Weekend Part II

Today was my second day off of the weekend and it was another delightful day.  The kitchen, dining room, and living room are now 100% box free.  The furniture in the living room is still in disarray because we haven't found an arrangement that works for us yet, but we'll get there.  It is a wonderful feeling to be able to walk through several rooms in a row without seeing a cardboard box.  The house is feeling bigger every day!
After a morning of cleaning, straightening, and unpacking, we were ready to leave the house by the late afternoon.  We took a walk on the Wet to Dry trail at the park today.  It is a short but enjoyable boardwalk trail near the spring.  If you look at the map, it is the tiny, black circle near the spring in the bottom right.  The trail is named appropriately because you can begin near the spring and walk along some low areas that are very wet, hence the boardwalk to keep your feet high and dry.  The trail loops around and very gently gains elevation, leaving the damp areas behind and moving to dryer areas.  The vegetation and animal life changes subtly as you walk.  If you walk slowly and listen carefully, there is a lot to see.  Here are some of the things that we found.

This lovely little Hedge-nettle was quietly nestled between the walkway to the restroom and the parking lot.  I wonder how many people walked past it without even seeing it.  The poor little thing is even referred to as a weed in my flower field guide.


I'm sure that this fellow was missed by many, by design.  This water snake was very well hidden in a little stream.  I'm sure he was waiting for an unsuspecting frog to come along and overlook him as well.  Can you see his head peaking above the water?  It looks just like a leaf.


This Broadhead Skink does an excellent job of camouflaging itself on the reddish-brown forest floor.  Its quick movement makes it easy to spot though.


This stunning Damselfly was hard to "catch" with my camera.  I'm glad I got it though.


A squirrel though that the boardwalk was a nice spot to stop for lunch.  It even found a nice big leaf for shade.


The beautiful white flower below is in the Linnaeus family and it has several cousins that look very similar.  I am leaning toward Ti-ti (aka Leatherwood) for this particular plant, but Lizard's Tail and Virginia Willow have almost identical flowers.  None of them match perfectly with the leaves that I saw, so it may be another cousin altogether.  It was in bloom in the wetter areas of the trail.


I just love the way that these leaves look like their color has just been painted on.  Can't you see the brush strokes?


A young hawk flew in to see us off near the end of the trail.


Thought of the Day #60
I can't believe that I have been blogging daily for almost a year now!  We have only 60 days to go.  I am having fun.  I enjoy sharing what I see and the feedback from all of you has been very valuable.  The blog has also reminded me to keep enjoying the fun parts of my job even when things get stressful.  I try hard to keep things positive so that I am not ranting and complaining and I think its good to force myself to see the upside of every day.  It has also become a very handy work journal.  I have no trouble filling out my timesheet, I can always look back at what I did each day if I don't remember.  I don't think that I can just stop blogging, and I don't think that some of you would let me!  There are only 60 days left of my promised 365 days, but I don't think that this will be the last that you hear from me.