A Creeklet Excursion- Revisited

Last winter, Maggie and I walked to the headwaters of the little cemetery creek, and I said that I might take you back there in the summer. We did it today. It wasn't a stellar adventure, but it was someplace slightly different.

First we walked to the section of cemetery that is across the highway. On that side of the road the creek forms a bit of a pond. Sadly, the water moves so slowly that it's mostly scummy in the summer. There were a few ducks there, but they flew away before I realized they were there. Sorry, no duck pictures today. The pond holds still better.



The very next thing I learned about the creek on the other side of the road is that I shouldn't adventure there in the summer. No, no, no. We could not escape. There was poison ivy everywhere. Stay tuned for the continuation of that story.



In the winter, the creek looked clean and inviting. Now, in September, it was just a muddy trickle. I could have been more interested in exploring, except for the PI everywhere. This picture is of the same section as in part 2 of the winter excursion (links at end). By now I was resigned to a full clean up later, but it still makes me feel creepy to walk through the three-leaved menace.



I crossed the creek and walked around in a red pine plantation for a few minutes, then came back to the creek and the cattail wetland that must be the headwaters. It was quite dry at this time of year. The ground was soggy, but not really pond-like, so I poked around there for a few minutes, but it was pretty much cattails and berry bushes. Not exactly fun to walk through.



Then we pushed through a bunch more berry bushes, and I pulled the thorns out of my pants. Then we pushed through a bunch of autumn olive (you may recall that's on the bad plant list). Then we got into a more open field, back to the cemetery and home.

Next item on the agenda- wash everything. I took a hose to Maggie, the leash, and to my feet. Maggie was surprised, but she didn't get as upset as I thought she would. My shoes are drying in the kitchen. Next it was down to the laundry room. There I did the poison ivy strip into the washer, and then into the shower. I've made it through this season with only one case of PI in the spring. I wouldn't mind keeping it that way. We'll see.

I see that this post gives the longer view than usual, and not so much of the details. Actually nature looks mostly like this. You have to go hunting for those details. I did see a couple of interesting plants (besides the PI). I'll show you tomorrow.

	See A Creeklet Excursion- Part 1 See A Creeklet Excursion- Part 2
if you like this blog, click the +1