“Sixteen turtles sitting on a log”

This is my final post from Mercer Arboretum in Houston. They have a beautiful pond, full of turtles and fish, within the grounds. This is the most turtles I have seen sitting on the log in a decade so I guess they had fun making baby turtles? Spring Creek is a short distance away with some alligators. I have often wondered what happens at night and do the alligators wander up for a turtle crunchie (they eat them like Doritos) but I think they have enough food to eat down in the creek.

These are red-eared slider turtles and unbelievably they can live for 50 to 70 years! The females don’t mature until they are 5-7 years old. I had great fun watching a baby with her mama, following her around incessantly. I imagined she was saying, “snack, Momma”, but maybe that’s just normal. They were very cute. Happy Easter

Postcard from Sugarland

Look at this lovely little baby! This is a one year old alligator at Brazos State Park, south west of Houston. http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/brazos-bend This Park has been closed recently because of the devastating floods in certain parts of Texas. Summer has arrived suddenly and the intense heat has helped to dry up some of the worst of the flooding. The media, quite naturally, has focused on the impact the flooding has had on humans but nature has both suffered and benefited. Texas has had a 10 year drought and the water is badly needed but it doesn’t need to come all at once – does it? The alligators have delayed their breeding season, as have many other animals and some of the alligator eggs have had to be incubated because the nests were too close to human traffic. I had the great privilege of being able to stroke this lovely little critter and like other reptiles it was really dry to the touch, like bumpy leather. It was incredibly hot walking around the various lakes but the trees gave some shade. It was blissfully free of other people because it had only reopened the day before so you had the real feel of escaping the city. It was my first proper visit to Sugarland, the home of Imperial Sugar, and I was very impressed with this small master planned city. It was subtly different from my home to the north of Houston and the ecology changed from Piney Woods to Gulf Coast. Sometimes the best vacations are just an hour or so away… Click on the red link to find out more about Brazos, Sugarland and its intriguing history that goes back to the Spanish land grants in Texas. POSTCARD FROM SUGARLAND – CLICK HERE

Thanksgiving

This is a view from our favorite forest and lake close to our home in Texas. It was a beautiful day today, sunny but with a little chill in the air. We rarely get the fall foliage that is common to the north of us but sometimes Mother Nature gives us just enough rain, not too much sun and a gentle autumn to turn the leaves into gold, red and copper. If we are unlucky enough to get a hurricane it blows all the leaves off before they get a chance to develop autumnal tones. A quiet walk through this forest on Thanksgiving morning with the possibility of seeing an alligator or a giant Woodpecker gives us so much reason to be thankful. Click on the red link to see more fall photos. THANKSGIVING