DSC06397

DSC06402

DSC06403

DSC06404

North Forest Gully from the south

The flowers are quite high up and one has to get close to see where the trunk is. The two on the outside are pretty much straight up, but the one in the middle does a big curve to the side, hanging over the center of the gully that is out of sight in this hoto.

Very large photo of the whole tree

This is a vertical panorama that shows the whole tree in detail at 100% resolution. Not as much detail on the flowers as I'd like, but enough to see it is the same as the other two blooming now. You can view the full size image by going to the size icon in the lower right corner.

Circumference 13 inches, DBH 4 inches

circumference 11.75 inches, DBH 3.7 inches

Circumference 13 inches, DBH 4 inches

This thick green vine is quite tough, and every node has a sharp thorn.

Petrified wood found in water ditch flowing into pond.

Star found a couple of these. This one looks as if it were a round cut out of the trunk or large branch of some kind of tree. It's not as rock like as the ones I handled in Arizona, this is softer and more brittle, more like the limestone around here.

20160409175216

seven ninebark to start a thicket

Local "bottom" land in that water from the field drains down here and follows a ditch swale that runs between the newly planted pecans. Very heavy clay soil in here, no more than an inch of topsoil. Group of 4 pecans to the left, and a few weeks later a bunch of ninebark, hopefully a future thicket. And a few weeks after this photo, a group of five trees from the conservation dept -- hickory, redbud and a spruce.

Tree Frog

20160417115947

Snapping turtle having difficulties getting through the fence.

I'll have to check again, I'm sure there's a way out under the fence at a couple of places.

Big turtle

with a long neck when extended. went out a good six inches.

Snapping turtle

this is a resident I rarely see, but do keep in mind. He, or she, came wandering down the path between the south yard and kitchen garden areas. The new dog had a good time barking at it, but as a puppy, perhaps I should have let him leatn the hard way about how fierce this things can be and how strong their jaws are. Unfortunately that would probably mean killing the turtle. So I chained the dog, waited a few hours and the turtle had gone off to whereever he was going. Probably the same one we came across a few days previously up the the lagoon.

DSC06597

As I walked up to Mobile 35 hanging on the mother oak, in my peripheral vision, I saw some kind of movement, something white moving near the ground. I looked down and saw this hole.

I suppose if I'd waited long enough, she might have come all the way out of the hole. I am curious to know if that's her belly full of little ones or something else.

20160426155804

20160426155804

Looking east across a rain swollen upper pond.

20160426160740