This shot is from Lake Bob Sandlin, in northeast Texas:
I love holly (and also pyracantha) in berry in winter. This shot was taken in the Parkville Nature Preserve in Parkville, Missouri:
This picture shows the main tower at Park University, a small liberal arts school nestled in the hills just above the Missouri River in Parkville, literally ten minutes walk from gorgeous woods:
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Here's the way the trail looked on a twenty degree Friday after Thanksgiving:
Here's another snap with deer a bit more visible at Lake Bob Sandlin. Does and fawns awaited us at trailhead as we drove up to the hiking trail. This is in northeast Texas piney woods, roughly an hour and a half east of where I live:
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Here's what the woodlands looked like there:
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This is called the Cedar of Lebanon, planted in 1916, located at the Hagerman National Wildlife Preserve, a bit more than an hour north of us, just below the Oklahoma border. It looks more ancient than its age.
These are snow geese at the Hagerman. Some 5,000 to 7,000 migrate to this sanctuary each year from northern climes. I believe they eventually head south to the Gulf Coast. They looked like "tame" geese, except that they travelled in large flying flocks:
Speaking of birds, this next picture shows what a little vulture can do for the ambience of a scene.
This was taken just outside the Hagerman, in Grayson County, Texas. Note how the prairie transition zone, with some "cross-timbered" wood, looks entirely different from Lake Bob Sandlin. If you look carefully, a vulture is taking off on the right side of the picture. .
Here's a picture of the Thanksgiving Day regatta I attended. It was much less grandiose than the name regatta implies, but it was fun getting out in the freezing cold on Lake Weatherby in boats:
The most charming sailor aboard was my lovely niece:
I've loved all the hiking and family and nature I've gotten in this holiday season. The throwaways don't do the scenes justice, but somehow, for me, that adds to the fun. I have them stored in my memories, and that is a pleasant view indeed.