Mexican buckeye
Mar. 30th, 2003 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonark
Today I went to the Trinity Trail(pictured, sans buckeye), which is the lakeside horse and hiker trail through scraggle woods by Lake Lavon, about twenty minutes drive from our home. I walked a bit over an hour, on trails in which Spring greens and Winter browns were admixed liberally. I had in one hand my Mohrson French well-used bought-on-ebay-for-seven-dollars binoculars (which I decline to call my "Cheap Freedom Binoculars") and in the other hand, a cheap throwaway camera. I like to watch for butterflies the most on hikes like this, and I saw cabbages, sulphurs and lots of little species whose names escape my memory, but I did not see any of the giant swallowtails that are the Summer highlight of this trail. I did see the first scissortail flycatcher bird of the season, which made me very happy. I also saw yellow meadow-flowers, a giant crow atop a tree, and numerous hovering dragonflies. The grasshoppers are colored brown now, like the dead weeds, but their great-great-great-great grandchildren will be pea green like the Spring weeds in just a few weeks.
The weather was simply wonderful, and horse riders passed me a number of times, including one horse galloping so quickly I decided he must have been late for a very important date. I stopped by Hastings Books, which is one of many businesses here going out of business, but I miscalculated the percentage discounts and found myself in shock when what I thought would be 30 dollars turned into 60. I had planned to ebay the chess books portion of the purchase off, though, so maybe the pain will not be that bad.
I was not tired of walking, so I stopped by the Heard Natural Science Center, which has properly wooded trails. The white pear trees have given way here to reds and pinks--the wild plum, the redbud, and incredibly beautiful Mexican buckeye trees. I tried to use my binoculars as a telephoto lens for my cheap throwaway camera, but here necessity was merely the mother of tunnel images. Still, I saw many butterflies, including a gargantuan monarch and a number of hackberries, some brightly colored cardinals, and one swiftly hopping adult bunny rabbit. I saw lots of Spring flowers, but there will be more soon. Weekend after next is the Native Plant Sale, and I hope my wife and I can snare a lacy oak tree or something similarly cool. I also hope we can get things for our front little garden patch as workable as what I bought last year. The sages and other herbs I got then still thrive today, which is a big advantage of planting native plants.
I like the colors of those Mexican buckeyes:
On my way home, I noticed that Allen has a store called "Texas Game Company", which has rental rooms for 3 hours for 5 dollars. This may be the answer to my prayers, as to a place to hold blitz chess tournaments. I am getting very energized by this chess club idea, even though I must admit that founding social groups is far from my forte. I must meet the owner another time, who apparently is a chess player.
I bought 300 feet of kite string for 75 cents at the game store, so I am tempted to put that one dollar "ninja boy" delta wing kite I got at the dollar store firmly in mid-air. This was a good day, and the evening is still ahead.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-30 06:15 pm (UTC)As our Spring waxes, butterflies will all but take over my journal sometimes, so I am grateful for the kind words! Oh, and welcome!
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Date: 2003-03-30 05:34 pm (UTC)the walk sounds heavenly
me, i took a nap
have to say i cannot abide grasshoppers....one of the gods creepiest of jokes...they used to grow as big as my pinky in nevada and feast on scaring the beegeezus out of me when i would go pick raspberries in my backyard and grab a grasshopper instead
so i started paying the neighbor kids $.50 to catch all the hoppers they wanted and feed them to my turkeys
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Date: 2003-03-30 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-30 05:45 pm (UTC)it's full of tiny desert wildflowers now
maybe i'll go crazy and take a sketchpad
and my MR SKETCH stix (10 colors, no waiting!)
~paul
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Date: 2003-03-30 06:12 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-03-30 06:34 pm (UTC)that i will post the aforementioned sketches
as soon as my daughter-in-law or son
show me how to use my damn copier/scanner
so help me DELL, dude!
seriously, my son's been working 50-60 hrs a week
and my daughter-in-law is helping my wife
and the bride's future mother-in-law make
a wedding dress, so they've been pretty busy
i can and WILL go over there and sketch though
the park's only a 5-minute drive from here
don't have much excuse not to
~paul
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Date: 2003-03-30 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-30 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2003-03-30 09:07 pm (UTC)By the way, I've been wondering what those smallish trees are with big beautiful puffy white blooms all over them - they're everywhere around Lakewood and the M Streets.
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Date: 2003-03-31 10:26 am (UTC)I thought the ones in my picture were big redbuds, but apparently they are Mexican buckeyes. I am tempted to recheck the signage next time I am at the Heard, though.
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Date: 2003-03-31 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-31 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-31 06:24 am (UTC)However that gets done, it would be mucho easier to use the digicam. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - open the box!
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Date: 2003-03-31 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-31 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-31 10:24 am (UTC)I'm glad you like them.
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Date: 2003-03-31 01:18 pm (UTC)