Being With Friends

I'm so far behind on this blog.  This place holder is for the Trail Walk we did with the videographers who are making a documentary "Being With Friends."

April Showers Bring a High Tide

saving space here to copy
http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/april-showers-bring-a-high-tide/

April 21 - Jane's Wildflower Walk

This is a placeholder for today's walk.

Sharp's Run in April

These photos were taken on April 9 when I scouted my April 16 walk.   The post will be edited after the walk happens.  

Sharp's run goes under Medford Leas Way.
When it floods, the gate is closed. 

The trail goes between these "trees" which are actually
branches of the fallen tree which is on the ground to  the left

The trail group maintains plank bridges on Medford Leas trails.

Steps were added by trail group volunteers.

Two culverts carry Sharp's Run under the railroad embankment

There were white, purple and lavender violets

Spring Cress

Ralph's photo of the Spring Cress is better.

On the Trails

This post is a copy of Ralph's April 11 post at 

http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/on-the-trails/ 

April 11, 2012 — Ralph Berglund
I spent about an hour last Sunday morning on the trails along Sharp’s Run at Medford Leas, enjoying seeing the awakening of plants and trees.  It’s nice to see the feathery foliage emerging on the trees but our lack of rain shows in the shallow Sharp’s Run.

Here’s a Redbud.  It wasn’t on the trails; it’s along the walk in front of the Estaugh Building but it was too pretty against a cloud pattern of branches to be left out.

Back on the Red Trail here’s a crab apple that I photographed last week and, below, the same branch last Sunday.  This is the trail where I watch a local walk her several exhuberant Jack Russell terriers and her collie most mornings.  Last month one morning I watched five deer move smartly down this trail, and last week a Red Fox crossed my grass and headed for the trail.

The red trail crabapple (see above) a week later

There are lots of wildflowers happy to be here along the Yellow Trail.  Here are two for whose names I’m in debt to Maggie Heineman.

Spring Beauty

Spring Cress  - Cardamine Bulbosa

April 7 - "A Good One"

Jane's sign announcing the April 7 walk said "It's a Good One."    It was.   This is a placeholder for the photos and story -  lots of participants and lots of wildflowers.

Ducks in the Driveway

If the entire campus is an Arboretum, then this counts.

Test Drive

I'ts a long story; this is the short version, followed by photos. 

Sally, who uses an electric wheelchair, asked for a Nature Walk for people like herself, one where scooters and wheelchairs could be used. Okay.  So o I scouted the route on  Wednesday, March 28.  My planned route would avoid the  two trees that were so close together that a scooter cannot  pass.    I took  photos, some of them are shown below.

 Having planned a workable route,  I was confident that today's test drive would go well.   It did start well.  Up the macadam path, past the sculptures and the bat house.  The cherry trees were no longer in full bloom but the tea crab apples were.   Cathedral Trail was great.  But then, somehow, we were at  the two trees too close together.  Oh oh!, I did something wrong! Okay, we'll just cut across the grass toward the road.  Everything was going well -- until -- I had the bright idea of taking a photo of Sally up close to the beehives.   Very bad idea.   No problem getting there, but... after the photo shoot  the wheelchair was stuck. Really stuck.  It had sunk down into the pine needles and the wheels would spin like a car stuck on snow.   After about 10 minutes of struggle -- trying to lift, trying to put sticks under the wheels to get traction,  Sally was ready to call for help.  But not me.   Sally patiently waited while I continued to try one thing and then another (here's where the story could very get long).  Finally reason prevailed -- at least one of us was reasonable.  Sally phoned the desk, explained our situation and location, and within  a few minutes Wolosin and his sidekick were there.  Jim picked up the extremely heavy wheelchair; he moved it around and we were free!  I should have taken pictures of that .   It was HEAVY!    


Fearlessly (or foolishly),  I intend to revisit the route.  Plan it again and have another test drive, this time with a resident driving a scooter. Sally thinks I should also bring along a strong man who can lift. 

March 28, Macadam path to Rushmore

April 2, beehives at the edge of the lawn and brilliant tea crabapple in full bloom, far right 

March 28, same crab apples trees, just starting 

March 28 - statue in front of cherry trees

 =

March 28, cherry trees in full bloom,  April 2 they were past bloom

The bat house, March 28

Three Graces, March 28, 2012

Original color - 2002

Interesting Carved log

March 28 -- near the eastern entrance to Cathedral Trail

April 2, Sally driving on Cathedral Trail 

March 28, Cathedral Trail 

April 2, Trees too close - We're in the wrong place

Sally up close to the hives -- after that she was stuck and there was no more picture taking. 

A SPRING MORNING ALONG A TRAIL AT MEDFORD LEAS

This morning Ralph sent four new photos.    They aren't from his photo journal, so there's no text.

March 26 - After the Burn

Liz K and Barbara H and I went for an "After the Burn" walk to the RR bank and to the meadow.   The big surprise -- actually the big shock was seeing what looked to me like mugwort.   I'm not possitive, but I'm afraid that's what this is.   

The bench is in the foreground so you know where to look

Here's a closeup

There's a lot of it 

We also discovered that it's somewhat dangerous to walk through the meadow.  

It's been burned and mowed but there are short stiff sticks throughout the meadow

that are hard to see and easy to trip on.   

The next two photos show greenbrier growing on  trees in front of two large beautiful oaks --  This is alongside Trail 16.   Bob Wells pointed this out on an earlier walk -- that the vines are obstructing the view of the oaks. 

The next photo shows vines covering the ground -- in a few weeks they will be covering the small trees nearby.   These trees are in the meadow close to trail 16.   My guess is that both the vines and the trees should be removed.

The bank above the RR trail has many burned branches and trees.    Barbara H says she saw the men with the flame throwers working along this bank.  So apparently the fire did not jump Trail 16, the burn of the RR Trail bank was deliberate.   I'm no expert, but it seems to me that there's no need to remove any of the burned trees or limbs.        I did not photograph the singed trees in the meadow.  They are so obvious, there's no need to point them out.   Some of them might require pruning.  Here's a shot of the RR bank.

Spring on the Medford Campus

Today Ralph Berglund posted a number of beautiful photographs of the Medford Campus on his photo journal. 
http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/springs-blouse-slips-alluringly-off-of-her-shoulder/


These photos and the text have been copied from the post linked above.   The title of Ralph's post is
Spring's blouse slips alluringly off of her shoulder. 

"Of course I’m writing about spring flowers gradually appearing.   Whatever were you thinking? 
As I raised the blinds yesterday morning this  tree called to me in the slight fog.  Where did all of those white blossoms come from so suddenly?

Then, on the adjacent trail I came across this night’s work showing the effects of the fog.  It looks as though all that work yielded only a few bits of wet chaff.   

Elsewhere on the campus there are lots of splashes of naturalized Narcissi which please the eye and anchor other pleasant woodland scenes. 

Not much farther afield was this lovely tree, its blossoms so pretty and so short-lived.  I’ve always known these as Tulip trees but our arboretum sign calls them Magnolias.  Indeed, they’re closer to Magnolias than to the Lily (tulips) family.

A few days earlier I interrupted these two taking in a morning on the south branch of the Rancocas. 



Yes, clearly spring is movin’ in and isn’t that a nice thing to know each morning?