The Prairie Princess is home today, between jobs and waiting for the Native Prairie job to begin. She and I, both needing a inoculation of spring in Minnesota's great outdoors, went to the state park inside the beltway, Fort Snelling State Park. It's the most visited of all of Minnesota's state parks - because it's very handy to the residents of the Twin Cities. There are wild creatures and wild flowers and a place where two big rivers merge. The prettiest flowers today were those little tiny blue violets, so tiny that they're hard to photograph. There were some others - creeping charlie and garlic mustard - but nothing very dramatic.
But I got a picture of the Princess in her favorite hollow tree. The tree always reminds me of Christopher Robin and his buddy, Winnie the Pooh. I used to read some of those stories to this adult woman, my daughter, who also remembers the stories. She's also my resident expert for the names of wild flowers and plants. We walked the length of Pike Island, looking for the herd of deer that reside there, without any luck. Just after we crossed the bridge off the island, we encountered three yearling deer on the path and in a thicket nearby. I took no pictures of them. I'm not sure why. I was within about 25 feet of one and he showed no fear. I guess they're pretty much used to hikers in the park.
The most interesting of the animals encountered today, and I do have a picture, was a wild turkey who was crossing St Clair Avenue, about three short blocks from the homestead. It was alone and not familiar with city traffic patterns. A stream of cars slowed to a crawl to allow the bird to escape transformation to ex-bird. The Princess took the photo with my camera as I tried to turn onto St Clair from Milton. He escaped unscathed, but he needs to get out of town.
After my trek in the wild, I'm going to take a shower and look for deer ticks. It's the season, you know.
1 comment:
That is a great photo of the Princess in the tree. That turkey's days are likely numbered.
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