Tuesday, Wednesday

Thin-barked pine

An inspiration for military camouflage?

Going back in time a bit, on Tuesday my neighbor Vel invited me to join her for a visit to Denver's Botanic Gardens. Fran had also been invited, but begged off due to wedding prep and her rib injury. We wandered around for four hours and still didn't cover every part of the grounds, and saw several areas new to both of us.

Wednesday I took my usual wetlands walk, hitting an area that Vel had mentioned the day before. She had described a series of burn areas in the fields between tree stands. There were four burns none of which seemed to have jumped the paths between them. The path verges were not burned. It looks like arson to me.

Box turtle

Walking along the creek I nearly stumbled on this little guy. Not so little, really, he was four inches long. After taking some pictures I moved him off the path nearer to the creek figuring he'd be a little less visible to predators.