Finding A Can In The Coke On Sunday's HOT Tandy Hills With No Lizards

It was 92 degrees when I left air-conditioned comfort today, before noon, to head to the top of Mount Tandy to get a HEAT treatment in the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Sauna Steambath Area.

A semi-pleasant breeze blew some heat relief today. I did not get even close to the heatstroke zone.

I found a new Tandy Hills Guerrilla Art Installation today. It is located near the end of the trail that leads into the hills from View Street. Take the final left trail junction and you will find the Art Installation located on the left side of the trail, right before it heads west down a hill.

As you can see this new Art Installation has the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth in its background. The Art Installation consists of an antique Coca-Cola glass with a rusted can inside the glass.

I'm guessing the title for this Tandy Hills Art Installation is "Can in a Coke."

It is beginning to concern me that I have seen no reptiles on the Tandy Hills this summer. No snakes, no lizards. I have never seen all that many snakes on the hills, but last summer the Tandy Hills lizard population seemed well stocked. Including one encounter with a monster lizard about a foot long.

Was our harsh icy winter hard on cold-blooded creatures? By now, usually, I would have had at least one snake encounter at the Village Creek Natural Historic Area. So far all I've seen was a couple water snakes in the now almost dry Village Creek Bayou.

Now that you've got me thinking about it, I've not seen any geckos this summer. Usually I'll find geckos stuck to the exterior walls, or my door, sometimes dropping in for a visit.

Are the geckos the parakeet in the Dallas/Fort Worth mine? Dying from air pollution?

A Bright Texas Saturday Morning Walking With My Neighborhood Lizards

This morning my right knee felt the need to go on a nice, easy walk. So, I decided to do something I've rarely done.

As in, take a walk around my neighborhood.

I saw some wildlife. One of which was a little Chihuahua. It was a cute Chihuahua. It looked like that Chihuahua who recently won an Ugliest Dog in the World Contest, in a total travesty.

A short time after seeing the cute Chihuahua I came upon an equally cute pair of lizards. The two lizards were about 3 feet apart, facing each other on the trunk of the tree you see in the picture.

I don't know if this was some sort of territorial facedown. Or a mating ritual. I watched the 2 lizards for about 5 minutes and then gave up waiting for something to happen.

I have seen more lizards of various sizes this year than all my previous years in Texas. Do lizards thrive on the increase in air pollution?

There is a slight plague of wild plum trees in my neighborhood. I have seen locals picking the plums. Apparently they make good jam. But, it seems most of the plums end up on the ground, making for some careful walking to avoid getting shoes stuck with sticky stuff.

It's noon. Time to make some lemonade, BBQ some burgers, mash some spuds and cut up some watermelon.

Sharing Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Trails With Big Lizards

I did not make it on to the Tandy Hills til the late afternoon today. The wind has been in intermittent gust mode all day, again, today. I guess, even though it is warm, the Wind Chill Factor is still in play.

So, at 85 degrees, with winds in the 20-30 mph range, I don't know what the real temperature feels like. I do know, from first hand, eye witness evidence that the Wind Chill Factor was cold enough to cause cold-blooded reptiles to be a bit sluggish, like the Tandy Gator you see in the picture.

He, or she, seemed more interested in staying on the warm rocks than concerned with me getting down on the ground beside him/her to take pictures. As you can see the Tandy Gator was a very willing subject.

I do not know why I have no aversion to the lizard brand of reptile, while the snake brand of reptile unsettles me. I have never seen a snake slithering on the Tandy Hills. Lizards and snakes have the same reptilian head, yet that head looks cute, to me, on a lizard. That same type reptilian head, on someone like Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, does not look cute to me. It's quite a conundrum.

I was not long into hiking today, enjoying the jungle-like foliage along the new Tandy Highway, when I came to one of the Sanitary Sewer Manholes sporting an orange Dunce Cap.

Then I heard a voice ahead shout something like, "the video is stuck." This told me the Fort Worth Water Boys were back playing with their pipeline again. I wondered if they had now crossed Tandy Falls, with dire results for the Falls.

I decided to try and avoid a White Truck encounter, due to my well-earned neurosis regarding Confrontations with White Trucks, and come at Tandy Falls from the north, where I could approach in stealth mode.

A half hour later I was where I could see if the Tandy Falls had been destroyed. I was glad to see, so far, the Falls are fine. Dried up, but fine. The Water Boys were working on the manhole due south of Tandy Falls.

About a half hour later I was again walking down Tandy Highway, heading north, when I heard the rumble of the huge Water Truck. I quickly reversed direction to head up a trail off the highway, to get a vantage point to take a picture of the passing truck.

As you can see, the Water Truck is as big as a plus-sized RV. The jungle shakes as it rumbles by.

I have grown accustomed to sharing the Tandy Hills with heavy equipment. I like some of the results. It is pleasant now, when the trucks are gone, to walk the Tandy Highway, as it is heavily wooded, shady and cooler than the more exposed zones.

Today I noticed that someone has been pruning branches along the various trails. There was one section where I was pleased this had been done. I've been tempted to bring a pruner with me a time or two, but I never remember.

I'll likely have Giant Lizard nightmares tonight. So, I'm thinking I should go for an early evening swim to calm my frazzled nerves.

Wild Lizards & Dandelions In Fort Worth At Oakland Lake Park

Due to our recent bout of rain, my doctor ordered daily walk options were quite limited today. Some places closed due to flooding. Others due to mud. That left walking around Fosdic Lake at Oakland Lake Park as my only reasonable option.

That worked out fine, I was in a hurry and Fosdic Lake is the closest park to my abode, just a couple miles to the west.

I thought the rain would likely have a lot of Fosdic Lake wildflowers popped out and coloring up the place.

As is way too often the case, I was wrong.

All I saw were some scrawny pink things, that I don't think are legit wildflowers. And some yellow wildflowers that I've been told, more than once, are a weed called a Dandelion.

When I stepped out of my vehicle, today at Oakland Lake Park, the first thing I saw was a lizard going after one of the Dandelion pseudo-wildflowers. I like my lizards to be vegetarians rather than carnivores. I feel safer in their presence.

So, without too great a fear of getting a lizard bite, I got down on the ground and took a picture of the Lizard and the Dandelion.

Someone, insisting on anonymity, put going down to the Texas Gulf Coast, to South Padre Island, on my mind. Now it's all I think about. Til something else comes along.