Ralph's photos taken at  Medford Leas.

I have been remiss in not placing Ralphs photos of Medford Leas on this blog.   I started out recreating them here so that visitors would see them without the extra step of a link.   But I realize now it's best to just provide the links.

So this is catching up with the  Medford Leas posts on Ralph's Blog.


May 3, 2013  Spring Springs

March 3, 2013 Sprng Blooms, Rapids  and Reflections

February , 2013 -- Two posts:  February Snow -- Weren't you out in it this morning?  and a second post with a deer on the Red Trail behind Ralph's Bridlington home.

June 12, 2012  -- The Resurrected Meadow

April Showers Bring a High Tide

These photos and text are from Ralph Berglund's blog.
http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/april-showers-bring-a-high-tide/

One morning after the recent nor’easter I went camera-ing.  What had been the shoal waters of Sharp’s Walk (Run) had changed.  The tide had come in.

It was nice to see the swirling waters, and the rain, having washed away the dust, had made the greens more vivid.

Even more important there was a new set of wildflower varieties along the red trail.

The trails were still there but some required special “navigation”.

Just follow the Red Trail marks 

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

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.

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? 

Orange Trail

There were seven of us and the weather was perfect – sunny skies and a comfortable temperature.  We measured some big trees – two oak, two beech, and the “Rancocas Tree” – the tree that Hurricane Irene took down last summer.   “Big Trees” and “Rancocas Tree” are ongoing topics, discussed in the links provided.  We checked on the beaver damage at Yellow Trail 7 – another ongoing topic which will be photographed over time.   Ralph Berglund walked on past the end of Trail 7 in order to take these two lovely photographs across the Rancocas.  Earlier in the walk he had taken pictures of the walkers and of herb and Maggie measuring a 34-inch beech.

Two geese stand at the point where Sandy Run enters Rancocas Creek

The reflected trees are at Camp Dark Waters

l to r:  Maggie (hidden), John, Judy, Herb, Barbara, Vince

Maggie and Herb measure a big beech

Sunrise on Bridlington Woods

A Little Fog Before Breakfast

[copied from http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/a-little-fog-before-breakfast/]

A LITTLE FOG BEFORE BREAKFAST

December 5, 2011 — Ralph Berglund

Yes, I’m a fog fanatic.  My clock radio went off and I heard the announcer warn of fog.  I raised the blind and there it was so out I went.

 

There is a so quiet, enveloping mystery to fog.  

 

A damp bench waits to give rest and a moment of contemplation.   

 

I was early enough that they hadn’t yet turned off the campus lights.  This one’s at the entrance.

Clouds were nestled in amongst the trees. 

Meandering at Medford Leas

[copied from http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/meandering-at-medford-leas/]

MEANDERING AT MEDFORD LEAS

November 27, 2011 — Ralph Berglund

There are about five miles of woodland trails on our 165+ acre campus and I thought I’d better get started.  Saturday was a beautiful day so I tried a one mile section.  I flushed three white tail deer and encountered squishy reminders that there is an adjacent flood plain.

 

Sharp’s Run borders the south edge of the campus on its way to the southwest branch of Rancocas Creek.  During last week’s rain the Run had risen enough to flood the entrance from Route 70, closing it  for a while.  The bridge above was undoubtedly under water. 

For part of the trail I found myself on a steep-sided  embankment well above the flood plain.  Well, says the railroader, this is not a natural formation;  there must have been a railroad through here.  Sure enough, the 5.95 mile Mount Holly, Lumberton, and Medford Railroad served these communities and interchanged at Medford with the Camden and Atlantic (City) Railroad, ca 1870. 

Anyway, the leaves above are one of the few spots of color remaining in the woods as we enter the unsaturated gray-brown, bare branch season. But, returning on a campus paved road there was an attractive colorful planting of winter pansies in front of drying grass plumes. 

The unusual black-stemmed plant is a night-blooming globus electricus. 

And a campus cluster of red berry provided a bright spot.

 

http://bergiesplace.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/frigid-forsythe/

Ralph Berglund's Meandering at ML

Ralph, who is a wonderful photographer, has a blog on which he sometimes posts photos of the ML arboretum.   This post is a copy of  Ralph's "Meandering at ML" post  includes the photo of the bridge and tells about his walk on the RR trail above Sharp's Run.  His post "A Little Fog Before Breakfast" includes an early morning view of a section of the Red Trail in the area between  Bridlington Way North and Wilkins Station Road.

MEANDERING AT MEDFORD LEAS

November 27, 2011 — Ralph Berglund

There are about five miles of woodland trails on our 165+ acre campus and I thought I’d better get started.  Saturday was a beautiful day so I tried a one mile section.  I flushed three white tail deer and encountered squishy reminders that there is an adjacent flood plain.

Sharp’s Run borders the south edge of the campus on its way to the southwest branch of Rancocas Creek.  During last week’s rain the Run had risen enough to flood the entrance from Route 70, closing it  for a while.  The bridge above was undoubtedly under water. 

 

For part of the trail I found myself on a steep-sided  embankment well above the flood plain.  Well, says the railroader, this is not a natural formation;  there must have been a railroad through here.  Sure enough, the 5.95 mile Mount Holly, Lumberton, and Medford Railroad served these communities and interchanged at Medford with the Camden and Atlantic (City) Railroad, ca 1870. 

Anyway, the leaves above are one of the few spots of color remaining in the woods as we enter the unsaturated gray-brown, bare branch season. But, returning on a campus paved road there was an attractive colorful planting of winter pansies in front of drying grass plumes. 

 

The unusual black-stemmed plant is a night-blooming globus electricus. 

And a campus cluster of red berry provided a bright spot.