizzards,
sub-freezing temperatures and poor air quality during summers with triple-digit
heat indexes.
Also—this property does not come under the remit of any RA Obergruppenführer, so I have no idea what business they had sticking their
nebs into this. Throughout the entire rezoning and permitting process, all they
cared about was that the residents of the 82 three- and four-story townhouses
crammed into five acres of buildable land should pay RA dues; they didn’t give
a flying fig about the landscaping or loss thereof.
Throughout late Fall and into Winter, I watched as they
drained the water from the two upper ponds and waved sadly goodbye to my
beloved sacred
lotus as the level sank.
They completely emptied them both and just left them.
They blocked off access, so you could only get near the
ponds on Sundays and snaking around their fencing. The lowest pond was left
with some water (they’re part of the headwaters of Difficult Run, which is the
only reason why the developers can’t fill them in and build on them), and one
Sunday I met my
old friend there.
Even so, I’ve been mourning for the lotus—they fill me with
such joy and their loss leaves a huge gap in my soul.
(I’ve also been concerned because the past few weeks when I
walk past the ponds on the W&OD Trail, I could see the developers had
turned off the fountains in all three ponds. We’re having a ghastly mosquito
season here, and them just letting the water sit there isn’t helping.)
So, yesterday, when I walked over to the building site to
consider peeing on the first eight structures (“model homes” for the “invitation-only”
first viewings), I was startled to see that the lotus are back!
I trotted over to drink them in and shoot some pix.
Then I went
home to get my real camera, returned and shot some more. Because they may have to last me a while.
I am so deeply grateful that the “less hardy” plants bided their time during this winter of discontent, and have barreled back to life. You cannot imagine.
©2025 Bas Bleu
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