Savanna

Savanna

I watched a zoom presentation by Suzanne and I was reminded our LBJ grasslands are more of savanna than a prairie. The difference I found on the internet was “between the two is based on the percent of land covered by trees. Prairies have virtually no tree cover (less than 10 percent), and savannas have…

Down in the creek

Down in the creek

Continuing on with yesterday’s trip to the grasslands down in the creek. This Eastern Red Cedar’s trunk was really red where it was peeling. A nice Purple Cliff-brake fern. This horsetail reminded me of the Empire State building. Not as old horsetail top. This horsetail was pretty fresh. There was places that had quite a…

Slip and slide

Slip and slide

 Slip and slide is what I did when I tried to go up an embankment at the grasslands to look at moss today. Lucky for you I do not have a photograph or maybe it is lucky for me LOL. We had a nice rain last night. Here at the house we got 1/4″ but…

Who is watching

Who is watching

 It was fairly foggy this morning and stayed damp to wet all day. I thought the temperature was fairly nice in the 51 to 55 degree range all day. And no wind. The heaviest the fog we had here was about 1/4 mile. On dreary days, the orange jelly fungus is always a bright spot….

3 course meal & pie

3 course meal & pie

 So today (Jan 23th) was National Pie Day. This is the eating kind of pie,  not the number π that is a mathematical constant. So I made a chocolate cream pie because I was thinking about the droplets that form on fungus. Remember in the post Feathers from a couple days ago that had the fungus…

A name

A name

How often does a name elude you? You look at a plant or something, and you say it looks so familiar. It happens too often to me and sometimes it will be hours or even days later when the name pops out.  Ok, sometimes never LOL. Well, this plant was mine today. But I was…

Feathers

Feathers

 It was cloudy all day, but not bad out with no wind. These fungi are rock hard. They are a polypore type. They each had a hole in the top and you can see the other tiny insect holes too. Every time I turn over a branch and find fungus, it like finding treasure. And…

Dripping rock ravine

Dripping rock ravine

Turban Lichen (Cladonia peziziformis) was still hanging on. It was there when we were there back in the summer. Purple Cliff-brake (Pellaea atropurpurea), mosses, and Turban lichens. Hanging roots and a hole in the side of the ditch. This nostoc was laying on the ground. It was partial dry and wet. The black part is…

5.38 miles

5.38 miles

 That’s how far Gracie went on the grasslands yesterday. Humans went only 2+ miles in the three and half hours.  A good part of the day was in the gullies and the creek bed. The side of some of the gullies were this red sandy/clay loam. Roots and red sandy/clay loam were beautiful! From the…

A splendid day!

A splendid day!

 With the rest of week with rain in the forecast, I just had to get out. And today was just beautiful out. So off to the grasslands we went!  The leaves of Pin Clover (Erodium cicutarium) were this colorful red. And it was blooming. It is a non-native plant. According to Wikipedia “it is native…