Two things I have never seen

Well, I have been sick again. The Norovirus hit us again. Twice this year. It put all of us down for three days now. I could go into detail, but I promise it wasn't pretty here. Henry got it somewhere a week or so ago and then gave it to the rest of us, who came down with symptoms three days ago. It hit like a brick wall. Within one hour, I went from perfectly fine to amazingly sick. Three days later and I am still dizzy and I haven't really eaten anything but brothy chicken soup. So... that's whats up here.  This post is actually from a few days ago.

The morning of the day that I got sick, I went on a three hour hike through the park. It is a route that I have taken before, and one that I particularly like. It winds through open pasture, deep pine woods, huge oak trees, narrow bogs and its circular (something that I really love). I love it when I can out-hike Chaucer. By the end (well not the very end where he jumps into the river before getting back into the truck) he was completely dragging his feet. One new indispensable item that I have loved taking with me recently is this electrifying racket thing that zaps flies out of the air. My parents gave it to me. I shunned it as overly gadgety for a while, but man, the sharp zap and burnt popcorn smell of frying the crap out of any horsefly that dares fly around my head is worth the embarrassment of not "roughing it."

I saw a couple oddities today, one of which completely stumped my knowledge of nature. (We'll get to that one later) First, I thought that these ducks were a bunch of female mallards all congenially chumming around with each other all lined up on this log. But, upon a bit more research, I think these might be Mexican Ducks. (No lie). I guess they are a derivation of mallard that has lost the male's coloration. New to me....

By the way, a couple of things before we get going, first, please remember that you can click on any of these pictures to get the big version, and second, if you click the title of my blog, it will take you to the whole blog and you can scroll through old entries. I actually enjoy doing that quite a bit. Right, now for the stumper. I was way in the woods aspect of my hike (about two hours in) when Chauc tromped off on a little side path like he always does. I followed him in a bit and I found this tree. It's hard to see in the picture, as it was in real life. Take a close look though, its growing in an arch. Both sides of this maple are rooted into the ground. There is nothing bending and holding down the top. It's rooted there. A natural, growing archway in the middle of the woods. I wouldn't be honest if I told you I didn't walk through it half-expecting something crazy to happen. Well.... I guess the norovirus did hit us that night... maybe its cursed. Who knows............

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