Asking a question can create a hole with no bottom

The bright sunlight brings cheer to even the most mundane scene.

On Thursday morning the temperature was 38 degrees and the humidity was at 68%.   There was very little wind blowing when the dog and I headed out to the west end of the dirt road.  The sun was shining bright in a beautiful blue sky making everything seem very cheerful and pleasant.
We stopped at the area where our neighbor was having a pond cleared over the past weekend to have a look a the final product.  There is a very deep  hole in the middle of the cleared area which will be the main body of the pond when the rain fills it.  It appears to be about 10 or 12 feet deep at that point.

A panorama of the newly dug pond.
Photo quality is poor.
I apologize for that.

 The man who was doing the dirt work told me that this would not be a true pond but instead would simply provide some relief from the water standing farther up the property near the owner's home.   I am interested as to what it will look like after the next big rain event.   Heavy periods of rain can happen in December but it is more likely the pond will have to wait for spring to be filled by rain.

A ferocious game playing dog
hides in the bushes.

We made it to the end of the road and turned to come back when the dog ran into a drainage area on the roadside and wanted to play one of his games with me.   He hid in the bushes and looked very menacingly at me through the leaves.  He was waiting for me to throw something into the bushes that he could go and find.   I used to throw rocks but I have stopped that and I now throw small sticks or limbs broken into pieces.  He loves chasing after anything that makes noise in the bushes.  I think it is the ambush predator instinct coming out in him.

The sun shines through the trees
making patterns on the road.

We continued through the tunnel of trees and the dappled sunlight striking the dirt road was creating the really pretty patterns that occur in this area each sunny morning.

The Japanese Climbing fern.  Invasive?

 As we made our way through I did notice a type of fern that grows here in the winter.
 It is the Japanese Climbing fern.  It is another of the introduced plants that are doing so well in our climate that they are considered invasive.  I identified the fern on the University of Florida's center for aquatic and invasive plants website which gives a good deal of information about how the plant was originally introduced.  I think it is a pretty nice looking plant and once again I never knew it's name or that it was considered invasive until today.

Once I had researched the fern and wrote this information about it being invasive I began to wonder when it is that a plant stops being invasive and starts being a native.  Sounds like a question for a botanist.  I just happen to know one so I will ask him.  I will give you the answer when I find out.  Thanks for reading my blog today. Stay warm.  Bye.

As the past burns brightly the future comes into view

Pine straw and leaves carpet the road side along our way home.

On Saturday morning the weather was overcast and balmy at 72 degrees with very high humidity.  At the present time our weather is stuck in a pattern that could last for a few days.  Cold air from Canada is trying to make it's way south to our area but is being blocked by warm air flowing up from the Gulf of Mexico to the eastern seaboard.  Our weather could remain like this for quite some time until the cold front is able to push on through.  As the dog and I walked on toward the west end of the dirt road we saw that the owner of the now dried up pond has hired some heavy equipment to assist in burning the debris from the clearing of the land.

Can I have on of those for Christmas?
Trackhoe digs a new pond.

 Last night the debris fires were so big that people were driving in from a few miles away to see what was burning.   This morning not much is left of the trees, stumps and brush that has been piled up there since early summer.  This morning the man operating the equipment had begun to dig out a fairly large area that will eventually form a very nice pond.  I am hoping it will attract a lot of wildlife from the surrounding woods.   We continued on our way and eventually reached the end of the road.

Beautiful Resurrection fern.

Here I saw a fern that is very common in this area and although I have seen this fern all my life I have only just learned the name it is called by. The web site Floridata.com indentifies it as Resurrection Fern.  This fern covers the limbs of old Live Oaks so that they appear carpeted in green.   The resurrection fern gets it's name from it's ability to dry up and practically disappear during dry periods then in a matter of hours reappear when a rain shower comes.   The ferns I saw were growing on the side of an oak tree in a hollowed out spot near the ground.  This location is not common for these ferns as they prefer to be up high where their seed like spores can be blown by the wind to other trees.  They apparently are not parasitic but are instead air plants that take their nutrients from the air and water vapor passing by the trees.   As a result of our stagnated weather pattern, it appears they will be able to get plenty of water vapor and mist over the next few days.  Well that's the way it goes here on the Gulf Coast.  Thanks for reading my blog and have a great day today.  Bye.