Monday, May 14, 2012

Muttontown Preserve -- another great hike

 Jane, our leader, talking about monkey vines, I mean wild grapevines
 Perfect weather yesterday brought out a large group (25)
 This preserve in Nassau County has 550 acres of varied terrain:
 old woods, fields, estate grounds, ponds, marshes, and many trails
 "Horse on trail, all move aside" calls our leader

 we step into the brush hoping the tick-repellant works

 Euphorbia's subtile tones

 The speedy half of the group waiting for the rest of us

 who are admiring the neat horse pasture

and photographing the buttercups, etc.
(Pictures of tree frog and little
praying mantis hatching were no good)
 And then we came upon the colony of pink lady slippers!

 Endangered, protected,
in bloom for just one week a year,

 and utterly gorgeous

 the highlight of the day for me

 The way back was downhill, thank goodness

It was about a three mile hike in all, one of the best I've been on.
People were from the Sierra Club and a few other groups.
Muttontown Preserve is well worth a visit!

4 comments:

Kristen said...

looks fun!!! I hate to admit but I picked a lady slipper once for my mom when I was little that I found in the woods, never again though, she told me I shouldn't have done that!!

Priscilla said...

They are so beautiful. Well, you were just a little kid; you can be excused. I once saw a GROWN UP LADY dig one up!

Maria said...

Hurrah. What a wonderful experience for you.

Kristen said...

People just don't know what is right and wrong sometimes, I guess that's how we learn