Easterly Winds

Bear no good, and this time I suspect that that's very true. The sky is beyond wicked looking right now, and it's started to rain a bit. I keep expecting to hear the thunderous roar of locusts, we are long over due for said invasion.

This is

what makes the heat of summer bearable!

Water Everywhere

There's a creek or two that runs through the park down into the Des Moines River. I had a blast taking pics of the rocks in the water; lots of minnows in the water. Another reason for going down early in the morning is the water isnt' being disturbed by all the general public swimming and playing in the streams.

The land of

These are the things that faierey tales are made of. Is it a horses head, an alligator, an mythological beast of times past?

What is it?

Found this tree out at Ledges, I'm not sure what kind of tree it is, looks very interesting though. I'm wondering if it's some sort of fruit in those papery husks. There were a lot of these trees out there, growing at the base of the limestone cliffs. They were very spindly, no more than 12-15 feet tall.

Townie

Living in town is making me soft, I'm out of tune with nature and I truly dislike this. Its time to get the house done and on the market. I need nature, probably more than it needs me, but I definately need to be out of town!

Deer at Ledges

I'm hoping that we will have more time to explore the park come September. The place is loaded with deer, can't wait for deer season to open up. I'm hoping to get a few hides to brain tan this year.

I don't know if you can see the deer on the hillside or not. John spotted them while I was photographing tree snails that were laying on the trail.

I've decided that we need to go out early in the morning when the park is relatively quite, and the wildlife is less dormant. The place was packed with people today, the birds were fairly quite.

Ledges State Park

Bee Balm

We went to Ledges State Park today, the hottest day of the summer yet, and I took 229 pictures with my digital camera. This lovely bee balm was along the ditches, I tried to get the bees but they were uncooperative.

I think we are going out to the prairie here in an hour so I can take more pics of the flowers.