§ Blucher....

Just a photo album of my walking the park perimeter in search of birds! It was a delightful morning, a bit sultry with high humidity, but bearable. The wildflowers were the main focus and new Spring leaves of the trees from winter kill. I saw very few birds, to my disappointment, but I got a little outdoor exercise before I had to leave for grocery shopping which has become a hassle [a chore!] with the price hikes, my gray matter [brain], working as a calculator, is in overdrive with this task these days. It gets a bit over-heated. LOL...

In the collage of ten photos [NOT the first photo published of the pathway], the first image of the tree--there is a yellow-bellied sapsucker [bird -woodpecker] barely visible, can you find it?  And then, with my heart search fetish...the cardinal photo; notice the heart shaped leaves?

§ CBT...short for...

For a few years now, I've been wanting to find the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. The other day going into a hardware store with Bud along, I found one!! Sadly tho, when I got home to unpack it from the box, the round red ornament was shattered. I didn't feel like returning it so, I just got in my glass ornament box and picked out a small santa ornament. It's works, but it's not 'original'. Oh well...

Maybe next year I can find one red glass ornament to make it the "real thing".

§ Leftovers...

The last entry of the park's grounds...along the river, the spanish moss and a tree overlooking the cliff, plus one more bluebonnet...

§ Oh Christmas Tree....Oh Christmas Tree

When I was a kid, and up to the first couple years Bud and I were married, we would go a short distance, but deep into the foothills where we lived, in the Colorado Rockies, to chop down the "perfect tree". Then, I laid in bed one night after doing that -making it a day outing with our first born; I couldn't sleep. All I could think of was "If everyone did what we do, there would be no pine trees left in the forests"! That was the end of my wanting the "real thing"!! For 50 years now, we have had an artificial tree.  If I want the scent of pine, there is pine spray.   In those years, we have purchased three. The first two eventually lost its greenery by shedding the 'needles'. In fact, I read online [out of curiosity] that the artificial tree didn't become popular in America until the 1980s. AND, the first artificial tree in USA was produced in the 1930s...using brush bristles dyed green. Another fact that I found of interest, was in the 19th century, to avoid deforestation, the Germans created artificial trees using feathers, dying them green also. Hmmmm, interesting...since the Germans' holiday song is O Tannenbaum about the "fir tree".

Anyway, I digress. The first photo, at the beginning, is the before. And then, since I try to do a 'themed' tree [last year was Candy Cane]. This year I wanted to do a color theme...gold, green, and brown. With an essence of reindeer ornaments. At the floor I placed green felt for a tree skirt, and asked Bud to get the sleigh and reindeer [wooden, made by Bud years ago] to surround the tree bottom. I'll show you that later. Here is the after...

O Tannenbaum performed in German
First artificial tree at Wikipedia
Christmas tree facts [such as the first tree in the white house, millions of artificial trees are now sold annually, etc.]

§ 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:

§ A Busy week, But Time for a Walk....

The two of us have been busy doing more yard work. This week, it's getting rid of the winter killed ferns!!! And we have TONS of them. All along the foundations and in flower beds. The biggest "problem" of it all is we need to get on our hands and knees to cut. We can't use the electric trimmer, because the ferns are growing in amongst roses, bougainvilleas, hibiscus, ---don't wanna chop anything down in error, etc. Each fern has to be trimmed out individually. That's gonna take days!!! But, one morning, early, this week, I went to another area with no spring breakers to walk [I haven't been walking nearly enough to satisfy me, but I just can't and not be here to help with yard work]. I went to the river. I took several pictures of the lakes more than I did of birds this time....

Along the river, I walked along the boardwalk and through the trees sweeping the air with the spanish moss while a gentle breeze blew. It was a beautiful morning. Blue sky, new green spring growth just about everywhere I went -no wildflowers yet, tho...puffy white clouds, birdsong, a squirrel chattering away since I was disturbing his sanctuary, ducks in formation flew overhead while a silent raptor [the caracara] glided through the air thermals on the hunt! A lone kiskadee called out a warning. This photo in the paragraph is not the river, it's a feeder channel that flows into the river at the bank behind the boardwalk.  Did I  mention just how perfect a morning it was?  Silence; yet filled with sounds of Springtime along the river bank and in the woods...