Checking out Thornewood

Saturday, 28 February 2015

There was supposed to be a volunteer event a few weeks ago, removing broom at Thornewood open space preserve, but rain on the Coal Creek project day caused a reshuffle and at least a delay, if not a cancellation. I had limited time today, so I thought I’d visit Thornewood, which is a small preserve, and perhaps remove some broom myself, or at least see what needed to be done.

Rainy kind of a day. Well, drizzly, really. Hardly worth putting on the rain shell. The wildflowers are coming out in profusion. Next time, I’ll shoot some shooting stars as well!

I didn’t find very much broom, a few sporadic plants along one of the trails, and a goodly infestation on the non-trail that used to be a paved road, once upon a time, above Schilling lake. (By the way: this is the Schilling family of spice renown. By the byway: the Folger estate over at Wunderlich park is the … yep, you got it!)

So I spent an hour or a bit more, trying to avoid the poison oak and removing everything I could reach. The picture above shows grist for my mill in the background, and in the foreground, well, milled grist, I suppose. I never did see enough broom to justify a multi-volunteer project, so I suppose there’s an infestation off the trail somewhere.

A cool, pleasant day, pretty in the redwoods, pretty with the wildflowers. This preserve is so small that I hardly ever come here, but it’s certainly close and convenient, and rather nice.

Tags: broom, Thornewood OSP