by Charly Mann
For more than twenty-five years of my life in Chapel Hill I lived near an area off Whitfield Road near Duke Forest and across from a small pond. During the late spring and early summer hundreds of wild tiger lilies bloomed around its shore. There is a joy and beauty in the lily that affects me like no other flower, and I think this feeling may be universal. Over the decades I have found nearly a dozen places around Chapel Hill where houses once stood, or along roadsides, where other types of lilies bloom. This is a collection of my photographs of these Chapel Hill lilies.

These are fairly common if you look around. I found this one by a pond in Finley golf course.

This Lily was found off the Bolin Creek Trail in Chapel Hill

Found along the bank of Morgan Creek

Discoved in an abandoned garden by a burned down farm house off Old Chapel Hill Road

I found this Lily on Hatch Road near Highway 54 outside of Carrboro

Water Lily in pond off Whitfield Road Chapel Hill

Star Lily that I came across very near Hogan's Lake in Chapel Hill

What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.



What beautiful photographs! I love lilies.