Monday Morning Walk

I took a nice early morning walk.  Miss Baby is finally able to go for adventures in the jogging stroller.  How exciting!  Oh, the places we will go.  The indigo flowers are blooming around the pond again.  I'm not sure what they are.  Their bases are certainly sharp. 

(image from LocustFork's blog--nice photo!)
The sun was up, but the Barred Owls (Strix varia)  were still out!   They make the neatest call....bird watchers describe it as "Who cooks for you?  Who cooks for you all?"                                        Here is what they sound like. 


The swamp is so low that you can actually see the underwater beaver tunnels.  They're nocturnal, and fairly shy, so no beaver photos today. 

I realize this is totally blurry, but it made me happy so I'm putting it up anyway.  I love those trumpet flowers, and one had fallen next to the cutest mushroom.
Such a brilliant blue.

See the little bug peeking out from behind the central petals?

Those naughty beavers are trying their darndest to connect our swamp and pond.  They're slowly digging a channel between the two.  Here is the swamp side.  That's not a beaver---that's Mooskies.

The trail starts in the lower left and leads back into the swamp area.

Here is the other side.

We had a little bad news....the electric company is replacing our tall cedar post poles with those large metal electrical poles. They're not those huge towers, but they are still pretty ugly.  Oh well...I guess everyone has to have electricity.  Fortunately, due to imminent domain laws, they have to put them where the old ones exist.  This saves us from losing lots of trees, which is wonderful.  They replaced our old gate with a new, cheerful red one.  We had to move one of our birdhouses, and there was a nest in it.  I'm afraid the parents have abandoned it, but it couldn't be helped.  They didn't ask us before the removed it.

Another surprise....we have a road that goes over our creek now. As part of their construction project, the electric company plowed the dirt over Turkey Creek so they can drive over it.  It's so low that there isn't any water flowing.

Argh---this is blurry, too!  I was sloppy with my photos today.  See how low the creek is?
For Brandi in North Carolina- turtle egg shells! I haven't seen any hatching during the day, but we have a lot of them here in Texas, too. See the depression in the soil to the right?  They've been living in their nice warm earth nest until recently.
All right....I need breakfast!  I'm having pumpkin pie and coffee.

Comments

[brandi]

Laura!!!! YEs yes YES!! I lOVE your nature walk! Your place is beautiful. I keep wondering when the eggs will hatch, a baby box turtle would be sooo cute! I had each kid in a jogger daily for 2 years atleast, you and Violet and Mooskies are in for lots of adventures!! I wish I could go with you...I hope to see lots more posts like this and PLEASE post about those awesome WIPS!!!! I love your first several shots...so beautiful...have a happy day!!

[Sally]

What a beautiful place you live in. Keep posting photos like these and I'm going to call vacation and force my company on you for weeks and weeks.

[Charlotte]

Pumpkin pie and coffee for breakfast! I love you! Did you bake the pie? So easy to make and so delicious. Gee, it is amazing how much flora and fauna is sustained in a hot climate. Thanks for sharing some of it with us. And I didn't know you had a dog. It would make me crazy to have a utility company trod on my land, making changes...I sort of hate change. Is it a Cancer thing? Hugs. What's cookin' for dinner?