Wildlife

City Gardens

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Debora

No school today, so the kids and I decided to visit the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. It’s the first time we’ve ventured back into downtown Fort Worth since Luke’s birthday trip to the Science Museum, mostly because I am intimidated by the DFW freeway system.

When I first moved here I said that if I ever mastered these freeways I would never fear any kind of city driving ever again. Now, seven weeks later, it’s more accurate to say that I’ve gotten really good at NOT using the freeways. I know all the ways to get where I need to go without ever touching an onramp. It’s sheer cowardice, but I’m okay with that.

It wouldn’t be so bad it you could just hop onto a freeway and get to where you want to be. But there are SO MANY freeways, and they come together and merge and entwine and separate like a series of snake orgies. One moment of inattention or confusion and you’re shunted off in the wrong direction on an unfamiliar roadway. The Fort Worth Botanic Garden is less than 20 miles from where we live, and to get there we had to navigate these four interchanges (it would have been five but I bypassed the first one):

I come from a town with one highway and no stoplights. Even driving to LA or San Diego was a fairly straightforward (albeit slow and crowded) business. This snarl of Metroplex freeways is alien to me.

But today we girded our loins and headed back into the heart of the city. And it was totally worth it, because the Botanic Gardens are amazing.

If you ever visit the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens and you wonder whether it’s worth paying extra to see the Japanese Garden, the answer is yes.

Yes it is.

All of the gardens are beautiful, but the Japanese Garden is stunning.

There are koi food dispensers along the paths, and whenever you get near the water a galloping horde of hopeful koi appears.

The Japanese Garden was our favorite, but all of the gardens are worth visiting.

I found this near the Conservatory. I think it’s a pretty good arboreal representation of the DFW freeway system:

When we had seen everything there is to see at the Botanic Gardens we still had a good chunk of afternoon left, so we decided to go check out the Water Gardens.

The Water Gardens are kind of surreal. They’re designed to resemble a wilderness of canyons, mountains, lakes and rivers, represented in stark, geometric lines.

The active pool is energetic and exciting.

The quiet pool evokes a sense of standing in a wooded canyon near a serene lake.

The aerated pool was the least interesting to us. I get what they were going for, but it didn’t really speak to us like the others did.

Got mildly lost on the way home, trying to navigate my Apple Maps directions in reverse. By then I was in too good a mood to be bothered by it, though. Eventually I will master these freeways, because the alternative is missing out on too many of the incredible things that the Metroplex has to offer.

I freaking love this place.

Categories: environment, Family, Gardening, Humor, kids, Life, Travel, Uncategorized, Wildlife | Tags: Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, Fort Worth Water Gardens | 3 Comments

Hikus Interruptus

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Debora

This morning the kids and I continued our Trinity River Project by covering this bit of trail:

We had planned to hike farther today, but the rain that was forecast for this afternoon rolled in early. I don’t mind hiking in a nice autumn rain, but my camera and phone do. I guess I need a waterproof case for them now that I’m not in the desert anymore.

Before we hit the trail we stopped in at River Legacy Science Center. It’s a great little place that teaches about the local wildlife and river systems, and has some of the river species on display.

Apparently there’s a plan in the works to connect all the trails and parks along the Trinity River from Fort Worth to Dallas, but it’s complicated by the fact that a lot of the land is privately owned. It’s a cool idea, though, and since the trails themselves are mostly already in place I don’t think it would be too disruptive. I hope it works out — how cool would it be to be able to ride your bike from Fort Worth to Dallas without ever having to touch a street?

Another cool thing we found at the Science Center was a map with tiny lights that show the course of each major Texas river when you press the corresponding button. Here’s the Trinity:

There’s a spot behind the building with steps leading down to a pond, and I think they must feed the local turtle population from there, because a lot of very hopeful-looking turtles popped their heads up when we came out.

A better view of of the pond:

We saw even more turtles once we got out onto the river trail.

We got as far as this strange, abandoned bridge…

…and then it started raining, and we turned back to save our gadgets.

It’s just as well; as we were driving to our next errand the skies opened up and unleashed the sort of deluge that makes you crawl along behind the next guy’s taillights and hope that everyone doesn’t get washed off the road. That wouldn’t have been fun to hike in at all.

The rain disrupted my weekend plans with Mahogany. I might have to play hooky Monday morning and slip out for a ride.

Categories: Animals, environment, Family, kids, Life, Trinity River Project, Weather, Wildlife | Tags: River Legacy Science Center, turtles | 1 Comment

Bobcats and Stuff

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Debora

Today the kids and I continued our hike-every-mile-of-the-Trinity-River-between-Ft-Worth-and-Dallas project by hiking this stretch of trail:

We haven’t figured out our pick-up and drop-off arrangements yet, so our distances are still limited by the fact that we have to backtrack every mile of trail that we cover. Still working on a solution for that.

Perfect weather for a hike, with just a touch of fall coolness in the air.

We met a guy on the trail, a retiree who volunteers his time to the parks and helps keep track of the local wildlife. He is so tuned into the bobcat population that he knows all of the individual bobcats who live in the area and is concerned that six of them have gone missing in the past few months. We ran into him twice, in different places on the trail, once on our way out and once on our way back, and each time there was a different young bobcat hanging out with him. First this pretty girl…

…and then this gorgeous boy:

We also saw a couple of armadillos. They are cuter in real life than I expected. They look like fat squirrels wearing armor.

Other wildlife sightings included a great blue heron…

…lots of pretty butterflies and about a gazillion grasshoppers everywhere.

It’s kind of amazing, the abundance of wildlife that thrives here in the middle of the Metroplex. When we first decided to move here I worried that the kids and I would miss the “great outdoors,” but that definitely hasn’t been an issue. City people really seem to appreciate their green spaces. Probably for the same reason the kids and I do — no matter how much you love all the benefits of civilization, sometimes you just need to walk in the woods and relax.

Categories: Animals, Cats, environment, Family, kids, Life, Trinity River Project, Wildlife | Tags: armadillos, bobcats, heron | Leave a comment

Mahogany’s Big Adventure

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Debora

So it turns out that relocating a horse from one state to another is kind of a big production. Just to transport a horse across a state line requires a vet check and a Coggins test (for equine infectious anemia; horses who test positive must be euthanized or quarantined for the rest of their lives) and a certificate of good health. Before the vet can inspect and test the horse and fill out the health certificate, he has to have the address that the horse will be moving to, the name of the person or company who will be transporting the horse, and the date on which the horse will be leaving the state of origin. I didn’t have any of that information when I left California, so I left Mahogany in the care of a friend while the kids and I made the move to Texas.

Finding a place to board her here was more of a challenge than I expected, but I finally found a beautiful place about ten miles from where we’re living. The facility’s full-service care is a bit out of my price range, but I only need space in their pasture. Mahogany would be miserable standing in a barn stall anyway.

The most affordable option for transporting her was to use a national company that basically does nothing but drive big rigs back and forth across the country, picking up and dropping off horses along the way. There was some uncertainty about whether there would be room for Mahogany on the next California run or whether she would have to wait another two weeks, but at the last minute another horse canceled out and Mahogany got his spot.

These big companies operate on a crazy schedule. They picked Mahogany up in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and dropped her off in the wee hours of this morning (Thursday). I guess that’s how they keep their prices low, though — just keep moving 24/7.

I went to see her this morning. She looks very content in her new pasture with her new herd of friends. An enormous draft horse seems to have taken her under his wing. She has a few minor scrapes and she looks a little dehydrated, but that’s not unusual after a long trip like that and then settling in with unfamiliar horses in an unfamiliar place.

I led her to the water trough and she drank deep; I’m not sure she had known where it was before I showed her. I don’t want to ride her until she’s had a chance to recover from the stress of the trip and get settled in, so instead I took her for a walk to explore the new digs. Her pasture borders the Trinity river, so we headed that way and walked along the riverbank for a while.

The river trail isn’t nearly as domesticated there as it is in the area that the kids and I hiked a couple weeks ago; it’s actually kind of overgrown and jungly. I unintentionally walked through a web that belonged to this beast:

The photo doesn’t do him justice; he was huge.

We also came across the skeleton of some unfortunate horse.

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him not, Mahogany.

The bugs are more plentiful here, and she’s still getting used to them. After we came back from our walk I watched her at liberty in her pasture for a while, and she did a lot of tail-swishing, self-grooming and fence-rubbing.

But she’s very plainly happy; other than mild annoyance at the insects she’s showing no signs of stress at all.

It’s a huge relief to finally have her here. It feels like being able to exhale after holding my breath for a month.

Categories: Animals, Horses, Life, Wildlife | Leave a comment

Sea World

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Debora

This isn’t a real post; I just want to share some pics I took at Sea World yesterday, and this is the most convenient place for me to display a stack of photos.

Orcas are always bigger in real life than I expect them to be. They are technically dolphins, not whales, so my brain always thinks of them as large-dolphin-size. And then I see them again in real life and remember that they are actually small-whale-size. Photos don’t really do them justice.

This was a belated birthday trip for Elizabeth, who turned 15 about three weeks ago. My little (hah, she’s taller than me) adrenaline junkie wanted to check out the new roller coaster, Manta. When we saw it in person Manta looked disappointingly tame — no loop-de-loops or steep drops or gimmicks, just a nice swoopy coaster. It’s unexpectedly fun to ride, though, we did it twice yesterday and loved it. (Actually there is a gimmick, but you don’t see it until the ride begins.)

The older coaster, “Journey to Atlantis,” is still the reigning favorite. Elizabeth’s bff Emma rode it once, Luke and I rode it twice and Elizabeth braved the chilly weather and splashy soakiness to ride it three times.

I love the Atlantis-themed aquariums in and around that ride. Really beautiful designs.

They’ve added a few new rides besides Manta since the last time we were there.

There’s also a new sea-turtle exhibit over by the Shark Encounter.

Sea turtles know how to boogie.

Can’t remember which aquarium this guy was in. He seemed to enjoy looking out as much as we enjoyed looking in.

I don’t know what these are, but I like them!

Petting the mantas.

Why do they call these sea lions? They look and sound like dogs…all they need is little corgi legs.

April in San Diego is gorgeous. Everything is in bloom.

Obligatory “smile big” pic. Can’t believe how tall Luke is getting.

That’s probably enough for one post. Happy Birthday, sweet girl. You make me so proud.

Addendum: A Sea World rep has asked if I would include a link to the park in this post. I don’t really do advertising on my blog, but I see no harm in this case — Sea World is pretty awesome and we love it.

So here is where you can check out the park’s attractions and visiting info.

(I have no affiliation with Sea World and I’m not being paid to add the link, it just seems like a good cause.)

Categories: Animals, Birthdays, Family, Friends, kids, Life, Love, Wildlife | Tags: Sea World | 3 Comments