Off the Path

Our town (yes, town - you'll be corrected if you try to use city) holds a few special treasures - the town square, a handful of dear friends, a few nice parks, the library, Cafe Piazza, and the Nature Preserve at Johnson Park. 

We live right across from a leg of the town's greenbelt system and we've worked hard to create habitats in our own backyard, but to really feel at one with nature in our suburban world, we head to the preserve.  It's particularly magical in winter - ice on the water, bare trees that make for easy viewing of wildlife, and less people.  Not to mention lower humidity and much more bearable temps for these heat-sensitive gals.

The parks system spent a lot of money creating a nice boardwalk through the wetlands leading to the Wolf River, but my family prefers to leave the trail and explore the forest less traveled.  I've posted about this place before, but it lends itself to new experiences each time.  Our most recent trip resulted in many animal scat sightings but no actual deer.  We also saw trees stripped of bark, beautiful twisty trunks created by vines wrapping around the trees when they were young, and the remains of what we think may have been an old wagon trail.  Savvy always uses these outings as a way to navigate with her compass, and she has great fun hiding in the numerous bald cypresses rising up from the forest bottoms.  Climbing among the large rocks at the river's edge and tossing sticks into the current is a mid-hike treat.

This has been an unusually cold, white winter, but hopefully one day soon spring will make herself known once again and our forested wetland escape will burst with new revelations for us to observe and explore.  The biggest challenge then will be figuring out the best time to have the place mostly to ourselves!

Jerry and Savvy at the river's edge

Kookaburra sits in the old cypress tree . . .

If this tree was in our yard, I do believe Savvy would call it home.

A giant tree cave for my munchkin . . .

We're huge moss fans and have a goal to turn our very shady front yard into "moss country", so of course we love this moss-covered trunk.

Hmmm . . . the sun's still shining. Time to get off the computer and head outdoors.

Kimberley