A Muddy Morning Walk

After a fevered, humid Friday, our first 100 degree day of the year, I fell into a pleasant sleep with the faint rumble of an approaching thunderstorm.  The out-flow wind gusts swooshed and swayed in the trees outside my window and then the sonorous pounding a good, heavy downpour on the roof.

A second round of thunderstorms followed at sunrise and I lay in bed on this Saturday morning next to my wife, thankful for a good woman to share my bed, a solid roof over my head and the pleasant drama that comes with all the flashes and trumpets of an entertaining early Texas summer weather event.

Somewhat at a loss as to what I would do with my Saturday morning; go upstairs and attend to financial matters online, pay bills or perhaps some other distractions along the lines of what do I really want to do?  I shortly decided I wanted to go out and walk in the mud along the edge of Spring Creek Blackland Prairie Preserve, a city-maintained natural area about 2 miles from my front door.

I pulled out a pair of 'mud puppies' - worn out athletic shoes, from the back of the closet.  has-been shoes that have been preserved for a mud-trodding outing just such as this.  I had 1.52 inches of rain collect in my rain gauge, so Spring Creek should be running high, muddy and perhaps kind of dramatic.  I would take my camera, and it would be a nice walk through wet woodlands and across a shallow soil prairie established above chalky Cretaceous limestone outcrops.

I was the only one there this morning, and after all of the rains, I was the first to leave footprints along the slick, muddy and puddled path through the still dripping woodlands.

So, C'mon.  Walk with me through this little suburban enclave and let's enjoy exploring.  But you won't even have to get your feet wet and muddy, just click the arrow below.  Let's go and enjoy the journey in Garland's Spring Creek Blackland Prairie Preserve.  

After plenty of camera shots and a slow stroll through forest and prairie habitats, I had about an inch of slick and sticky 'gumbo' clay adhering to the bottom of my old shoes.  I scuffled and scraped to get most to the clay off of my shoes.  I started the car and returned home feeling pleased with my nice diversion of slip-sliding through muddy pathways, stopping to examine leaves and bugs and all good things that are on this earth.

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