Visiting a Monastery

This weekend I visited my friend Br. Placidus at St. Benedict's Abbey. I had wanted to visit him sometime this year and see his garden. Thankfully, I was allowed to enter the cloister garden and do a little touring and gardening on Saturday. I saw some of the biggest marigolds I've ever seen. Other new plants to me were hyacinth bean and seven-son flower, a tree from Asia related to honeysuckle. The soil there is like nothing I've gardened in: darker, friable, almost slimy. It has the look almost of the dolomitic lime I put out around some of my lime-loving plants at home. I guess that would make sense since the soil in Atchison is from weathered limestone, if I have that correctly.

I saw something moving on a zinnia in the corner of my eye on Saturday. It was a painted lady butterfly being caught by a praying mantis!

View from the monastery across the Missouri River into Missouri on Saturday afternoon.

Backside of the monastery: the guesthouse where I stayed is on the left and the monastery is the older part of the building on the right.

Fontside of the guesthouse is on the right and the abbey church is on the left

Benedictine College, down the hill from the monastery

Parish church at Benedictine College. The monastery used to be here in what is now a dorm attached to the back of the church.

On Sunday we went to Kansas City after midday prayers and we visited the World War I Memorial at one point.

I enjoyed praying with the monks. I think I did all the prayers, except Compline on Friday, from Friday at Vespers through Monday after Morning Prayer. Vigils on Saturday and Monday started at 5:45! The sun rises in Atchison almost an hour later than Auburn, or so it seemed.

On Sunday we visited a botanical gardens outside of Kansas City. They had a lot of fall beauties in bloom. I saw Salvia subrotunda for the first time, a flower I've been aiming at buying for a couple of years now.

It was a nice trip and visit.