Houston Woods State Park (on a dreary day)

Well friends, it is that time in the semester.  You remember the time I am talking about, right?  It's the end of the semester and I am...surprisingly not uber-busy?  Wait - that's not how this is meant to play out, is it?


Or is it?  Best to not ask questions on this one...


Now that I am out of the proverbial woods (by and large, still a couple assignments to do), I decided to head into the literal woods with two of my wonderful friends, Kaeden and Maria. And of course Grrtrude was tagging along.  She wouldn't miss the mud for her life!  Below are some wonderful photos of a dreary grey afternoon walk we took.  While it may look unfun to y'all, remember that I am still basking in the glory of seeing trees, leaves, moss, and rain.  I mean, the Southwest was nice and all, but this nature is just wonderful!

look at all this glorious moss!

lead the way, little g!

these little things were fun - just hanging out on the side of trees....

here is a closeup of one - it looks like a disc stuck in the trunk

this was really cool - the thing on the left is the bark of the tree on the right!  the whole strip of bark was hanging by a vine and swinging lightly.  I loved seeing it's movement and wish I could have taken a video.  Drat - I just remembered I have a video option on my camera!!  Gah - next time...

closeup of the bark - i like the contrast with the woods through the hole in the bark

this pond was cool and looks so mysterious with this weather - i felt like i should have seen a pirate ship!  Yar matey!

but if no pirate ship was going to show itself, at least i saw this badass duck braving the weather solo-style

and i - i took the road less traveled.