Yesterday Lloyd and Lauren and I made an excursion to Branched Oak Lake. It’s a lake between Seward and Lincoln.
Most of the shoreline is kind of rocky or muddy, and is devoid of people:
On one of the sandy shores, Lauren made a sandcastle.
There is a beach there, and it had lots of people on it. We walked on it for a short while.
We went to the marina and walked on the docks a little. Next to the parking area, I saw two trees that excited me: a cottonwood and a mulberry.
I was excited to see the cottonwood because it had seed pods still on it. I have always wondered where the “cotton” that floats through the air comes from. It’s these:
I was excited to see the mulberry tree because I love mulberries. They don’t grow in Maui, so I wouldn’t ever see them there. This tree didn’t really have any ripe berries on it, but I ate some of the almost-ripe ones.
We continued on to Lincoln and made a Sam’s Club stop, the went back to Seward.
That is so kind of you to call my sand lump a ‘castle’. 🙂 I’m sorry we didn’t get in and actual hike, but you can blame the heat, humidity, lack of actual walking paths and weird smells.
Your might not be such a fan of the mulberry if the ripened berries falling from the branches stained your backyard deck and shortened your sitting’-and-readin’ season until they were all done plopping. Next spring we’ll try to remember to lay a 12′ square layer of plastic across the deck to catch the berries (for eatin’?) and prevent more purple splooches on the deck. (Apparently “splooches” is not a word? You get the idea, though, right?)
We have seen SO many blackberry bushes full of red berries lately but none are ready???? How do the bears know to wait til they turn dark?