Maclura Pomifera Almost Knocked Me Out Today Jogging With Indian Ghosts

That is a Maclura Pomifera you see me holding. More on that later.

Today, as I rolled along on my way to Arlington to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area for my regularly scheduled Sunday jog with the Indian Ghosts who haunt this location, I had the radio playing loud.

The vehicle has six speakers, so sound sounds like it is coming from multiple directions. As I waited for a light to turn green suddenly sound seemed to be coming out of my jogging pants pocket.

After a few seconds of being puzzled by the sound I realized it was my phone. I struggled to extract the phone from the pocket. By the time I freed the phone and touched the screen I think I rejected the call. I then saw the rejected call was from Spencer Jack's dad, he being my Favorite Nephew Jason.

I got to Village Creek and text messaged Jason explaining the phone answering debacle and that I was about to go jogging for a few miles.

Shortly before taking the picture you see above the phone made its incoming text message noise. I stopped jogging under some shade to soon find myself reading the following text message from the aforementioned Jason...

Having lunch at the Reading Railroad Terminal Market. The Amish lunch makers apparently don't work Sunday's, so I had to settle for an antipasto salad. Off to the Wanamaker building to hear the organ. Call back after you have completed your marathon training, if desired.

As I read Jason's text message I was almost clobbered by that green thing you see me holding. This is the time of year these delicious looking pieces of tree fruit fall to the ground. Maclura Pomifera is this fruit's fancy name. It is also known as Osage orange, horse apple, hedge apple, bois d'arc, bodark and monkey ball.

Monkey ball?

I gleaned this monkey ball info from the Wikipedia article about the serious Maclura Pomifera issue.

When I was finished with the jogging, which, incidentally, went well today, and was back in air-conditioned vehicular comfort I called Jason. The call went to voice mail. I left a message, then headed for home. A mile later Jason called back. Sounds like he's having himself a mighty fine time in Philadelphia, going to museums, visiting Benjamin Franklin's grave, having lunch (yesterday) with some friendly Amish Dutch girls and other stuff I am not remembering.

Dragging Myself To The Tandy Hills In Search Of Horse Apples & Henry David Thoreau

After Don Young's rather pointed suggestion that I drag myself to the Tandy Hills, I did as instructed about 2 hours after being told to do so.

As I dragged myself around the Tandy Hills today I looked at what I was looking at with Henry David Thoreau in mind. Also due to Don Young's extreme mentoring influence.

The Great North Texas Drought has caused a lot of death and destruction on the Tandy Hills. And elsewhere in this parched part of the planet.

But there is still a lot of greenery, as you can see in the picture above. Big green trees near the now dry Tandy Falls.

The big green trees had me thinking back to hiking under even bigger green trees on the hikes I'd go on in Washington, often in the Cascades, sometimes over on the Olympic Peninsula, or out on islands in the Puget Sound, like hiking the trails of Deception Pass State Park.

This had me remembering one huge difference between hiking in Texas and hiking in Washington. A lot of the big green trees in Washington are evergreens; fir, pine and cedar trees. Fir, pine and cedar trees are quite odoriferous. So, when you hike a Washington trail, til you get above the treeline, it smells like Christmas. At times blackberries, wild blueberries and wild flowers will add to the odoriferousness.

I can't really recollect hiking on a Texas trail and thinking to myself that that sure smells good.  Unless someone is barbecuing nearby. Now that smells good.

A few days ago I learned that the Osage Orange Horse Apple tree is indigenous to this part of the planet, a native to North Texas that eventually was spread to other parts of America. This had me wondering why I've never seen any Osage Orange trees on the all natural Tandy Hills.

This Is Not A Horse Apple

Just as I was wondering about the absence of Tandy Hills Osage Orange trees I saw a lime green Horse Apple looking object in the distance.

I was about 20 feet distant from the "Horse Apple" when it became clear I had not uncovered evidence of a Tandy Hills Osage Orange tree.

Since we are on the subject of Tandy Hills foliage and fauna. Well, actually, we were not on the subject of fauna til now.

A couple days ago, at Village Creek Natural Historical Area, I saw a small armadillo. I've not had many armadillo sightings at Village Creek the last couple years. And no snakes. I've long thought a massive flood a couple years ago may have wreaked havoc with the armadillo and snake populations of Village Creek and River Legacy Park.

I have seen snakes only a couple times on the Tandy Hills. And unlike Village Creek and River Legacy, the Tandy Hills snakes have not been of the rattlesnake, copperhead or water moccasin variety.

And I have never seen an armadillo foraging on the Tandy Hills. It seems like this would be a nice location for the little guys. Maybe some armadillos could be imported to keep the Tandy Hills Roadrunner company.