Outdoor Explorations

The weather has been great the past few weeks so we all have been spending a lot of time outdoors..well, me and Summer anyway. Toby is perfectly satisfied perched on the sofa in front of the T.V. or his Iphone when he's not at work.

One of the things I love most about where I live is that Summer has plenty of space to roam, and that's exactly what she has spent her time doing lately. The one rule is that she has to take a friend or me into the woods with her. I don't allow her to go out into the wild, expansive acreage alone.

Since they plowed the road through it has given us some access to other parts of the greenbelt we never knew existed. We found out there has been a man that has been making walkable trails through the woods for the past few years and I must say he has done a good job.

Summer and I walked some of them yesterday. But first, we stopped off at the swing. My neighbors moved in a month after we did four years ago and he built this swing for the kids. It's still hung out there untouched by nobody but the kids who are allowed to venture that far back into the woods....



Here are the newly-found trails....





While we were walking through the wilderness something white caught my eye in the brush. It startled me at first until I saw that it was one of the many feral cats that lurk around in the woods. This particular cat is my favorite because of her coloring...



While we were out there I wanted to take another look at the gravestones in the historical graveyard. I brought along an old toothbrush and poured a little water from our water bottle on the stones so I could read the names and message.

The Austin Genealogical Society has a project going on now where they are going around trying to preserve names and dates on the old gravestones in the area so I thought I may could help them out with the two in our area.

I also find the gravestones get me caught up in wondering about the people that lived in this area 100 years ago...





Prickly Pear Cactus is very common around here, but Summer spotted this different sort of cactus. I thought the red on it was really pretty.....



Headed back to the house!!!..