Seeing old friends anew

Well, this title works in two ways, both of which are good news for me. First, I got to chat with a colleague from when I first moved to Texas and was volunteering with La Leche League. Jean was a fellow Leader I enjoyed working with and getting to know. We are still Facebook friends, but I hadn’t realized she’d become a Master Naturalist until I saw her name last night as achieving a milestone. It was great to find her this morning and get to catch up briefly. She’s still so gracious and lovely.

The only other highlight of the final morning of the Master Naturalist annual meeting was learning that our recertification pin will be a pecan tree. Everyone seemed fine with that choice.

After saying goodbye to everyone, I drove over to Mother Neff State Park for the final field trip. This park is another old friend, which I’ve visited for Master Naturalist trips and to go camping. What makes it new is that over ten years after a major flood, the lower parts of the park have reopened. I’d never seen all that area before!

The old buildings held up through the flooding very well. In face, the Rock Chapel, where we met, looks brand-new after being power washed.

I learned that so much silt was deposited that the mound the chapel building was constructed on is so longer there. The silt deposited by the flooding made it lower than ground level.

After our learning, our group went on what was supposed to be a guided nature discovery walk. However, keeping Master Naturalists together is one of those cat herding situations. It doesn’t work. Still we learned some new plants and interesting historical tidbits from the leaders and participants.

The trail is called the Lost Trail, since they found it after flood cleanup. It was interesting to see that many large trees survived and are thriving. Different trees are in different parts of the trail, because the terrain changes. Here’s some scenery.

Of course, I spent much of the time looking for plants and pollinators. Still, the woods were so pretty that I did remember to look at the whole woodland, too. I found many familiar flora and fauna, but there were a couple new ones for me.

I grabbed a few nice images of more familiar plants, insects, and a mammal friend. I hope you enjoy them!

Before heading home I took a long and beautiful back road out of the old part of the park. It followed the Leon River, revealed the lush floodplain, then climbed a limestone hill. The road ended at a quarry. It was a wonderful way to wind up a nature weekend!

Now I’m back with the family and menagerie.