Keeping Tristen occupied..............

Tristen is a busy little boy. He is so full of energy. It's been so hard being cooped up all winter and such a long winter it was.
So first chance we have had we were off into the woods. He can run to his hearts content. He did laps I think, running back and forth. Laura and I were tired out by the end of our first walk.
We tried a new trail that we had not been on before. Not sure what to expect because it was close to the big stores like Walmart and Home Depot. We went to the trail head and parked. The map said there was a one mile loop so we chose that one.


We started out, he at a sprint, we were less ambitious. Its been a long winter and we are stiff. Tristen ran and ran



The utter joy of freedom

This was an amazingly diverse trail. It ran through woods and meadows, water meadows and swamps. While in the woodlands we found a dead bumble bee. Tristen was able to see it close up and we have it a funeral of sorts. We rested him on a Dandelion Tristen got to feel the bark on the trees, to see the difference in texture. Maybe later to be able to recognize them.


Cedar Swamps are full of interesting things. They had boardwalks for us to walk on to get through the mud and mire. In there the roots of the trees made Fairy houses. I had shown him an acorn cap (A fairy hat) and some leaf skeletons (Fairy wings) its a magical place if you allow it to be.



He was intriged by the water creatures who could walk on water. He wished he could do that. We found a toad, he was hard to see in the leaves, the same colour. He was not happy to be captured and petted by a little boy but he went on his way in safety

We moved on to meadow land. By now rather confused. The trail markers were very confusing, they didn't seem to go where we thought they should. In any case we were not where we needed to be. This strip of land is between two roads and is on a hill that ends on Cass st. We found ourselves at the old Sabin School grounds, no longer in use. So we had ended up in the wrong place. We went back to the last trail marker,and tried another direction. At least I do have a good sense of direction and knew where we needed to be, it was a question of HOW.
Meanwhile we found some mushrooms.

The Morel mushroom is much sought after this time of year. We looked for some the other day with no luck. This day we found them without looking. Enough for Gerry to enjoy a nice snack.

I sent Laura and Tristen up the hill to recon. There were apartments up there. Not the ones we expected though. SO now what.

OK forget the dang trail markers follow me. Good grief.

Some of the wild flowers


I wish I could dig up a few of these lovelies. This is a Jack in the Pulpit

Anyway we found our way back just fine but we took longer than expected. Next time we must take a watch haha

I loved the shapes of the tree roots in the Cedar swamps.

There are so many things in the woods that are fascinating and as Tristen gets older I am sure we will try to have him become a little more interested in the names of these things, learn as Hiawatha the names of all the birds and beasts and how they live. This is after all Hiawatha country.

LInking up with Little Red House Mosaic Monday