Welcome to my nature blog! I love sharing my photos of North Texas! I will keep looking out and hope you do too.
Comments welcome. Thank you, Mary
The humble Hackberry tree (Celtis) is often called a trash tree. In fact, this is so undeserved. True it is not good for lumber, but wow does it have other great qualities. The Hackberry can live 100-150 years, a great shade tree, and also tolerate air and soil pollutants. Moreover the wildlife love it! These…
We continued down the ravine. However, at this point it did not have the steep walls. So it was very easy going in this wide section. Plant of the Month: Guinea Grass 67-million-year-old fossil upends bird evolutionary tree The Largest-Ever Dam Demolition Will Restore Salmon Habitat Keep looking! The more you know, the more you…
Having come to the end of the first ravine, we struck out to find another. And it was not too much further down along the fence line. The Rough Green Snake was pretty wiggly. And it left its musky smell on Jeanne. A little water and that washed right off. Adventures require looking down, but…
Wasn’t it absolutely gorgeous out today! Did you get to enjoy it? Jeanne and I certainly did. Yep, we were back at the grasslands! Scientists Revived Ancient ‘Zombie Viruses’ Frozen For Eons in Siberia Top-flight recovery: the inspiring comeback of the California condor Keep looking! The more you know, the more you see and the…
As we progressed along the control line we reached another ravine. The outing was a fern bonanza day! Multiple species seen and a brand new one for the grasslands. Australia: How ‘bin chickens’ learnt to wash poisonous cane toads Authorities in Western U.S. Agree to Rip-Up Grass Lawns for Water Conservation Springtails Are Nature’s Tiny…
Along many of the boundary fences on the grasslands, the Forest Service has cleared the brush and trees. The cleared area is about twenty feet wide from the fence. So it is constructed to create fire edges to control a fire. In fact, it is called a control line. I had always just called them…
Maybe after feasting at your tables and giving thanks, maybe some of you took a walk to be thankful for nature. I try to be thankful every day. Now to continue on with the discoveries from the Nov. 22th outing. How the Formerly Ubiquitous Pumpkin Became a Thanksgiving Treat World’s heaviest flying bird uses plants…
What a wonderful damp day today. And it looks like a similar forecast for the next few days. I do hope it does not interfere with any Thanksgiving (Thankful) Day plans you may have. 🙂 More to come tomorrow from yesterday’s outing! The true, dark history of Thanksgiving In addition, to Thanksgiving there are two…
T’was a frosty morning on November 17th! However, it soon warmed up and was the perfect day for collecting plants. In addition to the aforementioned plants, I collected these as well; Willow-leaf Sunflower, skullcap, Hypericum, seeds of Silphium laciniatum. Now I just hope to keep them alive. Wish me luck! 🙂 Today, November 20 was…
Hold on, wait a minute! Your citrus in the Texas Valley is safe for now. But what about here in North Texas overnight? Our low was 32 degrees this morning. Keep looking! The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know