Lilies of the Field...

This area I walk often is part inlet water and chaparral...desert meets the bay! It was set aside as a nature park for the public; specifically for school-aged children with the learning center so that adolescents and pre-teens can have field trips and be taught about the diverse area of this state of Texas. You have sub-tropic, and low lying dry lands. Filled with wildlife. When I arrived and parked the car to begin my walk, I stopped at the playground/center first. There is a small lily pond. But, at that hour, the lilies were just beginning to open as you notice in the photo to the right. So, I snapped only one photo and moved on to the waterfall park section and then traversed the gravel trails up to the observation tower at the bay's inlet...seeing willets, stilts, egrets, herons, ducks, gulls, and one osprey. This tower is highly elevated [for us sea level dwellers] and there is always a cool breeze blowing through...shaded and a nice stopping place to enjoy the quietude and watch wildlife. There was a lady [named Carol ---she is a volunteer at the wetlands] I've talked with oftentimes. She told me that she had just seen a white-tailed deer and her two fawns.] Anyway, I digress. Since this post is about the water lilies.  After more traversing the many paths through mesquite, cactus, and palo verde trees in bloom, I once again took a side track back to the lily pond and they were now wide open...



As I left to head back to the car, through the butterfly garden, I stopped to photograph the palo verde blossoms [palo verde meaning green stick *the bark is green] and the turning of the mesquite leaves: