Wisdom words from the Labor Day skink

I skip my nature time at my peril. It had been way too long since I spied the blue tail of a skink, and this one was waiting by the paved trail to remind me.

When I went over to Oak Point Nature Preserve this morning, I didn't consider that there might be Labor Day holiday events at the preserve, the Oak Point Rec Center, and Plano Event Center with road closings. Somehow I ended up on Chaparral heading west, and there was another Oak Point Nature Preserve sign. The park has expanded over the years, and the trails link to the Plano trail system. I walked along following uncooperative butterflies from the corner of Destin and Emerald Coast, under Avenue K, through a pecan grove in Allen(!) almost to Central Expressway. 

Between sun and shade with a nice breeze, it was just what the skink ordered. My nature tank is refilled.

© 2014-2021 Nancy L. Ruder

The smell of wet weeds

The PlanoWeather.com almanac says we have had thirteen days of rain this month, but it sure seems like twenty-two. When it's not raining it is 73% humidity. Walking around the Oak Point lake the combination of mugginess and the smell of wet weeds set off nature anxiety I rarely feel. It's a smell memory from Camp Fire Girl camp as a kid. Warning! Mosquitoes! Warning! Chiggers! Warning! Ticks! Warning! Itching eyeballs.

Plano Parks & Recreation warned on its Facebook page that snakes have been "flooded out" of their normal forest areas, and may be on the trails. I did spot one next to the paved trail near the dam. Pretty sure it was a black water snake. It took off into the lake.

Thank heaven I wasn't served canned whole tomatoes or spinach, like in the camp dining hall. Didn't have  to sing, "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt," either.

But if all of the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain that would be.

© 2014-2021 Nancy L. Ruder