Puff puff and be free

Puff puff and be free

 The last part of Tuesday’s grassland hike… Several of these plants were by the creek’s edge. I think it is probably Cursed Crowfoot or Celery-leaved Buttercup (Ranunculus sceleratus) by the shape of its leaves. Wow, the shelf fungus on this downed tree was amazingly crowded. Wasp nest slime mold (Metatrichia vesparia) is tiny, but worth the…

Plague doctor

Plague doctor

Before I start in with the grasslands, I saw these “zipper” clouds today around noon (that is a name I just made up). The sky was clear by 3 pm.  Continuing on with Tuesday’s grasslands outing… Does this remind you of the Plague doctor? We were in the safety zone, right. A heart shape or…

A bright day

A bright day

Arkansas Yucca seedpod (Yucca arkansana). Vine twists up the Hackberry tree. Crustose fungus doing its job! Close up. Bedstraw (Galium aparine) has started to pop out. It is an annual. I have read that it was used in bedding. The plant will cling to you with its hairs. I have found several species of caterpillars…

Kansas

Kansas

 Kansas is the name of an American rock band. In 1977 they release a song called “Dust in the Wind”. The song seems appropriate today I think. At 11:18 am there were still clouds lingering but the wind had already started to gust as Gracie, the anemometer shows. At 1:24 pm the clouds were gone…

What lies beneath?

What lies beneath?

  I don’t think anyone has anything on north Texas’ sunrises. Spring Beauty colors! The variation of color ranges from almost white… To these deeper shades. And the yellow at the base of the petals vary too. What lies beneath the bark on this dead Hackberry tree? This is the bark moved back to the…

Weird find

Weird find

The sky had a lot of contrails today. It was cold this morning with a low of 23. However there was not much frost on the ground. Glad there was no wind and plenty of sunshine at noon! By the afternoon it was not so blue. At sunset the sky was full of many different…

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….