Clear Springs at the End of the Day

 
It turned into a truly gorgeous day, and I was wondering if I could talk myself into going for a walk when I got home from the vendor event, because I'd been up since 4 am, and knew I'd probably just want to crash.

Then I remembered there is a lovely little nature preserve just off the interstate on my way home. It's at Fruitvale Road, north of Muskegon. I've been there a couple of times before, and thought I remembered the vegetation as being a lot more weedy. Maybe they've been doing some work to clear non-native plants. It's a nice shady place to walk on a hot day. I walked for an hour and did almost all the trails. The one drawback is that it's near US 31, so you really can't get away from the traffic noise anywhere.

I walked almost all the trails today, including two I haven't done before (this is my third visit). This is a big old beech tree on the Rim Trail.


The Canada Mayflower, Maianthemum canadense, is starting to bloom.



There were actually a number of large trees in the property. This is a really big red maple.


Carleton Creek is in the center of the preserve, and there used to be a fish hatchery there. A small dam keeps one portion of the creek ponded up a bit. It's been a cool, shady, dark green space every time I've been there.



Here's another picture of Gaywings, looking very perky. Those two toothed leaves in front belong to something else, however.



The vendor event went pretty well. Didn't sell a lot, but didn't lose money. Here are a couple of free pictures from the school yard.

The magnolia tree was just about done blooming, but a couple of blossoms were still intact.



And although I'm not a huge fan of ornamental crabapples, I do like these dark ones.



Now, I'm clean and fed and plan to relax for the evening.

	See Clear Springs
if you like this blog, click