Wordless Wednesday: *really* big tree

Wordless Wednesday: anybody thirsty?

Wordless Wednesday: well....yeah....

More various walks

I've done a few more non-neighborhood walks lately, taking advantage of the fact that we still have [sort of] cool mornings.

One of these was to the Japanese Tea Garden in Brackinridge Park (known more familiarly around here as the Sunken Gardens). This lovely spot is what you see above. It's a great place to walk, not only for the flowers and other plantings, but for the enormous carp that swim around the pools, and for the elevation gain that gives you a nice workout. Here are a couple of shots from up top:

It's an interesting place historically, too. Originally it was part of a large quarry that housed the cement company that eventually relocated a ways north to Cementville, which is now the Quarry Market.

On the right is the smelting tower that's still on the site, along with some other small stone buildings that were used in the cement-making. The one thing we have plenty of around here is high-quality limetone, apparently just about perfect for making Portland cement, whose name, according to Wikipedia, comes from Portland, England, not Maine.

The area around the gardens has some striking flora, too. Like this profusely blooming yucca and its neighboring century plant:

Later in the week, Henry and I took a long and very interesting walk around the UIW campus and Headwaters areas. That's San Antonio River headwaters. Henry had never seen the Blue Hole, which is the most notable of the many springs that make up the beginnings of the watershed. The last time I walked over there, the name was apt: beautiful blue water filling it up and spilling out.

But we haven't had much rain lately, so the Hole was dry and distinctly unphotogenic this time. However, the various trails that meander around the Headwaters area were really fun to walk on. Among the more photogenic sights was this absolutely gorgeous 600-year-old oak (as per its sign):

St. Brigid's Oak

In addition to the trails, we also were able to take in some campus scenery. Here's the school mascot...

...and their handsome bell tower...

I've admired this metallic mural before; it's on their performing arts building:

We're lucky to have such interesting places to walk in such close proximity to our house. 

I'll close with a pic and an amusing story to explain it. On another walk with a friend in the park, we suddenly found ourselves accompanied by this youngster:

He followed us for several minutes as we took a trail that led away from the river. I think he was too old to have erroneous imprinting issues, but we were a little afraid that had happened, when we just couldn't get him to shoo back over to the water. Finally I had to get a little mean and pushed him down the river bank with a long stick, and I think that at last convinced him that we weren't worth following around. I hope I didn't hurt him!