I have been walking the same trails for 5 years since we moved to our home on Blacksmith Way but have never noticed the week to week changes especially in the flora and vegetation along the trails as I do today. Part of the reason is that I have allowed myself to do the second section of my walk on the Parkway Trail on my own, meaning no dogs in tow. Or should I say no dogs towing me! I love our dogs but I need my personal space for part of the walk.
Walking mindfully has many of the advantages as mentioned in my last blog and there are more! I look and see the amazing rotation of flowers and greenery along the Parkwood Trail change seemingly on a weekly basis. Early in the summer, you see the dandelions cover the grassland with a perfect yellow screaming out to every insect to assist with pollination. As if choreographed, one day they seem to change from short stocked yellow flowers that seem to evade the mowers blades to a tall tubular stem hoisting a burst of seeds into the sky fully equipped with a white parachute to carry them away to a new fertile area.
Once the dandelions have completed this cycle, they lay back and make room for another flowering plant to strut it’s stuff and do it it’s way. We’ve gone through white daisies, little yellow flowers, Lady Anne’s lace and some that don’t have the coverage will share the field as do thistles and the blue flowers! Each flowering act essential for the summer-long feeding of insects and the collection of honey by our busy bees but also for the annual production of next year’s seeds to do it all over again.
As the drought and heat brown our lawns, better-rooted plants jump into the cue as they reach water farther down than the grassroots can. These tall woody plants seem to ignore the rules and add some much-needed variety to the dying lawn.
Funny thing this seems to get better every year as we cut less lawn and grassy areas and let mother nature direct the plant life around us.
