The Heart Tree

On Friday, I returned to Moorecroft Regional Park, previously mentioned in my post on the halcyon day in January.  This time, I went with my friend Pat and we took our dogs.  The scenery - bays and beaches, forest and meadow and swamp - was just as beautiful as ever.

Pat and the poms check out the swampy little lake -
which was deeper than the dogs expected!

The dogs like the beach the best - Cosmo and Lexi, the poms, eager to get into the water, and my Maggie always scanning the water for ducks.

No ducks here....let's move on!

Ha ha ha - can't catch me!

Maggie wasn't too upset at not getting to herd ducks, though.  She has become quite the little hiker now - content to follow the trail, content to wait patiently while I take photos or rest a bit.

Happy Maggie at Vesper Point

Each time I return to a park, I see something I didn't see before.  Like this dried fern protruding from a stump, looking just like someone had given the stump a french braid:

Or this arc of dead or dying trees against the sky:

Or this.  One tree split in two when just a sapling, or two trees whose roots entwined, but now covered with moss and gracefully curving apart and together.  It made me think of a heart.

See what I mean?  Happy Valentine's Day, Mother Nature.  I love you.