A walk in the rain

It was a day of cloudy skies with off and on sprinkles throughout the day.  In early afternoon, I decided to take Emma out for a good walk.  As I tried to take a picture of the Visitor’s Center, my battery went dead, so it was back to the rig to change it out.  Of course, it then decided to rain a bit, but we headed out anyway.

I have moved from the marshes of Texas to the Pine Savannahs of Mississippi.  It’s a big change in habitat.  The pines are long leaf pines.  The size of the cones from these trees is just immense.  I’ve always wondered where people got those huge pine cones, and now I know.

As we headed down the nature trail outside the Visitor’s Center, I noticed some of last summer’s pitcher plants.  There are a number of carnivorous plants on the refuge, so it should be an interesting spring to observe the savannah understory.

It seems odd to find fall’s brilliant colors at the end of January.  The trail is 3/4 mi. in length, and wanders through the savannah.

Scattered about under the pines are stands of saw palmettos.  The leaves are very stiff and sharp edged.  It’s easy to believe they were used as brooms by early settlers.  :)

This is my artsy/fartsy version of the end of a long-leafed pine branch.  With the overcast skies today, there was no need to change it to a black and white view.

Emma’s nose got such a good workout on our hike today that it had white foam bubbles around it by the time we came to the end.  :)  She, of course, was ready for six more laps around the trail, but I need to ease back into this.  I was ready to return to the rig.

 

My mother always said that if you aren’t feeling up to snuff, whatever ails you will be worse once the clock reaches 4 pm.  Why is it that mothers are almost always right??

 

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy