Not any park, my park. A wonderful creek travels along one side of our property. It runs east to west. It begins on the hill behind our house and runs all the way to town. It is dry a lot during the year. The last couple of years the rain that has terrorized our garden has kept it running almost continually. It joins with another creek which crosses the property from north to south. Dead ending in the east west creek. I have never heard if these creeks have names. We have been here since 1975, you would've thought we would have named them.
You are looking up the west leg of the creek.
You are looking up the west leg of the creek.
I turned around to walk back to the road, in front of me was the base of a sycamore tree. Something had caused decay and there was a nice hole to hide things. I know, if I was 9 years old again, I would be hiding secret messages for a friend. We'd be pretending we were pioneers.
A little past the tree, the east leg of the creek starts. The creek is not traveling down hill at this point. The force of the water has carved small and large pools in the rock layers.
A reflecting pool in the east leg.
It's deeper than it looks.
When my children were little they swam and splashed in the creek. Lower down, there are two very nice wading pools. The nicest one is now filled in with sand and gravel because it hasn't had small hands with buckets cleaning out the depression in the huge rock shelf every year. The water swirls around and around eroding away the rock. It is about 18 inches deep and about 10 ft wide. Like a big bowl dug in the rock.
I never thought to worry about anything when they played there. They were warned to watch for copperheads, rattlesnakes and poison ivy. I told them to keep a watchful eye for the snakes because they liked to sun and swim, too. It never occurred to me the danger of the slippery rocks. All I heard was the happy squeals coming up the hill.
Walking around the property is always full of surprises. Today isn't any different. The dog woods are still in full bloom. Did you ever notice the center of the flower is the true flower? At least that is what it looks like to me. There are little greenish yellow flowers blooming out in the center.
This dogwood blossom is on a little slip of a tree to the left of this small cave which is located in the side of the hill right next to the drive. It goes back about 6 feet and then turns to the right. We have thought we'd dig it out sometime to see if it opened up larger. But, best laid plans of mice and men. Hunny used to be 115 and 25...but now he is 175 and 71. He used to be a spelunker. Now he is a want-to-be farmer outstanding in his field.
Is it inhabited? Occasionally we have seen my arch nemesis run into it. Who would that be? A 40 lb ginormous ground hog who terrorizes my garden. He has been around for at least 4 years. He is very smart about our live traps. He learned he could steal the bait as long as he didn't let his fat posterior let the door close. He could back-out at his leisure. We have caught plenty of his relatives.
Walking around the drive usually presents me with lots of blooming plants. Today was no exception, except for the fact they were all preparing to bloom. All I found were buds. I saw monarda and solomon seal. With this chill we are having it will probably be the weekend before they bloom. There was one pretty surprise, my wild geraniums are starting to bloom.
This is the first year they are blooming. Four years ago I transplanted them from a gravel area along the main road. It was a very hot dry year. I had to take water to them every day. I planted them in a gravely place like they came from, but there was more shade. I didn't know if they would acclimate. Each year they returned but never bloomed. I thought this past year they had rotted out from all the fall moisture we had. They have come back, denser and more luxurious. We'll have to see if they have more blooms. Right now there are only 5 Blooms.
When you take a walk in your park don't forget to look up. There is art in the sky.
Does this old man qualify for an Ent?
On my walks as I leave the house one of the first sights I see is a Maple. It is just starting to leaf out. It is one of the trees I can't wait till Autumn. This tree is filled with orange, yellow and scarlet leaves. It can be observed, while laying in bed, the morning sun highlighting each leaf. All you can see is the beautiful crown.
Take time to take a walk,
Take time to share a talk,
With the plants and animals there,
Planted by Mother Nature with care.
Today I saw a bluebird sitting on the bird house. Our red tail hawk was patrolling his territory. The barn swallows are sitting on their nest. Our raccoons must have had their babies, the mommas are begging at the back door each night.
Thank you for walking with me.
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There are blogs on the new born baby kittens we found and are mothering. It is a blog where I will sometimes voice my opinions which will always be environmentally friendly.
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