and one other thing, from the weekend that was...

The final belated entry from all the stuff that occurred last weekend is a sort of excursion I made on Saturday afternoon. I had a call to go in to work on Saturday morning, so I was on the clock from 8:00 till 3:00. After I got off, I called my local cohort, who is readily persuaded to go places with me she would otherwise never think to go. I'd read info. in the Sunday paper about exotic native lily plants blooming up in Harris County for a limited time. The man who owns the property where the plants are located contacted the paper to issue an open invitation to area residents who would like to make the trip out into the woods to come and view the amazing plants, during the short time they would be in full bloom.

He is a former science teacher at a school here, and I believe his family has owned this property for many years. I think I recall reading about him deeding ownership, upon death, to the Nature Conservancy with some sort of protective convenant so the rare, possibly endangered lily plants will be protected in the future. They are located in a creek, with lots of rocky shoals, in a nearly inacessible densely wooded area. But I can see that a person who would like to remove the plants for re-sale, and personal gain would be willing to make the effort to dig them out of the fast flowing, icy waters of the creek. I hope that his willingness to relinquish his ownership, and putting the property into the hands of the environmental organization will be sufficient to see that these amazing plants will continue to put on a remarkable show every spring. He actually lives on the property, near the creek, so we can assume they are well protected now, but anything could happen if this area were not actively populated with people who would closely watch for vandalism, and prevent future development.

I remember going up to this site many years ago, with young children, who might recall being roped into a field trip/nature experience. It was about this time of year, and they were probably eight or ten years old, mostly still young enough to think it would be interesting, or maybe just not old enough to disagree with the bee I had in my bonnet for wandering off into the woods. We got directions to go, and loaded up. When we got out there, in the middle of Nowhere, the man had some old, dirty, cold, wet, clammy, loaner shoes visitors could borrow. When the decision is to get your own shoes muddy and wet, or put on 'strange' shoes on your bare feet- it's a tough call. But as I remember it, we put them on, and waded in the chilly water for closer inspection of the masses of blooming lily plants. The rocks when wet were remarkably slick, and the water fast running, and profoundly cold - but I don't recall any catastrophe occurring, so it might not be as memorable to the younger set as I can clearly recall taking them on an excursion into the wilds of Harris County in search of the brillant white lilies blooming out in the middle of the creek. It's called the Cahaba lily, or rocky shoals spider lily. Google it up!