A Rainy Spring



Kellen and Tessa looking out at Government Canyon

We are enjoying another rainy morning here in the ‘Canyon’ with birds singing and the smell of blooming agarita wafting through the open windows.  The rain is gentle and sporadic at the moment but the predictions are for thunderstorms this afternoon.  It’s a good day to be ‘off duty.’

 

Golden-eye phlox, an early spring flower

 

Since my previous two blog posts I have had to revise my thoughts about the weather and an early spring.  Although there have been some really nice days, we have had a lot of cool, cloudy and rainy ones.  Lately the trails have been muddy and even closed many days to protect both the natural area (park) and the people.  We haven’t been hiking as much because of the trail closures and are often too busy with our park duties on days that we could hike.  Oh well, it is hard to begrudge rain when we all know a long hot summer is ahead.  And the rain should make the wildflowers beautiful once the sun is out regularly and things start to warm.

 

My brother Tim and his wife Linda have a new puppy 
Gigi and Maya are already good buddies

I don’t want to make it sound like we haven’t had any fun.  That absolutely is not true.  We’ve enjoyed our duties at the state natural area and have made friends with some of the other volunteers.  Not all of the interpretive hikes for school children were ‘rained out,’ so we’ve been out on the trails a few times with the kids.  We’ve even managed some campfires and cookouts at our campsite with friends and family plus several trips into San Antonio to see folks.  

 

Sasha points out a jumping spider to her son Kellen

 

Jumping spider on agarita
photo by Sasha Kodet

 

One of my friends, Sasha, who is very involved on a local level with getting kids out into nature, brought her own children out one day for a hike and some photography at Government Canyon.  Her timing was excellent as it was one of the few sunny days with trails open that we’ve had lately. With phlox, windflower, agarita and mountain laurel blooming along the trail we all had much to see and smell.  Maya had a great time too although she enjoyed smells of a different kind.  

 

Kellen snaps a photo of a grasshopper that jumped on David's leg

Grasshopper
photo by Kellen Cross

 

 

I can’t believe that our time is nearly at an end at Government Canyon State Natural Area.  Just like last year, we haven’t nearly done everything or seen everybody.   We will do our best in the next week but I think we will have to come back again soon. 

 

 

 

Windflower
photo by Tessa Cross



Maya enjoys hanging out with Kellen