To know a place: Oak Point Nature Preserve: Trout lilies

Showing posts with label Trout lilies. Show all posts

3/25/2019

Perfection

Not even a bum knee could keep me from the soft trail at Oak Point on this glorious day. I'll never be a prima ballerina or steal second base again, but my knee is holding me up and getting me where I need to go today. I'm extremely grateful.

This lovely lady Common Green Darner showed off beside the trail near the amphitheater. She made up for visual confirmation that I missed the trout lily blooms during my limping spell. It's okay, there'll be another spring. So humming Peggy Lee's "There'll be Another Spring," I headed back toward the car. The knee made it under the fallen limbo tree on Bur Oak Pass, too.

How low can you go?

Peggy Lee and George Shearing first release.
Diana Reeves version from "Good Night, and Good Luck."
Chubby Checkers limbo song

3/05/2018

Sunshine in my heart

Already in West Plano, it seemed logical to get my nature fix and walk at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve instead of driving all the way to Oak Point. Many folks were out in mid-afternoon; old guys baring their white torsos for the first sun of the season, shirtless bike riders covered in tattoos, mommies with strollers, a family with grandma in a wheelchair, spandex women training large dogs to walk nice. Time to get off the paved trails!

Without a plan, I felt a strong pull to the unpaved Indian Creek Trail. Fish were sunning in the shallow rock-bottom creek. A couple sat on boulders in the middle of the stream smoking. Ahead of me a woman in a fleece jacket stopped and started. Like me, she was taking photos.

At a bend in the trail I spotted two little clumps of trout lilies, my personal sign of spring. Beyond a muddy patch I caught up with the fleece photo woman. She laughed a smoky laugh and said she was always taking pictures of trees. I said my buddy was looking for someplace free to live in retirement, so I always check out hollow trees.

We bantered awhile, and she showed me photos of odd trees, some phallic, on her phone. I had the strangest feeling of comfort, like I'd known her for years. We agreed it was good to have a hobby that gave us fresh air, exercise, and peace of mind. That laugh, that speech pattern! I almost asked if she was born in Arkansas. We visited about the changes at Oak Point with the zip line and new boardwalk seen on her recent visit, and about the improved soft trail markers at Arbor Hill since my last visit. We laughed about trees with faces. We parted as anonymous kindred spirits where the trail forked.

Felecia Ann Denney Kolshorn 9-14-1955 to 3-20-2011

2/20/2017

Three Mondays in a row

3/01/2016

Take a walk on the wild side.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo…

3/15/2015

Slog-worthy

My muddy, drizzly walk was totally worth the slog and eventual shoe cleaning. The trout lilies on the Willow Springs trail were even more fascinating to me after hearing a panel discussion on KERA's "Think" program Monday. The explanation of trout lily colonies is from minutes seven to ten at this link. It seems trout lily colonies can be thousands of years old. The plant doesn't bloom until it is seven years old. Wildest of all, seed dispersal seems to be dependent on ants.

Not slog-worthy, this week I finally finished reading Anna Karenina on my Kindle. Never had to read it in school, and I wondered why it's a classic. Now I really wonder! There wasn't a single likable character in the whole tome, and the point of the pontificating eludes me.

So on a happier note, I present this fabulous fungus. I was a muddy mess by the time I found it, so I'm not sure if it was on the Rowlett Creek Trail or the Bur Oak Trail headed back to the parking lot. How long will it have this gorgeous color? I don't know.

Other muddy hike sights include this black fungus, the trout lilies, and the hole where a tree just fell over into the creek. Bet that was noisy.

3/01/2015

Common names

trout lily
(Erythronium albidum)

small white fawnlily
(Erythronium albidum)

Posted photos of Oak Point trout lilies on iNaturalist, and learned my favorite spring flower is also known as a fawn lily. At first I was a bit miffed, but gradually accepted that baby spotted deer suit the leaves as well as trout. And how were my small spotted-leaf friends doing after our crazy week of snow and ice? They seemed unperturbed, if not wide open.

With the gray sky and dripping trees, the trail had surprising sharp spring greens along with the dark chocolate and white nougat. Definitely time to quit taking chocolates to the office!

Joining me on the soggy trail were several good-sized earthworms. Their common names were Rhoda, Ted, and Phyllis.

2/07/2015

Trout lily competition

Do trout lilies bloom earlier at the Heard Nature Sanctuary than at the Oak Point Nature Preserve? When the Heard's February eNewsletter arrived this morning proclaiming the blooming of the trout lilies I got a bit crazed. I love trout lilies!

If these happy harbingers of spring are actually blooming less than twenty miles north, shouldn't they be blooming at Oak Point? It was irrational, but I needed to know RIGHT NOW. Dragging my just-out-of-the-shower walking buddy along to Willow Springs Trail, I spotted no sign of trout lilies. Nada. I wanted to show my friend this wondrous arrival. But, no.

So is the Heard tooting its trout lily horn too early? Is Oak Point a late bloomer? This photo is from exactly two years ago at Oak Point:

Last year I found trout lilies on the Willow Springs Trail in mid-March:

My photos of the Hoot Owl Trail trout lilies at the Heard in 2011 in late February, and a bit earlier in 2012, were posted on 365project.org.

Oak Point trout lilies:

2014

February 22, 2012

I won't have a chance to check out the Heard Hoot Owl Trail trout lilies this month, but I'll keep looking for my favorites on the Willow Springs Trail at Oak Point.

Why? Because I need to be amazed, I guess.