Today is March 21st, and I am again finding myself exploring Blunn Creek and the Spring life it has to offer for environmental enthusiast. I start off by witnessing one of natures circle of life with a Honey Bee; collecting nectar for the hive and in the process is picking up un noticed pollen which has little barbs smaller than the eye can see to latch on to Bees and other insects. In order to spread their seeds for the next years Spring to come around and repeat and have been repeating this process for years creating a mutualistic relationship between flowering plants and bees. With the hill of Texas Bonnets and bees to cross pollinate it is most likely they will be coming back when the hint of Spring is among us next year.
As I walk into the trail of the preserve I witness blooms of flowers illuminating colors, flowering cactus, rats hiding behind the cactus, blue jays, squirrels, and a Texas tortoise I found off trail near the Creek. Seeing a tortoise was unique since I haven’t seen one in the wild in awhile, he was just slowly cruising through the preserve looking for food in the flourishing Spring grasses. I look back into February when one day I was walking the trail in 40 degree weather looking for a hint of Winter life. Now I can see life everywhere I turn. Ecological biodiversity of life unfolding right in front of my eyes. Incredible the importance of the Sun’s illuminating rays warming the and an amazing correlation the tilt of the Earth’s axis giving the seasons all life on the planet have to prepare for, enjoy, and survive. Which is what I am witnessing as I walk through the preserve. Its crazy how there is so much missed in life when living in a big city when nature is constantly surviving everyday as we do. Something so illuminating and magnificent in nature over looked when forgotten about in the rush of life. Waiting for the warming sun in Spring to begin.
It remind me of a verse in the book A Sand County Almanac when Leopold says about people who don’t enjoy the little things in life while not have traditional hobbies instead are keyed on the mere fashioning of a machine. He says, “A hobby is a defiance of the contemporary. It is an assertion of those permanent values which the momentary eddies of social evolution have contravened or over looked”. Now I understand the importance of the add saying, Unplug the TV and plug into nature.