At last I made it out to the Preserve to walk and walk and walk. Very hot and humid, but it was wonderful to just go.
Parts of the trails were washed away by the hurricane, and there was red tape saying look out, trail closed, you have been warned, or words to that effect, but I went under it anyway, since it really was to stop people from encountering the torrents of water across the path during the storm, which dug a trench about six feet deep. But pretty dry now, just care required in picking your way around it. And I suppose they didn't want people falling into the chasm without noticing it.
In fact I wondered at first if maybe there were bears beyond there. Here Be Bears! because it's the season and we have quite a few young black bears in search of new territory. The Preserve has had bears trotting about enjoying the berries in the past. But I saw no bears, not even down in the woods picnicking. That song -- the Teddy Bears' Picnic -- I used to hear as a little kid, and the line "if you go down in the woods today, you'd better go in disguise" I thought was "if you go down in the woods today,you'd better go in the skies!" flying above the bear line, I suppose.
My favorite of all flowers, those wonderful brilliant yellow ones whose name escapes me which faithfully return every single September, on the dot, were in full fig today, and were the reason I ducked under the tape, because I wanted to get to the flower field further down the trail.
They're everywhere on the roadside and where they're undisturbed they populate entire fields.
On the way there, I found this sweet smelling bush of whitish clustery flowers, maybe meadowsweet, not sure, but wonderful scent.
Of course, to get the full experience of this hike, you would have to imagine the stifling heat and humidity and the drone of the NJ state bird, the mosquito, which is having a banner year because of all the rain and hot weather together, plus the stealth attack of the horsefly.
Score today: Mosquitoes and horseflies 349, Boud 1, because I managed to swipe a horsefly as he was taking a bite out of my arm. But I did score a couple of nice pix.
Yep, sure are nice pics.
ReplyDeleteWe live across the river from a wildlife corridor/nature preserve. An entirely different world to walk through, wild sage, deer, coyotes, fragrant wild grasses. Nothing beats a good nature walk to restore and soothe the world weary soul. Loved the pics. As for misunderstand lyrics when a child, I also frequently did - the North Carolina folk song "Tom Dooley", for instance, I thought it was "hang down your head and cry, poor boy you're making pies". Granted, the art of good pastry may be trying, but there you go - Jean in Cowtown
ReplyDelete"hang down your head and cry, poor boy you're making pies" - left me giggling uncontrollably in my office at work!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the beautiful nature pics, Liz. Gives me an idea of ways I can take some pretty pictures of flowers in their natural state!