8/25/2023 red R, 9:30-11:45
Balmy, steamy, overcast morning
Already 92° at 9:30!
Cicadas roaring
Fallen pink lilies chaotically cover the forest floor
Slick, damp limestone steps
Foggy golden haze coats the creek
Storms littered the trails with branches, sticks, acorns, leaves and even some newly fallen trees
Always impressive how nature cleans itself through its entire harmonious ecosystem – environment, weather, inhabitants
New life nourished by death
Unintentional clearing of multiple spider webs
Slender yellow leaves drift down from above
Partially chewed black walnut and hickory nuts
Vibrant mosses thriving in the damp steamy environment
Bright red berries beginning to drop
Trees open up to misty prairie filled with ringing crickets
Yellow finches bounce about
Prairie thick with grasses, flowers, buzzing and rustling
Lovely herbal and floral scents
Ironweed starting to pop up
Look closely to find a multitude of different types of insects on just one little flowering plant
Ever-industrious spiders of the forest
Amazing how often strong trees tend to catch and support fallen or weak trees
Dripping wet and coated in invisible, strong, sticky silk threads
Undulating rhythm of cicadas creates a gentle forward flow
Impossible to miss the color red in the forest: cardinals, leaves, berries, insects
Giant spider across the trail feeding on captured yellowjacket(?)
(-was chased away by living yellow jacket with each attempt to film!)
Nutritive, invigorating petrichor and geosmin
Filled with awe in such a harmonious, vibrant ecosystem
