A New Flower Today

And of course I can't find it in either one of my Tennessee wildflower books. Let me know if you know the name of it. It is growing in many places along the Shelby Bottoms Greenway. (Thanks to Jill for identifying it for me!)

Hollow Joe-Pye Weed

Eastern Box Turtle

Eastern Box Turtle
On Shelby Bottoms Greenway

Saw this little guy slowly trying to cross the paved path Monday. I stopped, made this photo, then picked him up and put him across the path before he got hit by a fast-moving bike.

Keep your eyes open! There is always another adventure around the next corner. 

Wild Potato Vine

I am still riding my bike on the greenways three days a week, just not posting many photos. I was calling this flower a wild morning glory and it is in the morning glory family, but most commonly called Wild Potato Vine and sometimes Man Root or Wild Rhubarb. It has a giant root that can weigh up to 30 pounds and be up to 4 feet long! Amazing! The technical name is ipmoea pandurata. Cool! There is always something new in nature and on both these greenways!

Wild Potato Vine
ipomoea pandurata

I've been seeing a lot of these for the last week or two. Nice! 

Indigo Bunting

This is only my second shot of one, both with cell phone and too far away to see well, but at least this one shows the whole bird. They are mostly on the move and fast-moving and really avoid people. Seldom seen up close. It reminds me of the Blue Morpho Butterfly I've seen in Amazon and Costa Rica but no good photos!

Indigo Bunting Cropped In
On Shelby Bottoms Greenway

Cropped Even More

My earlier May sighting photo only caught his head. They are the most brilliant blue of any bird in North America, I think. It is also interesting to note for any regulars on the greenways that both of these shots were made at the Shelby Bottoms end of the Cumberland River Bridge.

Beauty Reflected

A reflection of trees in the Stones River from the little bridge near Hartland Park. There are new natural beauties every time I ride my bike on the greenway!

Stones River, Nashville, TN

"My Spot in the Woods"

Possibly my favorite magazine is The Tennessee Conservationist, and certainly one every Tennessean who loves nature should subscribe to for just $15 a year or less with multiple year subscriptions, for 6 large, nature-packed issues featuring everything nature, the wonderful Tennessee State Parks, and page-fulls of beautiful nature photos. I love it! Only Nature Photographer magazine compares!

Cindy Potter with a student in "Her Spot"

The feature article in this 2014 July-August issue is titled "My Spot in the Woods" by Mary Priestly, reporting on the terrific annual 6th Grade school project by Cindy Potter, at St. Andrews-Sewanee School in the South Cumberland, my favorite hiking area. Once each month during the school year, regardless of weather, each child spends time in the same spot in a nearby forest (Shakerag Hollow) writing down their observations; what they see, hear, smell, and feel. Back in the classroom each child uses those notes to write a short essay on "My Spot in the Woods" for that month. It is typed and posted on a hallway bulletin board. The following months are posted on top so that someone could read through the changing observations. The kids also memorize something from one or more nature poems/writings of their choice by authors like John Muir, Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting, Robert Frost's "Who Has Seen the Wind," or Wendell Berry's "The Peace of Wild Things." I think this is so wonderful and maybe even better than how I experience the woods as a Boy Scout at that age. Nature is life-changing, formative, and enriching is so many ways!

The July/August 2013 issue of The Tennessee Conservationist featured the similar process that David George Haskell experienced in his daily trips to his same spot in the woods. The article by Rosanna O. Salmon is titled "Find the Inspiration to Observe Nature" but is unfortunately not archived on the magazine's website. But David recorded it all in his book The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature. It inspired me to start my nature blog called Nature Notes on which I assume you are reading this. I've never made it a true daily effort, yet I encourage you to see what I have recorded frequently for nearly two years now. This year has focused a lot on my 3-times a week bike ride on two Nashville green-ways, though there are still state park and other trip reports plus my backyard nature which was the major focus last year. Nature is everywhere and just seeing it makes our lives richer!

I hope you grow richer this week by spending some time in the woods!   :-) 

Greenway Cows

Cows Along the Stones River Greenway

This morning on the Stones River Greenway

The old farm has been bought by Nashville for a city park

but I guess the cows have squatter rights for awhile!