“We mourned the loss of the old tree, but knew a dozen of its progeny standing straight and stalwart on the sands had already taken over its job of woodmaking.”
The first two weeks of February, I returned to the St Edward’s retention pond. The weather was quite nice. Warm. They were breezy days, but by no means windy. It was so invigorating to see more life this time around. It was amazing. Instead of going around the pond to view it all, I sat and just watched. It was an incredibly satisfying experience to just sit, bask in the sun, and observe the life around and in the pond.
This month, I did not notice a big change in the foliage around the pond, but I did notice new plants popping up. There were Lilly pads popping up on the shore of the pond and flowers on the slopes of the bank. This was an exciting sign of the springtime to come as more and more the earth springs to life. New life popping up, while some still slumbered waiting for their own private springs. The trees were either still in green foliage with all of their leaves, or still dead and naked like many of deciduous trees around the bank.
In terms of animal life, it was absolutely exhilarating. I saw several new species that I did not encounter during January. On the side of the banks, I saw tadpoles move to and fro. They wiggled through the water along the shore as they moved for their meals. It was exhilarating to watch them, but it was admittedly hard to get a picture until I noticed a glittering can that contrasted heavily with their dark bodies. I once again heard the birds, and this time, I saw I saw several mallards on the water. During my second observation the following week on the delightful February 12th, I saw some turtles, one small and one large, around the size of a basketball, chilling out on a pile of reeds and mud forming an island on the pond. It was an exciting experience to witness the turtles, but they plopped into the water when I went to get closer for observation.
For the final two weeks, I heavily regretted electing to put off my Blunn Creek observations until then. The Friday afternoons that I have spent there are some of the most unpleasant times I have spent in Texas. Growing up in Pennsylvania, the cold is a fact of life, but five years removed, it was terribly chilling. My fingers cold and stiff, my feet like bricks, I spent the time out there looking for signs of animal life. I could hear birds cawing and chirping away, but I could not lay eyes on them. They were hidden in and beyond the trees. The rabbits and coyotes were nowhere to be found. It was a lonely time spent there this month. However, beauty was still present in the tranquil stillness of these cold observations. There were several trees that were beautifully flowering, Branches tipped with white flower that all together looked like a dense snowfall. It was absolutely splendid and provided the only warmth that I received on those cold days. I was saddened to see when I went that a tree had fallen and busted due to the weather beating on it relentlessly, but it is all part of the cycle of the trees.
