Valley Water Mill Park

/

I finally managed to walk the trail around Valley Water Mill Lake just before Thanksgiving. It was my 3rd time at the park; the first time was with my Identifying Woody Plants class and the 2nd was on a very rainy day to learn about what kind of volunteers they needed. This 3rd time was on a dry but cloudy day in the 40s. Most of the fall color was gone but there was still plenty to see. I was a little rushed because my husband was using the hike for exercise while I wanted to slow down and take pictures!

The honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) pods were frequently on the trail….and it was easy to spot the trees with thorns!

The coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) was still beautiful along the trail. The berries require some freeze-thaw cycles to become palatable to birds.

The other color in understory was burning bush (Euonymus alatus)– a non-native invasive that is popular in landscaping. I looked at the stems to be sure that is what it was….they have corky wings. There is also wintercreeper (Euonymus fortune) in the park. Both are very difficult to eradicate.

I was on the lookout for fungus too but was rushed enough to see only the most obvious. There was a cut end of a log that has shelf fungus around the outer edge…and some that looked a lot like meringue on another.

Most of the oak leaves were brown and crackly…an occasional one still colorful.

There were a lot of leaves on the ground. Most of the time the trail has been swept clear by the wind but there were drifts of leaves everywhere.

I photographed two exposed roots. One that was close to the trail and displaying the impact of being stepped on. The other looked more like the soil has been eroded from the base of the tree – maybe during a flood; the tree was not that far from the riverbank.

Next time I go to Valley Water Mill I want to plan to spend a bit longer….explore a bit more thoroughly!

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (2)

/

There is also a lot to see in the outdoor area of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.  There were some parts that were closed because of recent storm damage (downed trees…at least one piece of art: R. Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome).

The first sculpture we saw was near the entrance – a silver tree.

Some areas are relatively wild: horse nettles, thistles, shelf-fungus, mallows and grasses.

I was thrilled to photograph a butterfly since I’ve seen so few larger ones this year.

The design on the upper level of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House was attractive. We got tickets (free) when we first got to the museum, and entered the house less than 2 hours after our arrival (enough time to do a broad look at the art on display inside the museum). Pictures are not allowed on the inside of the house. I liked the main living room but felt the rest of the house was claustrophobic (low ceilings and narrow hallways).

There were two installations of Chihuly glass.

There was a giant spider sculpture. It was a good place to take a little rest.

There were several animal sculptures along the trails. I photographed a bear with a fish, a smiling pig, and arabbit with an itching ear.

Water features are near most of the trails. I appreciated the structures in one of the streams to ‘slow the flow.’

There was a turn out from one trail to view quartz crystals in boulders that often contain imprints organisms from long ago in parts that are not crystals.

We probably spent at least as much time outdoors at Crystal Bridges as we did inside! It would be interesting to go again in a different season…maybe next spring.

Sequoyah State Park (1)

/

Sequoya State Park (near Wagoner, Oklahoma) is about 3 hours from where we live. We opted for an overnight trip last week – staying at one of the duplex cabins in the park. It was a reconnoiter type of trip: how many birds would we see (and the vantage points to see them) and were the onsite cabins/amenities OK (and should we look at other state park destinations in the future). Our arrival was well before check-in time, so we walked down to Inspiration Point. I spotted a damselfly on the walkway almost immediately.

The big event of that walk was a kettle of American White pelicans over the lake. They were far enough away that the images were not very good – but it was fun to watch them swirl – noting how the light made them almost impossible to see for a few seconds; then they would turn and were easily seen.

The fall foliage was just beginning.

There was a rock ‘table’ with stones situated for seats under two trees!

We visited the nature center then drove to a parking area to hike the Fossil Trail that hugged the eastern side of the peninsula. We were rewarded by views of pelicans and cormorants (probably double crested) – still too distant for good images but I liked the color the light gave the water.

There was the usual shelf fungus, insects (katydid…and something that bit me), lichen, plants going to seed…all under a forest canopy with a little fall color.

We were out again at sunset near our cabin – overlooking the western side of the peninsula and the lake beyond. The sky was perfectly clear so there were no interesting reflections off clouds; I included silhouettes of trees instead! There were gulls coming to roost on the water as the sun went down.

Tomorrow the post will include sunrise at Sequoyah!

Daughter’s Yard

/

My daughter’s house was built in the 1950s and has some very large mature trees. Even the plants that are not of that vintage, are robust. By the fall – the summer growth has often become overwhelming, so I offer to help with the grand cleanup before winter. On the day we chose – it was cloudy…warm rather than hot. The yard had been mowed the previous day so we could focus on other everything else rather than leaves. It was a good day for the project.

I noticed the holly berries on her two trees had almost all turned orange (or their way to red); those trees didn’t need any maintenance!

There was pokeweed in several places that needed to be pulled (she is still battling it…no truce or peace yet in her yard!). It was growing in the woodpile, between bricks of the patio….and other places too.

The path to the side of the house overhung by a mature redbud shading the hostas and ferns on both side of the flagstones yielded several armloads of sticks to supplement the wood pile. Hopefully they will have a cookout using their firepit (and burn a lot of the pile) when they have their annual pumpkin carving event.

There was a mimosa that had come up in one corner of the fenced area. We didn’t have a saw, so we cut the top out with big pruners and girded the trunk further down. I’ll brink my saw next time we work.

It didn’t take us long to fill a dumpster with vines and weeds (including pokeweed) that we pulled.

What I thought was a cherry tree turned out to be a crabapple (when I cut open one of the fruits). I learn something new in her yard every time I work there!

The other plant I hadn’t recognized before was (I think) a silverbell. I’ll look next spring for its flowers. It’s a small tree growing under her big oak.

Other beauties in the flower beds that I couldn’t resist: cedar, wood hydrangea, Asian hydrangea, lichen, shelf fungus, southern magnolia seed pods (another huge tree).

I took home 3 magnolia seed pods - hope to watch how the seeds pop out as the pods dry.

We had some productive hours….and we felt good about what we had accomplished!

Shaw Nature Reserve (1)

/

My daughter and I made our first visit to the Shaw Nature Reserve last week. I had ordered some native plants to be picked up during the Fall Wildflower Market. We arrived shortly after noon, before the market started, which gave us ample time for a short hike in the Whitmire Wildflower Garden and along the Bush Creek Trail. After checking in at the visitor center (using my Friends of the Springfield (MO) Botanical Gardens for entrance) and getting a token to open the gate to the reserve’s Pinetum Loop Road, we drove all the way around the loop. We stopped to walk out to the Crecent Knoll Overlook. Thistles were one plant that was blooming.

The vegetation was thick with a variety of plants. We stayed on the trails to avoid picking up ticks and sticky seeds! I used my optical zoom to photograph some spheres on the back of a leaf. Galls?

After completing the loop, we parked near the northern trailhead for the Brush Creek Trail. A tree had been cut into sections near the trail (probably after it had fallen on the trail. The saw marks make it difficult to count the rings.

Some of the areas are limestone glades where the plants don’t grow as densely. I noted a very weathered piece of limestone.

The only insect I photographed intentionally was a grasshopper that was not much over an inch long. I was pleased that I managed to focus on it! Will it mature enough to lay eggs before winter?

There was a sculpture among some of the fall wildflowers!

There was an area that had a lot of new-growth ferns. I enjoy photographing fiddleheads. It always seems miraculous that they start out so tightly packed…and unfurl into large fronds!

The persimmons were not ripe yet…but I was thrilled to recognize the bark and fruit (with the sign to confirm the id).

There were several kinds of fungus we saw on the hike as well. Lichen (yes there is algae there too, but I am lumping it with the fungus,

Shelf fungus,

And 2 kinds of mushrooms. The first reminded me of vanilla wafers.

There were 2 groups of the second kind. They were very close to the trail and it looked like someone had kicked the parts of the clump closest to the trail (why do people do that?). These reminded me of small crepes!

Stay tuned for more from our hike at Shaw Nature Reserve in tomorrow’s post.

Zooming – February 2023

/

There were some sunny days in February – good for outdoor photography even if they were very cold! The ravages of winter on vegetation from last summer/fall is reaching an extreme. We’re all ready for the spring! Enjoy the February 2023 zoomed images!

Table Rock Lake

/

On a sunny day last week, we headed south to Table Rock State Park – situated on the shore of Table Rock Lake. The drive down had many roadcut cliffs….curving highway…scenic. We parked near the boat launch and walked along the paved lakeside trail. There were frequent ad hoc trails going all the way down to the lake…using ‘stairsteps’ in rock down to water level. We saw at least one person fishing. There was rain in the previous days so the eroded rock held small pools of water.

The first side trail we took down to the water included a surprise. There was a whole watermelon at the water’s edge! How did it get there? Did someone put it in the water to cool down then forget it was there? We wondered how long it had been at the edge of the lake since we are well past the season for them to be in grocery stores. It was the only ‘trash’ we saw during our walk!

I was fascinated by the intensity of the color on wet rocks compared to the rocks that had dried out on the shore.

The water itself changed the way the rocks look too. These two pictures are of the same area but the water acts as a distorting lens!

I turned aroud and took some zoomed images of drying debris, a chuck of rock, and the layers in one of the ‘stairs’ – then made my way back up to the paved trail.

We started looking at the sights along the trail. There were limestone boulders along the edge and I started noticing inclusions in some of them. Some areas were forested…with enough underbrush to support communities of lichen and moss….and, my favorite, turkey tails (shelf fungus).

We didn’t see a lot of birds – and I didn’t get any pictures. It was not the best time of day for bird watching. I saw a nuthatch, crows, and turkey vultures…without even going into ‘birding’ mode.

There were not a lot of people in the park this time of year even though the day was warm enough for a picnic (there was one family with one children that was enjoying a snack). It is easy to imagine the place being full of people when the temperature is warmer…and everyone would enjoy the activities on or in the water!

Now to plan some other day trips….take advantage of any pleasant day to do a little more exploring of places within an hour of where we live!

Springfield Conservation Nature Center

/

A few days after the first hard frosts of the year in Springfield MO, we took a short hike on the Springfield Conservation Nature Center trails. The morning was cool and sunny – a near perfect fall day to be outdoors. The forest was full of color. One surprise: there seemed to be more green leaves on the ground than usual; perhaps the trees were caught by the frost before they could change color.

We spotted a young turtle sunning on a log…warming up.

A larger turtle climbed up on the same log. It went back in the water rather than joining the smaller one.

There were ducks preening/snoozing on a log in the water. Their legs and webbed feet looked very bright in the morning sun.

I couldn’t resist some macro images of late flowers…a few insects…even at caterpillar!

Our last ‘find’ of the morning was in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave: a praying mantis making its way across the asphalt!

A morning well spent….

Last Trip to Maryland

/

We opted to drive to Maryland one last time…for the closing on the house there and last goodbyes to some favorite places. We started out shortly after 6:30 AM for the two-day drive – with a much longer drive on the 1st day. The first stop from Springfield was the Route 66 rest stop along I-44 near Conway. Our route was the interstate along the old Route 66 until St. Louis.

It was sunny and hot for most of the day – traversing Illinois and Indiana and most of Kentucky. The only big cities on the route were St. Louis and Louisville. We stopped in Ashland, KY for the night; we had driven out of the hot and dry Midwest and into rain. The last rest stop of the day (in Kentucky) was one that included oak leaf hydrangeas in their landscaping…reminding me that I want to plant one or two in my new yard.

The next day it rained…and rained. Most was not too heavy and did not delay us as we travelled through West Virginia and into Maryland. It did change the type of photography is did at the rest stops I switched to macro photography– lichen, moss, buds, insect, shelf fungus. I took several pictures from inside the car (since I wasn’t driving). Sidling Hill is more interesting from the highway than the eastward rest stop!

And then we were at our old house…more on the time we spent in Maryland tomorrow.

Phillips Landing Park

/

My husband signed up us for 4 Delmarva Birding field trips as a last excursion to the eastern shore before we move to Missouri. The first field trip was at Phillips Landing Park near Laurel DE. It was a weekday so most of the other participants were retirees like us; we had two guides that were very familiar with the area…so we saw more than we would if we’d gone on our own.

Shortly after we started, my camera had a problem and I was challenged to work around it by using the eye piece rather than the screen for the rest of the morning….not what I usually do so my focusing/composition was not as good as usual even though the skew of pictures toward botanical rather than birds was probably about the same as it would have been with the camera working perfectly.

The plants are at the height of their variety in the spring with blossoms and unfurling leaves – the bright greens of mosses growing rapidly in the new warmth – unfurling ferns….good for photography although my eyes were itchy from the pollen laden air.

The high point of the botanical sightings: One of our guides pointed out a native orchid in bloom beside the path. They aren’t the large showy orchids of warmer climates; it takes a sharp eye to notice them!

There was an area near the path that looked like an egg laying site for a reptile….but something had found the eggs before they could hatch. There were eggshells among the acorns.

I did managed to photograph a few birds: courting cowbirds in the parking lot, a yellowlegs among the reeds, and a prothonotary warbler high in a tree.

The park was a good mix of habitat – watery area near the parking area (Broad Creek that flows into the Nanticoke River nearby) and a path through forest.

As we returned to our car, I saw a tiger swallowtail flit across the grassy area nearby. A good finale to a morning field trip!

Unique Aspects of Days – February 2022

/

Snow on turkey tails. I always look for turkey tails/shelf fungus when I am hiking…and enjoy photographing them. This month was my first time to photograph them with snow!

Finding some new office tools – Microsoft PowerToys. My office environment is well established so it is very unusual for me to look for new tools and unique for me to find more than one new tool that makes what I do easier. Microsoft PowerTools was a great find. The tools I am using frequently now are Image resize and Power rename.

Miniature potted rose for Valentines. I was thinking of potted tulips or hyacinths when I went shopping (not realizing that it was too early for both of them)…but found a miniature rose instead. It’s a unique purchase and my husband and I are enjoying it in our kitchen window. It already has a new bud opening. I’ll plant it outside after the last frost.

Frost crystals. I have been thrilled to discover how many kinds of frost crystals there are. At some point they will become familiar to me, but February 2022 is my first concentrated effort to look at them frequently enough to see the variations!

People smoking in the grocery store parking garage. Not all unique experiences are positive. As I came out of the grocery store one morning, there were two separate people standing near their cars smoking and working on the phones. They were on the side of the garage closest to the store – maybe using the store’s Wi-Fi or maybe they were waiting for someone that was shopping. I could smell the smoke from one of them as I walked to my car and loaded my groceries even though I was still wearing my mask! It reminded me of years ago when people smoked around the entrances to office buildings, but isn’t something I’ve experienced in recent years…and it hasn’t happen on subsequent shopping trips. I glad it was a unique experience for 2022 (so far).

Patuxent Research Refuge – Misc.

/

Of course, there are other things besides waterlilies, milkweeds and goldenrod to see this time of year at the South Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge. I did some experimental photography with some grass seed heads and asters…liked the results.

The cattails are exploding with fluff. If it doesn’t float away fast enough it becomes matted around the stalk.

Many plants are going to seed in the meadow.

2021 09 IMG_9162 (5).jpg

In the forest there are hits of color…just a few leaves at this point. Green still dominates.

There was an old jumble of trunks…some upright and others leaning over…with shelf fungus in profusion.

There is a bird blind around a collection of feeders but I wasn’t quiet enough to walk up to it without all the birds taking flight. I managed to notice finches on the feeders and mourning doves below.

2021 09 IMG_9162 (11).jpg

Sometimes something appears that I don’t expect – like this fire hydrant in the meadow. It isn’t that far from the visitor center but far enough that I would have thought one closer would be more useful and it was surrounded by wild vegetation – a little surprise. It was rusted enough that I wondered if it was still functional.

2021 09 IMG_9170 (9).jpg

Overall – every time I got to the refuge, I notice something that I haven’t seen before!

Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens – 3

/

Continuing the posts about our hike at Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC…today the topic is everything I noticed other than the lotuses and dragonflies.

I looked for a shelf fungus on one the trees near the entrance that I’d seen over several years. It was gone but there was some pancake looking fungus patches on one of the high branches!

2021 06 IMG_4745 (1).jpg

There were other flowers blooming:

2021 06 IMG_4745 (2).jpg

Pickerel Weed. In past years it attracted tiger swallowtail butterflies. I didn’t see any in the gardens this year.

Hibiscus. Not as many as in previous years. This one was growing at the edge of one of the ponds.

2021 06 IMG_4745 (4).jpg

Water lilies. There were none of the giant lily pads that have been at Kenilworth in previous years and some of the ponds usually filled with water lilies were open water…but there were enough for  a few pictures.

Button bush. Again – not as many as I remembered. I wondered what happened to them since it seems like they would be durable along the pond edges from year to year.

2021 06 IMG_4745 (13).jpg

Trumpet vine. A robust native. My mother planted one in the 1960s in a corner of our back yard and then battled it with pruners to keep it from deconstructing the fence.

We walked on the boardwalk out to the mash and river. I was hoping to see herons but didn’t spot any.

At the very end there was a tree with lots of seeds growing in the loop of the boardwalk. It looks like a tree of heaven….a non-native and very invasive. I was surprised that it had not been cut down.

It was getting hotter, and we headed back through the gardens to the car. I was glad I had some cold water to drink on the drive home!

Mini-Landscapes

/

I enjoy photographing the mini-landscapes of my yard more that the larger ones; it’s hard to get enough distance from our big trees to get the whole thing. Photographing the small assemblages of plants to capture their world is a more satisfying project. I like the diverse shapes of ferns and violets and other small plants gradually covering stepping-stones under our deck.

20210604_071845.jpg
20210604_071907.jpg

One fern was thriving by a downspout when we moved the deck furniture near it (for the deck to be stained). The starburst shape of the fern…the heart shapes of violets. Now we’ve moved the furniture back to the deck and the fern is more isolated.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

I liked the wavy shapes of the fungus growing on a stump. This picture could be in a forest…but it is not. The stump was from a bush growing at the corner of our garage that I recently cut down! It’s a bit of serendipity to notice something interesting and beautiful in an unexpected place.

20210616_080859.jpg
20210620_090353.jpg

I battle the deer for the day lilies. The deer usually win. The brown stems in this picture are the ones the deer got. I cut all the stems with larger buds to take inside. They might have been saved by their shorter stalks, the milkweed plant that was growing between them and the yard where the deer would be, and the house/bushes behind them.

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – April 2021 (2)

/

Hiking back from the skunk cabbage patch at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, I noticed the tree canopy over the trail. It was a great spring day….cool, sunny with occasional puffy clouds.

2021 04 IMG_4191 (18).jpg

I looked at the shelf fungus again – from the top and bottom.

The larger woodpecker holes on a high branch seemed larger than last hike but I still didn’t see or hear the bird.

2021 04 IMG_4191 (24).jpg

I was surprised to see a patch of daffodils in the woods. They probably started out as a few bulbs….but had proliferated over the years.

2021 04 IMG_4191 (25).jpg

Ranger the Barred Owl was very relaxed. He opened his eyes when I first walked up to his area but then dozed – deciding I was not a threat.

2021 04 IMG_4191 (26).jpg

There were bees active at one of the hives.

The redbuds are blooming. I like that they bloom all over - even on the larger branches.

2021 04 IMG_4191 (29).jpg
2021 04 IMG_4191 (30).jpg

As I was eating a protein bar for my lunch, I noticed a black feather….maybe crow-sized…

2021 04 IMG_4191 (32).jpg

And some dandelions.

The pear tree in the orchard is blooming. I hope it makes pears this year; the past few years the flowers or small fruit have been ruined by late frosts.

2021 04 IMG_4191 (31).jpg

Overall – an enjoyable April hike on a familiar trail.

Zooming – March 2021

/

The sunny March days have been so pleasant – great times to be outdoors and photographing what I see. I’ve been venturing out from home a bit more too – Brookside Gardens, Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant, and Centennial Park. There are still zoomed images taken through my office window (birds and the moon framed by tree branches); the sunrise and daffodils are from my house as well. Overall - this is just the beginning of the season for spring flowers. Can you find:

  • Skunk cabbage (Mt Pleasant)

  • Mourning Dove (my house)

  • Shelf fungus (2 of them - Mt Pleasant and my house)

  • Witch Hazel (Brookside)

  • Gingko tree trunk and branches (Centennial)

  • Blue jays (my house)

  • Dried hydrangea flowers (Brookside)

Enjoy the slideshow for March 2021!

Getting outdoors on these spring days is a mood boosting activity as well as good exercise. I’ve gotten comfortable enough wearing a mask that I just keep it on if I’ve in a place where I might encounter someone else on the trail. I enjoy it in the moment and then again when I view the images on my bigger screen monitor…and formulate the blog post. The activity is a bright core with tendrils of benefit that are longer lasting.

Daffodils in the Brush Pile

/

Looking out my office window - I noticed a clump of daffodils was blooming in the brush pile at the back of our yard and went downstairs (inside and then from the deck) to get some pictures. Our neighbors have always had daffodils around the base of one of their trees and I had planted some bulbs slightly in front of the tree line in our yard several years ago to establish a similar stand in our yard. The plants come up and bloom well before the leaves are on the trees. My subsequent project to gradually extend the ‘forest’ into our yard by putting small brush piles over the areas where the grass does not well (too much shade) covered the place where I planted the bulbs…but they are hardy enough to come up and bloom anyway! And they provide a marker for how much I have extended the forest leaf mulch area into our yard….probably at least 6 feet. It’s much better than having thin grass/soil showing in that area.

I also noticed that one of the larger branches in the brush pile had some shelf fungus growing --- decomposition and nature recycling itself in action!

2021 03 IMG_7131 (3).jpg

As I walked back up the incline toward the deck stairs, I notice a leaf from last year with some neatly drilled holes. I wondered if the holes were already made before the leaf fell.

2021 03 IMG_7131 (4).jpg

Overall – a very satisfying short photo shoot in our yard!

Mini Road Trip: Mt Pleasant – March 2021 (2)

/

Continuing the sights of my mini road trip to Mt Pleasant….

I noticed 3 trees…for different reasons:

rb 2021 03 IMG_7009 (1).jpg

The light on the curling bark of a river birch.

A hole that looked recent in a high branch of a large tree. I wondered if it might be a woodpecker preparing a nesting cavity although I didn’t hear or see the bird.

2021 03 IMG_7093.jpg
r 2021 03 IMG_7107 (1).jpg

The trunk of a red bud…with my regular camera

And then with my phone and a clip-on macro lens.

There were also some interesting vines around small trees and hanging from low branches…natures ropes and knots.

I always enjoy looking for shelf fungus as I walk on forest paths.

My favorite images are ones that capture the structure of the top and underside…the two pictures below are the same group…but different composition. I can’t decide which is my favorite. I didn’t realize that the tree rings were visible until I looked at the images on the bigger screen at home! The grouping was on the cut end of a tree trunk that had been cleared from the trail after it fell.

20210311_105123.jpg

As I headed back toward my car – I stopped to photograph the jasmine…the early bloomer near the picnic area and

Some seed pods (not sure what they are) from last season. The seeds have been dispersed but the pods catch the light…become flower-like again.

Overall – it was a very good walk around Mt Pleasant although I didn’t get down and around the meadow…. that is left for next time.   

Hike at Mt Pleasant

/
IMG_7211.jpg

A couple of weeks ago – I went on a hike with fellow volunteers at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant. We hiked on some of newer trails that avoid the muddy areas that had developed on some of the older trails in recent years. We headed down toward Hodge Podge Lodge. The stream nearby was frozen, but the Christmas ferns still provided a bit of greenery along the banks. It’s easy to see the stream with so much of the undergrowth in winter mode.

IMG_7219.jpg

Some old logs always seem to have new shelf fungus.

IMG_7221.jpg
IMG_7222.jpg

The new trail passed a stand of large black cherry trees – with beautiful bark.

As we walked through an area planted with native trees in the past few years – we spotted some egg cases of mantises.

I always enjoy photographing seed pods too. The dogbane pod (to the right) must have popped open recently….the puff od seeds to be carried away on the next breezy day. The Queen Anne’s Lace seeds have already been distributed.

IMG_7245.jpg

There are some non-native grasses that probably started out as ornamentals in someone’s yard….and the seeds somehow got to the meadow.

Finally, we came to the area that I wanted to check for skunk cabbage. I noticed the frost on the plants along the stream.

IMG_7247.jpg

And then we saw the skunk cabbage. We’ve had some warm days and then it was in 20 and 30s again. The plants have overcome much of that; they can generate some heat with their chemical processes and draw themselves down into the muck when it gets cold.

But the big new things for me on the hike was skunk cabbage seeds! Most of the time the seeds are down in the muck, but we found some on the surface looking like some odd deer poop at first glance. I’m glad the stand of skunk cabbage is producing seeds…probably expanding.

Another good thing about the hike on a cold day is that the boggy places were frozen. We could hear the crackles of ice in the grass under our feet….and we didn’t come back with muddy boots! We looped around to an older portion of the trail and I saw the 2 logs that crossed the stream have now  rotted enough to clearly not be good ‘bridges.’

IMG_7268.jpg

As we made our way closer to the Nature Center, we talked about a stand of paw paws that are popular at least one week of the summer camp (for their fruits). I noticed some ferns that had dried in interesting shapes.

There was also a picked apart seed pod (maybe sycamore?) on a bed of oak leaves….a last picture before checking out the witch hazel before we went inside to get warm.

IMG_7280.jpg

Brookside Gardens – December 2019

/

I walked around Brookside Gardens on Christmas Eve. It was sunny, but still only in the 40s with a little breeze; I was wearing my coat and gloves…put my hood up for part of the time. I noticed a tree has been cut down recently near the junction of the boardwalk to the Nature Center with the path from the Conservatory parking lot toward the Japanese Tea House (Brookside map here). The shelf fungus growing on the stump still held the saw dust!

I noticed some birds too. The only two I managed to photograph were a White-throated Sparrow that was searching a mat covering electrical cords for the seasonal lights (the bird found at least one snack) and

2019 12 b IMG_6836 (8).jpg

A Northern Cardinal near the fragrance garden. I saw a lot of Cardinals…or maybe it was the same one following me around! Their color certainly makes them stand out.

2019 12 b IMG_6836 (10).jpg

The gardens are full of dried flowers and seeds. The sumac is the most colorful. I find the shapes of the dried ferns very appealing. They have a feathery look to them. Some of the grasses do too.

2019 12 t IMG_6836 (13).jpg

The Conservatories were my last stop – for poinsettias and the model train.

There were quite a few families enjoying the garden while I was there. The excitement and joy of the children in the model train exhibit is like experiencing a seasonal group hug!