A Walk in the Woods

This afternoon Skye suggested we take a walk in the greenbelt behind us. It's been awhile since we've explored around out there.

When Skye was younger, she played back there frequently. Something like what we have behind our home would have been a gold mine for me and my brother when we were kids, too.

The bluebonnets haven't yet made their appearance back there yet, although it looked like it won't be long.

We came across a blooming tree among all the other barren and colorless landscape. As many times as I've gone back there, I've never noticed the lone white flowered tree before. Matter of fact, I've never seen a tree like this at all in our area and it was kind of odd to think  how it may have gotten out there among all the Mesquites, cactuses and Cedar trees.  I had the instinctive impression it may have been planted there to mark a grave of some sort when the area was farmland or maybe even before that time. It was beautiful and smelled so fragrant. It sat along the edge of a stream and I contemplated bringing me a chair out there next time and make me a little sitting/thinking spot....

There were some black butterflies with blue tips enjoying their nectar....

Here are some remnants of the old farm where our house sits now...

We came across this skull too. It has a horn-like piece on it. Not sure what kind of animal it came from..

An old nest in a barren tree....

We plan on going back out there again tomorrow. Animals have made many trails back there making navigation a lot easier than it used to be.

Here are a couple of more nature pics I've got from our walks at the park the past month.

I wish this pic had not been blurry, I love these cactuses with the red berries....

Cedar pollen in all it's glory.....

 Ball moss....

My favorite shack....

Lamb's Ear, it is so soft to the touch.....

 This caught my eye, because it looked like some kind of creature staring at me. See the eye??

This is a portion of Walnut Creek we've never walked before. It was nice and peaceful because it was a less traveled area of the creek..

I'm trying to take full advantage of the pleasant weather we've been having this year.

Unexpected Day in Llano, Texas

Skye has been itching to go to Enchanted Rock for a few weeks now. We've been before, but it's been more than a few years ago.

Yesterday, we made plans to go today since the weather was going to be sunny and in the low 60's, cool enough to hike around on a rock without breaking too much of a sweat.

After a two hour drive to get there, we discovered that everyone else had the same idea to visit the rock, and the park was closed to any more visitors until some visitors had cleared out. There were car loads of people being turned away. Although we were a little disappointed we took it in stride and made lemonade out of our lemons.

We decided to drive back to the closest little town, Llano, Texas and stop to explore. I don't have any knowledge of Llano except for driving through it a few times heading to other destinations and mentally associating it with tornadoes. Seems like every time there's bad weather in our area, a tornado warning will be posted for Llano.

I have an affection for small, quaint Texas towns with charm. I can probably attribute that to reading too many Harlequin Romances in my young adult years.

Even though we didn't make it to our intended destination, Llano was not a disappointment and we had fun exploring around.

First, we crossed this cool bridge that crossed the Llano River into the central square part of town. Toby and Skye raced across the pedestrian bridge...

The Llano River below was peaceful and nice with a dam that spanned the width of the river...

Our first stop once we made it across the bridge into the "square" was the candy store, of course!

Then we headed to the old jail house for a short tour....

We found it interesting that the "jail man" and his family lived there with the inmates. Their living quarters were on the bottom floor and the "inmates" were on the top 3 floors....

 The jail was a working jail until 1982...

Then we just walked around taking in the sights for awhile...

This hotel is where Bonnie and Clyde spent a night or two while traveling through Texas. We wanted to go in and check it out, but it was closed...

I snapped a pic through the window though...

Skye enjoyed the old piano on the front porch....

There were decorated deer everywhere. I'm sure they had some significance, but not sure what...

Skye asked me if this was the kind of gas pumps they had "back in my day".....

More historical stuff.....

Next, we went to the local park on the river to check it out...

Toby and Skye fighting over the candy from the candy store....

Walking along the park trail......

Our Chick Fil A breakfast had worn off, so we ate some dinner at a local pizza joint before we headed home. Why is it that the drive home is always seems so much faster than the drive there??????

I feel like the cards were dealt in our favor, because I think we all had a pretty good time despite our last minute change of plans.

We will head back again soon for the rock , but will make the trip during the week next time when it will most likely be less crowded.