This post is about a walk taken on May 30th. It’s my usual meander when visiting Dearborn, i.e. a trip that always begins at Ford Field Park, then finds me trekking along the Rouge Gateway Trail, stopping at the Fair Lane Estate, continuing along a trail parallel to Ford Lake and eventually ending up at the Environmental Interpretive Center.
Sometimes there is lots to see; sometimes not so much. This leg of the trek was a not-so-much-to-see day.
On that gorgeous day, wedged in between the beginning and end of this extra-long excursion was the Ford Estate visit, where I photographed lots of blooms and just before I reached my car, I got to peek at a 1977 Clenet automobile which looked like a vintage roadster. If you missed that walk, you can find it here.
Now returning to the before-and-after portion of that walk.
To get some extra steps in, I always park at Ford Field Park …
… then I walk over to the duck pond to check for feathered friend photo ops – there were none today as the pond was devoid of ducks and unbelievably, with all those big rocks, there were no sunbathing turtles.
I pass this bridge that crosses a portion of the Rouge River …
… there’s not much to see, but on the left side, the water is very peaceful …
… while on the right side, the water is raging, like rapids.
Next is a stroll through the neighborhood and in the Summer, this homeowner has a front yard, sans grass, just a lot of perennials, a bird bath and bird feeder.
I must pass the Dearborn Historical Museum – there’s not much to see there. I always pause at their herb garden and I noted the Thyme plant, missing its celebrated cohorts, a photo I shared with you in a recent Wordless Wednesday post.
The trailhead to the Rouge Gateway Trail is a wooden boardwalk and elevated wooden platform behind the former Andiamo’s Italian restaurant. After the restaurant closed, it’s being repurposed into Boardwalk Marketplace, still mostly a work in progress. It’s a great view of another portion of the Rouge River.
On this day, my eyes honed in on the board that was sticking up … it is one of many boards along the boardwalk that have warped, or become damaged and …
… stick up, not only along the edge either. “Hmm” I mused “well, that’s a tort just waiting to happen!” I was a legal secretary for almost 45 years, so old habits like using this phrase never go away. I concede most people would have used the word “accident” instead.
It was a tad raggedy-looking on the actual asphalt pathway – “stay in the middle” I told myself. That way I’d avoid ticks that like to await a passerby from the tip-top of high grass. It looked like “No-Mow May” gone wild.
Surprisingly, there were no wildflowers along the woodsy part of the Rouge Gateway trail and thankfully NO snakes, like the last time I was here.
By the time I reached the Ford Estate, I’d already walked 1.4 miles.
As mentioned above, this post is about after I left the Fair Lane estate.
Ater leaving Clara Ford’s Rose Garden, I headed straight down Jensen’s Meadow …
… toward Ford Lake. I planned to hike along the Lakeside Trail, a path that admittedly is not the most-exciting trek I’ve ever taken, but at least I did not zig when I should have zagged and gotten lost like I did two weeks later.
Ford Lake was looking beautiful that morning, with stunning reflections. There are several trails you can take. I need to expand my horizons and take the trail on the opposite side sometime, instead of just sticking to the Lakeside Trail.
This is a clever idea which was installed by the University of Michigan last year in conjunction with the Environmental Interpretive Center. Stand in this exact place to capture the changing seasons. I did that at Council Point Park one year and used it as a featured image in a post.
Just as the reflections on Ford Lake made for a picturesque photo, so did the sun-dappled woods. I swiveled my head over to the Lake and saw no ducks, herons – not even any turtles sunning, so I took this shot and continued on my way.
This part of the trail is short – you can just continue on the trail after walking through this open space, or you can veer off to the right. I was feeling adventurous, so why not take a right?
I channeled my inner “Dora the Explorer” and off I went.
Well, I’d never strayed this way before. There are several places in and around the wooded areas that are just rubble, lots of rocks and boulders which might have been a nice part of the landscape at one time when it was part of Clara Ford’s former Rose Garden and Summer House …
… but no longer. It is incredulous to me that so much effort is being done restoring the mansion and other buildings on the grounds, yet this area languishes in ruins. I’d estimate it is only a half-mile from the mansion and is part of the estate grounds.
Of course, I was angry at myself for traipsing into these weeds with tall grass climbing almost to my knees and likely tick-laden. Ugh!
This pond, like the other larger ones on the estate grounds, is overgrown and murky looking. This is not green pond scum – it is duckweed dotted with water lily leaves.
There was not much to see here, not even a frog on a lily pad, so I decided to return to the trail – maybe I could scare up a critter or two – maybe the Wild Turkeys would be strutting around today?
The trees made a nice canopy over the trail, with dabs of dappled sunshine on the path ahead.
Well, here we go again – here’s a trip-and-fall waiting to happen!
The joy of walking in the woods came to an abrupt end with all these exposed tree roots. I know it was really problematic in 2024, but last year they put down a lot of mulch which remedied the problem, but the mulch had evidently disintegrated since my last visit and this is what was left.
Another glance toward Ford Lake told me I was not missing out on any creatures, feathered or otherwise. I decided the tree branches and/or other woody protrusions in Ford Lake looked similar to the roots on the trail.
I rounded a bend, briefly in the sunlight again, where it would be easier to see the pesky roots, but that sunlight was short-lived. The below roots did not seem as bad and, with my long legs I could just step from one clear spot to the next, but still … sigh.
Along the trail, picking my way over tree roots was no fun – this is how it always was at Sterling State Park. They have removed the root-ridden pathways, paving over with asphalt, a project that took all of 2025. I’ll visit in the Fall as the White Pelicans migrate through.
Once again, I mused over legal terms like “trip-and-fall” or even “slip-and-fall” because as a legal secretary those terms indeed crossed my path (if you’ll pardon the pun), especially after I began working for my boss Ed Keelean, on August 2, 1993, exactly 33 years ago today.
I’ve done a wide range of legal secretarial work, some which I downright hated, but treading into the world of personal injury insurance defense work, now this was something I really enjoyed and I spent the most-rewarding years of my legal secretary career doing this work. I would have retired doing this type of law, but for the merger our Firm experienced in 2000. Yes, there were trip-and-falls, slip-and-falls and open-and-obvious cases too, the latter being “really, you should’ve been looking where you were going, or you wouldn’t have had that little mishap” …. even walking in the ‘hood these days presents one with pitfalls like potholes or uneven sidewalks. Or big dogs … we had a few dog bite cases too. 🙂
Well, you might want to wrap yourself in a bubble sometimes as there is so much to worry about these days.
As I compiled this post, I had already drafted 90% of it the day I took the walk. I HAD planned to write about these little aggravations in this leg of my walk. And, instead of writing this post, I SHOULD have been out on a trail, enjoying the hike, camera in hand, but instead, I was inside tap, tap, tapping away on the keyboard due to the extreme heat and poor air quality from the various wildfires burning. On the day I wrote this post, the Detroit area was #1 in the world for poor air quality.
And, also on my mind, as I grumbled about the lack of outings, was something way more important than heat, humidity and air quality … instead I was sad because Ed Keelean, whom I mentioned above, had passed away suddenly from a heart attack earlier in the week. So, coincidentally I had already planned for this post for August 2nd, but sadly it now will coincide with the day I began working for Ed, 33 years before … a little nod from me to Ed – rest in peace.
Now, I digressed bigtime … back to my walk.
Eyes focused on the ground and periodically glancing around for slithering snakes, I couldn’t help but notice a dark-colored blob up ahead. As I grew near, I could tell it was a turtle. Well, that was a first – I have never seen a turtle in the middle of the woods – this was not near the water.
Here is another shot of this Painted Turtle, a/k/a Painted Terrapin, which I also had in my featured image. It didn’t seem afraid of me. I pondered whether I should pick it up and take it back to Ford Lake. What if it couldn’t survive without water? I decided to leave it where it was.
While writing this post, my baby steps toward my year-end goal are probably as pitiful as those taken by this tiny terrapin, who likely took a long time to get where he was eventually planning to go.
Soon, I was back to a soft, mulched trail, the final leg in the woods and near the Environmental Interpretive Center. No Wild Turkeys that like to hang out near the area either, just the empty feeders.
There was nothing much to see. There are lots of flowers around the entrance to the Center, but it was too early for them, but I saw this Golden Alexander wildflower …
… and a bee hotel embedded in the Viburnum.
Not my most-exciting trail trek, but better than a stick in the eye as the saying goes. I’ll leave you with a thought which applies to my leathery friend and myself:
I will be joining Terri’s Flower Hour and Pepper’s #One Step at a Time later this week.








































Another lovely post!!
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Thank you Anne!
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Finding that turtle in the middle of the trail was unusual! I love all the greenery, but too bad you didn’t find any other critters. So sorry about your former boss! May he R.I.P. 🌹 Working in a legal firm must have been interesting.
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I thought it was unusual too Debbie. I’ve never seen that before, as usually they just sun on the logs. When they make a nest, they never dig the hole more than 20 feet away from water so their hatchlings can make a quick escape. I have not been out that many times this Summer and, with the exception of the deer and chipmunk on the U of M campus, one walk where I saw a deer in the lily pads and monitoring the Osprey nest (where I know where to go and find them … if they are there is another thing), it’s been a dull year critter-wise. Thank you – Ed was a great boss and I enjoyed working for him, not only as a person, but his work was interesting as well, the most enjoyable period of my almost 45 years in the legal business.
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That is quite a lot of steps taken for this post, Linda. Good for you! Enjoyed your narrative and pics of your hike. Thinking I’ll use your post as my guide whenever I finally make it to Ford Field Park. Thanks! 😁
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Thank you Pepper! I know you can go to the other side of Ford Lake, but I’ve not ventured there … heck, I got lost the next time I was here, on the very same route, when I took a wrong turn. That will be a future post and it’s a good thing I saw the deer and chipmunk as I was enroute to my car, as the only critters I saw the day I got lost was a few damselflies and a dragonfly.
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I get lost easily too. I used to think that I was the only person with no sense of direction at all. Felt much better when I realized that someone I respect and look up got lost in a city he has lived in for decades. 😁
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Well that makes me feel better knowing that there are three of us now! I have never had a good sense of direction, even when I was younger.
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Me, too! 😁
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That is a long post! My favorite was the baby turtle. The stream/water pictures were fabulous. I could feel the peace and quiet.
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Yes, it was a long post and yesterday I did my final installment of the 1976 series for Grandparents Day on September 13th and it was an even longer post, so today when I came home from walking, I did a very short post for the September 20th post to compensate for that length! That turtle was cute, but I can’t figure out why it was there as it was not near the water. Last year that same water had two kinds of herons, geese, ducks … what happened?
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I am amazed at the lack of wildlife at the time of your walk! I think the time-honored way to get the turtle off the path and back towards the water is to get a stick and whack it. Hasn’t everyone heard of Turtle Whacks? 😁
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JP, that made me smile and yes, that turtle needed some Turtle Whacks for shine and to get it going in the opposite direction back to the water. I don’t know why it was in the middle of the woods. It was a long walk to not see anything but a turtle and though I’ve not been on a lot of walks this year due to the weather and other house/car issues, I’ve seen very few critters when I get out and I wonder where they’re hiding.
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With regards to the turtle, did you come across a rabbit sleeping?
I see the water is green!
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He must have beat the rabbit Wayne, in fact, he won the race, so time to head back to the water before you dry out! How did he wander into the middle of the forest, far from the water? The heat has made the water a sickly looking green color from algae in spots, but also some of it is duckweed. I went back to this same spot two weeks later and one of the ponds on the estate property had a pond with so much green in it, the frogs I was hoping to see were probably afraid to poke their heads out in case they got stuck in the mucky mess. Since I was there, I follow them on Facebook and they showed pictures of them cleaning out the pond and they got the water circulating again.
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Who knows why a turtle does what It does? Maybe a animal grabbed It and let it go when I found out It didn’t have a meal?
I was surprised to learn that the water in that Reflecting pool was not filtered/chlorinated? What do they expect is going to happen in the heat of the summer?
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That’s true – some animal grabbed its tail or a leg and the turtle pulled itself into its shell, so the predator dropped it like a hot potato and moved on.
Yes, you have to have the water filter/chlorinated and constantly moving or you’ll get crud in it … look at a birdbath. When I had the four birdbaths in different sizes, I had a stiff-bristled brush to clean all four at least once a week, more in Summer, or it got that reddish mold in it. They have a gizmo that goes into the birdbath that makes the water wiggle and it constantly churns it around and avoids that red mold. Marge has a solar birdbath that activated the water to keep it clean. It didn’t plug in anywhere when there was no sun, so it wasn’t the best gadget in the world, but the birds liking bathing in it.
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Still some beautiful scenery despite the lack of wildlife and blossoms. I wonder if the mulch that had been put down to cover the tree roots didn’t get washed away in heavy rains or floods. It just seems a short period for it to completely disintegrate. I got a chuckle out of your legal secretary mind seeing all of the “accidents waiting to happen”.
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Yes, everything was so green Ruth that it did make for some nice scenery and reflections as well. That makes sense about the mulch. I remember in 2025 I noticed they had taken down a lot of dead trees there and at that time they must have made all those trees into mulch. It was so nice walking after that. We have had such heavy rains this Spring/Summer (not yesterday, despite the predictions – just a slow, steady rain most of the day) – that makes sense. I always think the worst as to trip and fall situations because I have had three or four of them in my life, all because I was either running for the bus, wasn’t paying attention or was just plain clumsy.
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I think that turtle was out to greet you on your hike! He thought, she’s having a slow day meeting animals, so I’ll just wander over to her. 🙂
It was interesting to hear about the legal work you used to do.
Sorry to hear about Ed and his passing. May he rest in peace.
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I was happy for that turtle Esther – he/she was my only critter that day. Pickin’s are slim this Summer, the few times I’ve been out. The critters must be hiding.
I really enjoyed the personal injury work the best of all the legal work I did in my nearly 45-year legal secretary career. Ed was a wonderful boss, with interesting work and I thrived while working for him, unlike some others through the years.
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It would have been a bummer to have had no sightings! That turtle saved the day. With ths heat, I think the critters are hiding.
Glad to hear that Ed was a good boss to you.. what a wonderful experience to have thrived working for him. Good bosses are hard to find.
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Yes, I always wonder when I get on the trail, or even an asphalt walking path, what I’ll see that day. I admit that I have high hopes which often fall flat, so yay for this turtle.
Yes, good bosses are hard to find – this one was a gem.
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We encounter a lot of wooden boardwalks that are borderline safe! In the province of Quebec though, most of the boardwalks are made from the plastic “wood” and they will last forever. It’s more expensive but you never have to replace it. I love those little turtles, we had them as pets when we were kids. I wouldn’t have one now as a pet, let them be free, but back then it was a popular pet for a lot of kids. Sorry about your old boss Linda.
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Yes, the best walkways and overlooks are made with plastic decking. That long fishing pier at the Wildlife Refuge and their Delta boardwalk are all made of Trex decking. They should make all of them that way, though I was on the fishing pier once in late September and it was very slippery. Had I not seen the sun glistening on the deck, I might have wiped out on that dew. Yes, I had a pet turtle too and it could not have been much of a life, sitting in a plastic dish with a palm tree and an inch of water in the bottom. Thank you Susan – he was great to work for, not the typical demeanor for a litigator or trial attorney and his work was interesting.
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I bet we had the same dish for our turtles, mine had a little island with the palm tree on it!
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Same here Susan! Funny, I can picture that dish and Myrtle, my turtle, like it was yesterday, instead of about six decades ago!
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Haha me too ! I loved that turtle 😃
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A lot of walking for a very green but not so showy habitat this time around. Good thing you spied the turtle!
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Yes and it’s been like that most of the Summer for some reason Eilene. I was happy for that turtle! I did go out today and had a little more luck bringing home some photos but it was very hot by the time I got home. Our weather pattern has been two or three nice days, then five or six rainy days. We’re about to go into that rainy pattern again unfortunately.
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Miss Linda………………………….I enjoyed your blog today with all of the fresh looking plants and trees…………………………..I like the close up picture of the painted turtle the best……………………..You’re such a good story teller.
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Thank you for saying that Ann Marie … I know my posts are long sometimes, but when I have so many photos, I want to make people feel like they’re walking alongside me.
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You got a lot of steps in and saw some beautiful flowers and greenery. There seem to be those days when there isn’t a lot of wildlife to see, but I’m glad the turtle saved the day, and a cute one he was. You were smart to watch where you were walking out on the trail, between the roots and snakes. My husband almost stepped on a rattlesnake that was crossing the trail we were on one time. That could certainly ruin a walk.
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Rebecca, you’re right about those days where you go out and see nothing. Two weeks after I was on this walk, I went back thinking I’d see more and that time I saw a couple of damselflies and one dragonfly the whole walk. Today on the news I heard that this woods and lake were recognized by the Michigan Audubon Society as having 200 species of birds … even on my best days walking here, I’ve never seen or heard one songbird, but I’ve seen geese and herons. 🙂 The turtle did make me happy though. That’s scary about your husband almost stepping on the rattlesnake. I am always scanning the ground at two woodsy venues as there are Eastern Fox Snakes there and they’re not even poisonous. A few weeks ago a man was bitten by a Mississauga Rattlesnake at a boat launch. The DNR is assuring everyone this was rare, but it sure takes the fun out of walking in the woods if you must be on the lookout for any of these pests.
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Wonderful photos. How fun!
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Thank you Monica! Finally we had some decent days this week, so I have been trying to get out more often for steps and pics.
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Hey, did you hear that Jackie passed away. We are all devastated by this news. Maybe she had been sick for a long time. Poor Shadow wondering what happened to her.
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I did hear that Monica and like you I felt badly. I thought just a couple of days earlier I read or heard she was rallying back and then Sunday took a bad turn. I read that yesterday too that she might have been sick for a while before the fight. Now we wait and see what happens with the rest of the family. Hopefully the eaglets are old enough and Shadow is already caring for them so that they will be okay.
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I haven’t watched for a while, but I thought they said the eaglets had already flown away, which they would have done even if Jackie is there. Also, that Shadow wasn’t by the nest much, but again, that happens this time of year. I wonder if Shadow will find survive new and they take over the nest. Anyhow… so sad.
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Yes, it is sad. I haven’t been watching since Jackie was injured. They are doing a necropsy to find out if they know what her cause of death was. I hope if Shadow takes a new mate, they will continue to be at that nest and have a web cam there as well.
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There was a lady, she says she can talk to animals. Did you see her on Facebook. She said she talked to Shadow… She read what he said. It was so gimmicky, it sounds like a PR speech. I don’t believe it. Anyhow, everyone wants to have a say in this, right.
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No, I didn’t see that on Facebook and I agree with you Monica – this does sound a bit gimmicky. Tonight I saw a post by a wildlife site that said Shadow had returned to the nest and KD1, a banded, younger female eagle followed him. The post said this new female moved sticks, stayed close, then gently preened Shadow’s feathers. They said she is a “subadult” and of breeding age. I generally don’t read comments on social media as people get into it with one another sometimes, usually political, but this time I did because they were thinking like I was, wow that did not take long and does Shadow know his longtime mate is not returning for good? Some people said “Shadow was stepping out on Jackie” or they disparaged the female calling her a “scumbag”. People were all over this and one person said (about Shadow) “the audacity of this bird to already be dating…”
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LOL – Ah, like you, in general I try not to read all those comments. Animals are in the wild, while we would like to romanticize them being like humans, they are not. Well, and just like humans, who are we to judge anyone’s life. If Jackie was ill, then Shadow certainly knew it. Let’s see what happens now.
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Really!! People go off the rails sometimes with their comments about others, whether they’re people or animals. They’ll get the results back on whether Jackie was sick/weak before being attacked and I’m sure Shadow would have known. People will likely have some comments on that as well. 🙂
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You might have thought there wasn’t much to see, but there was to those of us who don’t have such scenic walks! I enjoyed it all. And everything looks so green compared to August.
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I once saw a turtle crossing the road in my mom’s subdivision, and wondered where the heck it was going as there is no water anywhere in the area.
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It was very odd with this turtle to be walking in the woods, far from the water. It was too small that it would be looking for a place to nest and they don’t nest more than 20 feet from water. I always read to pick up the turtle, carry it to the other side of the road in the same direction it was headed. I’ve never seen any in the neighborhood here – too much traffic, so the poor thing wouldn’t last long.
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It might have been a pet turtle, from someone’s backyard pond, as it was when fish ponds were in style.
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It might have been a pet turtle, from someone’s backyard pond, as it was when fish ponds were in style. I always regretted not stopping to see where it was going.
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Yes, you’re probably right Joni. We have incidents where hawks and herons swoop down to homeowner’s backyard ponds and steal the Koi goldfish … very brazen. That turtle might have escaped from a pond. In the Facebook forum for our City, people are always posting lost and found domestic animals, lots of cats and dogs, almost daily. Recently someone’s tortoise walked away and it was large per the photo. Also, a year or so ago, someone’s Ball Python escaped just a few blocks from here. I Googled to see what it looked like as the owner just posted the missing notice, but with no photo and apparently they are harmless, but it was large … thankfully it was found a short time later.
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That is true Joni – I keep forgetting that others don’t have as many woodsy parks, but usually, in the past, most times I visited here, I saw herons and egrets, lots of ducks and turtles. Then I went back two weeks after this walk and all I saw was a couple of damselflies and a dragonfly. I have to go back again a few more times before Fall, especially since I heard on the news yesterday (and Fair Lane Estate mentioned it today on their Facebook site) that University of Michigan and the woods which is shared by U of M and Fair Lane Estate is home to 200 species of birds. I found that interesting because I can’t say I’ve heard or seen any songbirds there, just the wading birds, like egrets and herons when walking on that trail.
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Makes you wonder where they have all gone? I bought some Tick spray the other day, as there are now a couple of more deadly Tick viruses being reported. We don’t have any woodsy areas, other than the beach park and I just stay in the beach section….where there were a lot of tree roots in the ground on the trail to the sand, but it was a very short trail under the river beeches.
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I am very worried about ticks, but I don’t use any spray, but do a tick check, but they are so tiny they could cling anywhere. I don’t want any spray getting on my hands or the camera for the same reason I am using sun protection clothing from head to toe. We have an implosion of ticks this year, two kinds of mosquitoes, one found last month in this county with West Nile Disease. Going out this year to woodsy venues has been a challenge. If it isn’t worrying about critters, it is timing around the heat, storms and all the torrential rain, which is going to muddy up the trails, leave standing water for mosquitoes. I stay on the asphalt path as much as I can and check for ticks then too.
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https://www.interexind.ca/careplus
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I bought a product containing Icaridin, in a 20% concentration. It sounds much safer than Deet. I bought the spray, which I think is safe for clothing as well as skin and is supposed to be non-greasy without that horrible DEET chemical smell. I haven’t used it yet. there may be other US brands containing Icaridin. I never found the citronella or lavender scented ones worked for me personally.
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Thank you for all this information Joni – I appreciate it. Perhaps I should consider it then. I didn’t want anything oily or greasy on my clothes, plus I wasn’t sure if spraying it onto fabric that was made to protect from the sun might be a bad idea – mixing chemicals? I follow a site on Facebook where all the 13 Michigan Metropark photographers post pics of the wildlife they encounter (birds mostly) and some people who go to Kensington Metropark wrap duct tape around where their socks meet their pants. I always wear long pants anyway, so I’ve been considering that. Two weeks later, on this same trail, I got lost – don’t ask me how as I go the same way every time, but it got hot and I took a wrong turn and got into an area with no structured trail, all high grasses … I was worried I’d come home with ticks. I have read to use gaiters over your shoes that come up your pant legs, so no ticks get embedded in your shoes/eyelets/laces. It is not fun anymore when you go on woodsy walks. A few weeks ago I encountered deer flies … I’ve never seen them before and I went on a trail I don’t go on often as I saw a snake once. It’s more rustic than the other trails. The female deer flies (not the males) are the only ones that bite, just like mosquitoes and they were buzzing around my face and hands, the only part of me that was exposed as I wear a sun hat and my sun protection shirt I was wearing that day covers the top part of my hand as well. I couldn’t get off the trail fast enough. Apparently they only bite in June and July is what I learned when I got online later … I will wait until September to return to that trail. I couldn’t get a picture, so when I do the post, I’m going to show what they look like.
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I wasn’t aware of it until recently either, but then I can’t say I looked as I don’t walk in woodsy areas….but I might someday. It sounds safe. Not sure about spraying it on your special sun clothes, but you could put it on your skin and regular clothes. I don’t know how you can walk in long sleeves and pants on such hot and humid days! watching the jays – game tied in overtime….nerve-racking…Jays pulled ahead but there’s still another half inning to go. They have been doing better lately.
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Yes, that is an idea to put it on regular clothes, but I only wear my regular clothes for errands … I wear the sun protection clothing as long as I can, but I guess I should get a light jacket with sun protection for Fall, but the sun’s rays aren’t as strong then. I bought a hoodie made of sun protection material last year, but it must have had something rubberized inside of it … I thought I’d die before I took it off. It was uncomortably warm. It IS hot with a long-sleeved top and long pants and a sun hat (the sun hat has vents, but also has a flap on the back of the neck as well), plus heavy shoes and socks. I went out today, no trails, just asphalt, Emily Frank Gardens and downtown Trenton. Weather forecaster said “cool out this morning, low dew point” … well I was not cool in the least! We are supposed to have possible severe weather later today, maybe overnight and tomorrow night.
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https://www.surfacescience.ca/pages/icaridin-faqs
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The above link has the safety profile and FAQ’s…
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The active ingredient in TotalSTOP is Icaridin. Icaridin has been well tested and is recommended by WHO, CDC, and EPA-Registered as a safe, effective, and more pleasant alternative to DEET. That must be a US brand name – good recommends anyway. I don’t remember the name of the tick born virus near Ottawa but they were seeing increasing cases, and it was occasionally fatal which is scary.
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