Nature in the City
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Nature in the City | Burroughs Park
Dusting off another one of those draft posts and OMG will you look at this kid??? Almost 3 years old—this hike was done in early August 2017, weeks before Hurricane Harvey. Forest turned three a month later. Those chubby little legs and oversized backpack—*insert crying emoji here*. Burroughs Park is a Harris county park located just south of Spring Creek, the dividing line for Montgomery and Harris counties. It is a large park with areas for soccer and baseball games, several playgrounds, a dog park, and a large pond with walking paths. In the back portion of the park is an undeveloped tract of land with trails that you can…
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Berry Springs Park & Preserve | Nature in the City
While in Austin a few weekends ago we happened to be looking for another place to explore after Chris dropped by a plant nursery near Georgetown. He came up with Berry Springs Park and Preserve, a Williamson County park. On first glance when we pulled into the park I was a bit skeptical about what we would find, however we ended up being pleasantly surprised! Goldenrod were afire on the edge of the prairie when we arrived. The park was busy but not crowded. In addition to there being a large open space along with a gorgeous pecan grove, the property was an old homestead as was evident by the…
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Nature in the City | A Sunday Morning at Burroughs Park
For an earlier trip here, see this post and this post. For most of the summer it seemed as if we were go-go-go or bury our head and do some kind of house project, well, that last part was Chris. August was our month to recuperate a bit, though Chris has been out of town for work a few times so he hasn’t gotten to recoup as much as he has wanted. We layed low last weekend but still wanted to do something fun and outdoors. The summer has been awfully hot as I think it has been for much of the country. Paired with barely any rain compared to…
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First of November at Kleb Woods | Nature In The City
I’ve written about Kleb Woods twice before but last weekend was the first time Forest had been there. We didn’t have a ton of time to do a longer hike and I wanted to stay relatively near the house so we chose this small park to do a little outside rambling. This time we explored the north section of the park, taking the stroller and a sleeping Forest along. I spotted a Passiflora incarnata fairly quickly but found no fruit or flowers. The downside to this park is that it is overrun with yaupon holly, Ilex vomitoria. Ideally they would burn this park on occassion but I think they come…
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W.G. Jones State Forest | Nature In The City
Last weekend we took Forest out for his first ‘hike—he strolled, we hiked—at our local state forest, WG Jones State Forest. Chris and I have been there a few times and thought it would be a great outing for us to stretch our legs and to get away from the house for awhile. The forest is split in two by a road, FM 1488, with the larger tract being on the south side of the road. This tract also has the most trails. We set off from the western most parking area on 1488 and Forest managed to stay asleep during his transfer from truck to stroller. I had debated…
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Pineywoods Native Plant Center | Nature In The City
Over the weekend Chris and I were in Nacogdoches and spent some time around Stephen F. Austin State University and their outdoor botanical parks. The first one we stopped at was the Pineywoods Native Plant Center on the north side of the campus. The directions to get there were a little sketchy for our Garmin to figure out, but eventually we found it. There was a family event going on with kids running to different stations to learn about nature—at one station I saw something called the ‘Bird Olympics’. I wonder what that was about? After walking around the front part of the center we found out there were trails…
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Nature In The City | Burroughs Park Part II
Part I in case you missed it. After scoping out the fungus I saw a very interesting swamp area, an area that reminded me of Little Slough, substituting water elm for pop ash and pond apples. And of course no epiphytes covering the tree branches. It also reminded me of months of tromping around the Big Thicket 2.5 years ago. I’m definitely a wetland and swamp person. Ilex opaca, American holly. I love, love, love to see these plants when they become well-formed trees. Their trunks are so thick and sturdy, they look like they’d be a good tree in a landscape. After meandering through the wetland for a little…
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Nature In The City | Burroughs Park Part I
It has been awhile since I’ve done any Nature In The City posts so yesterday I got outside to a local park to explore. Burroughs Park is part of the Spring Creek Greenway project and part of the larger Houston Bayou Greenways around the metropolitan area. In the spring of 2012 I visited another park further east down Spring Creek, the George Mitchelle Preserve. I took a lot of photos so I will be breaking it out into two posts, with the second post coming later this week. First off, I was surprised by the size and activity in the park when I arrived. There’s a long, winding road that…
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Angelina College Forest Fitness Trail | Nature In The City
Before I went to the Azalea Trail in Lufkin I dropped by the Angelina College Forest Fitness Trail to scope it out. Located at the back of the college near the athletic buildings I found the parking lot empty save for a few cars towards the back of the lot. Looked like I would be alone for the hike, which I expected anyway. Part of this trail reminded me a bit of Turkey Creek Sanctuary a park in Florida near where Chris and I lived our first two years in Florida. I would go running there often and we hid our first geocache there. Ok, maybe it was the ambiance…
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Lufkin’s Azalea Trail | Nature In The City
Over part of Easter weekend I was in Lufkin, Texas to spend some time with Chris as he was doing a field job nearby. It was nice, taking advantage of a hotel room and having time to explore the area. I really wanted to go do a few hikes in Angelina National Forest nearby but was too chicken to go out there by myself. I probably could have driven a few forest roads and seen a lot of things anyway but instead I decided to see what was in the heart of Lufkin itself. After I found a couple of plant nurseries I decided to go explore two different parks…