trees

Evening Walk

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Debora

The weather is turning to fall, and the trails are beckoning.

When I was working at Cheddar’s, a coworker told me that I should check out the trails at Bob Eden Park. Thursday afternoon, the kids and I finally got a chance to do that. Turns out Bob Eden Park is just the first in a charming string of parks connected by trails that follow Little Bear Creek. We have explored bits of that creek before, but this section was new to us. Here is the part that we covered on Thursday:

The trails are sort of a continuation of the ones I wrote about in this post, in the sense that they follow the same line of power poles for a while. Really they’re more of a sequel, though, since there is no direct footpath connecting the two areas.

So, Bob Eden Park.

It has sand volleyball…

…a playground…

…and wide open spaces.

It connects to Little Bear Creek Community Park…

…which has tennis courts…

…a picnic pavilion and restroom facilities…

…and more wide open spaces.

At this point the trail forks. We chose the left fork, but we’ll probably go back and explore the right fork at some point. The trail we followed wandered along between the creek and a couple of different roads.

Eventually we came to McCormick Park.

It has a nice gazebo…

…a playground…

…and a handy directory of the trails.

Also, this snake painted on a log:

A little farther along we found another gazebo…

…another playground…

…and this sign, which was tall and hard to photograph.

It says, “The Preserve at McCormick Park,” referencing features such as a bird-watching area and a historic grove.

We continued on…

…but by the time we got to the lake the sun was setting…

…so we headed back.

This is a wonderful trail system connecting some really lovely park areas. We will definitely be back to explore the rest of it.

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, environment, Family, kids, Life, trees, Weather | Tags: Bob Eden Park, Little Bear Creek, McCormick Park | Leave a comment

Churrasco and Trinity Park

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Debora

Over the past three or four months I’ve been easing back into the dating pool. Nothing serious yet, just kind of testing the waters with a few different guys. Today I had a really nice first date with a fellow who wanted to introduce me to the hedonistic pleasures of the churrascaria. We went to Rafain Brazilian Steakhouse, where I enjoyed one of the most delicious meals I have ever eaten, and afterward he asked if I’d like to go for a walk. Of course the answer to that question is always yes, so he drove us to Trinity Park, which was another first for me.

So then I had to tell him about my park collection and take pictures of everything while we walked. I am nothing if not committed to my pointless hobbies.

So…Trinity Park.

I got pics of all three signs, just to make it extra official.

As the name suggests, this urban park lies along a very tame and manicured section of the Trinity River.

It has a decent-sized playground…

…one of those nifty bike-rental stations that are all over Fort Worth…

…and apparently there is a miniature railroad that transports passengers between Trinity Park and nearby Forest Park.

Also, the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens are right across the street! I have posted before about how awesome those are.

Trinity Park has all of the usual park amenities, like benches and picnic tables and gazebos and a duck pond next to the miniature train station. All in all, I would describe this park as delightful.

The company was very enjoyable too. My weakness is good conversation, and it’s rare to find someone who likes to talk as much as I do. He pleasantly blew my mind at one point when he described vegetable seeds as “data packets.” We were discussing the logistics of illegally downloading an organic pizza.

Today was a good day.

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, food, Gardening, Life, trees | Tags: Rafain Brazilian Steakhouse, Trinity Park | 3 Comments

Mallard Cove Park

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Debora

I was out running errands yesterday and pulled over to snap a pic of the Mallard Cove Park sign for my “collection.” This is the park I posted pics of near the end of this spring’s rains, when its two ponds were flooded and a third pond had appeared. I haven’t been there since those pics were taken, so I don’t know if the new pond is still there.

The official address is on Shadow Grass Ave, but it’s easier to access the park from Randol Mill Rd via Trinity Ct. To get to it from Shadow Grass Ave you have to drive into a little housing tract and then park in front of someone’s house. If you take Trinity Ct, there’s a little parking area and a gazebo near the park’s alternate entrance.

It’s not the prettiest park in the Metroplex, but it’s a great place to jog, walk your dog, teach your kid to ride a bike or just get out in the fresh air and frolic. I like to ride Mahogany down there sometimes.

A big flat-topped rock sits near one of the ponds, with smaller flat-topped rocks placed around it to create a table-and-chairs effect that I like a lot.

I introduced my friend Mendy and her daughter Lawren to the park last winter. Here they are standing on the table-rock.

In summary: Mallard Cove Park is unexceptional as far as looks and facilities go, but it’s got two (maybe three) ponds, plenty of wide-open spaces to wander around in, a nice gazebo near the parking area and a pretty stone “table” down under the trees. It would be a great place for a serious game of frisbee.

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, environment, Friends, Horses, Life, trail rides, trees | Tags: Mallard Cove Park | Leave a comment

Summertime Fun

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Debora

The rain eventually stopped, and the Texas summer arrived in all its sweltering glory. Luke flew off to California for his four-week visit with his dad. We had all learned our lesson last year about not moping around during these apart times, so Elizabeth and I kept ourselves entertained in his absence.

We discovered Founders’ Plaza, which is a really pleasant little park with a good view of DFW Airport and the adjacent UPS Hub. It’s a nice place to relax, watch planes land and listen to the piped-in live dialog from the airport’s radio control tower. We bring lunch or ice cream and make it a picnic.

Then Luke came back, and Elizabeth went to California. Other than going to see Inside Out, I don’t remember Luke and I doing a whole lot while she was gone. We did get our first sight of Texas fireflies, while we were walking in a park at dusk near a lake. I didn’t have my camera with me though, just my iPad, and that doesn’t take great pics in low light. I did manage to get one halfway decent shot – can you see the firefly?

I have been promising Luke for ages that I would take him to see the Dallas Heritage Village, so we finally made plans to go about a week after Elizabeth got back from California. Unfortunately, when we got there we found a locked gate and a sign saying that the Village was closed for maintenence and would reopen in September. Guess I should have taken a closer look at that website.

Anyway, there we were in Dallas, so we decided to check out the Botanical Gardens instead. That turned out to be a solid choice. The place is gorgeous, and during the month of August the ticket price is only a dollar per person, probably because it’s not the flashiest time of year and it’s like 150º outside. Some of the plants did seem to be struggling in the heat. But there is plently of shade, and lots of water.

There is a LOT of water. Streams and fountains and waterfalls everywhere.

This was my favorite:

There’s lots of statuary too, and most of it seems to involve nudity or sensual themes.

There’s just something about a garden that makes you want to run around naked, I guess.

After we left the Botanical Gardens, we investigated a little spot called Dragon Park that I’d seen mentioned on a website. It really is a tiny little place, but pretty and interesting.

And Monday we took Luke to see Founders’ Plaza for the first time.

And that’s about it for the summer fun. School starts back up in a couple of weeks. As for my job-related adventures…that’s probably a subject for its own post. Which I will write soon. Probably.

Categories: Animals, Artwork, Dragons, environment, Family, Horses, kids, Life, Love, trees, Weather | Tags: Dallas Botanical Garden, Dallas Heritage Village, Dragon Park, Founders' Plaza | Leave a comment

So. Much. Rain.

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Debora

May 2015 was the wettest month in recorded history for Texas, by a wide margin. DFW got an absurd amount of rain, 16.96 inches in May alone and 25.05 inches from March through May. It just rained and rained and rained.

So you can imagine my excitement when I got clear skies and sunshine for my day off work yesterday. The school year just ended on Friday, so the kids and I headed out to get stuff done and enjoy the glorious weather.

I had to pay up Mahogany’s board for June, so that was one of our stops.

The pasture looks great, and the wildflowers are still in bloom.

We decided to hike back to the Trinity River and see how full it was. Just getting to it turned out to be an adventure. A back pasture had become a lake, and we had to wade through one edge of it since it extended past the fence on both sides.

Then we crossed a nice stretch of high ground, and then we came to the woods and those were flooded too.

We slogged through that, and finally came to the bank of the Trinity.

Okay, just for context, here is an old pic of how the Trinity usually looks…

…and a pic I took yesterday from the same spot:

Here’s another old shot, same bank but facing the other way…

…and here’s one from that angle that I took yesterday:

The river was unrecognizable. As soon as we saw it, we immediately made plans to go tubing on it this summer.

On the way back, Elizabeth dropped her phone in the flooded woods and then spent like ten panicky minutes dredging around for it in the murky water.

I was waiting for her on dry ground, but when she couldn’t find her phone and refused to leave without it, I waded back in to help her look. Eventually we found it, long after I had given up any hope of it surviving the mishap. Miraculously, it took no apparent damage at all. She turned it back on the instant she found it, still dripping wet, and it started right up.

Luke’s phone got a little damp last week from being in his pocket while he walked home from school in the rain, and it flatlined and had to be replaced. Elizabeth’s phone spent somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes submerged in two feet of muddy floodwater and just shrugged it off. Technology is weird.

The sunshine felt really good, so our next stop was a nearby park. I wanted to see what the ponds looked like after all the rain.

This pond is brand new; it wasn’t there before:

The regular ponds had overflowed their banks.

This stand of trees usually marks the border between the two ponds, where there’s a sort of concrete bridge that I like to cross on Mahogany. Yesterday I couldn’t even see the bridge.

As of this writing, there’s no more rain in the forecast. I am ridiculously happy about that. I mean, we definitely needed the rain that we got, but enough is enough. Hooray for sunshine.

Categories: Animals, environment, Family, Horses, kids, Life, trees, Weather | Tags: Texas rainfall 2015 | Leave a comment