Sunday, March 8, 2009

A White Flower Sprouts At River Legacy Park

I would say that this blog will now have a daily new found Texas Wildflower as we move into Texas Wildflower season, but this morning's Sunday Dallas Morning News brought me the sad news that due to the continuing drought and last Fall's lack of significant rainfall, the Texas Wildflowers are likely going to be quite puny this year.

But, today at River Legacy Park, while I pedaled the mountain bike trail I came upon some white wildflowers that were not blooming when I pedaled there on Friday.

Blonde Bobbi, who I met and mentioned on Friday, was also back on the mountain bike trail today, hiking, not biking. This did not come as too big a surprise due to Blonde Bobbi mentioning that she'd be back on Sunday.

The mountain bike trail at River Legacy seems to have gotten quite popular, both with bikers and hikers. When I first discovered River Legacy Park I was surprised by how few people were out and about. Then I learned that Texans are a lot more sedentary than the people I was used to being around, that being Washingtonians in Washington. But that was then, now, almost 10 years later, I see a lot more Texans out and about, being aerobic and doing their part to get Texas off those lists of most obese states.

I saw no wildlife at River Legacy today, no squirrels, no armadillos, no bobcats, no snakes, no wild boars. Nothing. Well, there was that white flower.

I did have some slight annoyance at a pair of bikers. They came out of "Fun Town" and intersected with the trail I was on. They were ahead of me. The one I was right behind asked if I wanted by. I said, "uh, you guys look like you'll be way faster than me. " I mean, they looked to be in their 20s. I am not in my 20s. I may look like I'm in my 20s if the light is just right and the person looking at me has bad eyesight. But I'm not in my 20s.

Anyway, the two really young guys let me go ahead of them, despite my protests. I felt obligated to bike fast. I've been in this position before. Well, one of them kept right behind me, like I was being his pace car. The first guy I passed, soon dropped out of sight. I finally lost the guy who was chasing me after about 2 miles. This made the bike riding way more exercise than I was looking for.

By the time I got back here I was still overheated, so that made a jump in the pool sound like a good idea for the second time today. And then I did some of that laying on a lounge chair soaking up the healthy Vitamin A, or is it D, rays coming down from the clear blue sky.

We are heading into stormy weather the next several days. I suspect today was my last pool lounging day for awhile.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's Crow Poison, in the Lily family. Aka: False garlic. I learned this from reading p.11 of the book, Prairie Wildflowers of Tandy Hills Natural Area, by Debora Young. A new, expanded edition of her book will be available for sale at Prairie Fest on April 25. Price should stay at $10. Here's a look at the cover:

http://tandyhills.org/prairiebook.htm