Something other than Fishing

Last year, while doing my blog, I had a variety of things I wrote about. There was some fishing, a lot of birding, and a few daytrips to historical places. I went to the Bronx Zoo and Concord, MA. This year, you may have noticed, everything that I wrote has been fishing reports. I have done a lot of fishing but not much else.

DJ, Laurie, and myself were going to go camping over April vacation from Thursday until Sunday. Unfortunately, DJ had his track meet moved to Thursday leaving only Friday, Saturday and leave early Sunday morning. We needed to be back early Sunday to be home for Easter dinner. Then the next disappointment today ( Saturday) is a wash out. Camping this week went from something I was looking forward too and turned into an impossibility. We were going to camp down the Cape and do some trout fishing during the mornings, hike in the afternoon, and eat smores at night.

Its not a big deal we didn't go. Since I'm writing this Saturday morning and it is 41 degrees and raining, I am quite sure we made the right decision not to go. The problem was Laurie took Friday off from work to go camping with us. I didn't want her to waste a day off. It would have sucked for her to waste a sick day and not do anything better than rent a movie. So I spent much of Thursday evening trying to think of a plan Friday.

We decided to go to Garden in the Woods in Framingham. I went there last year ( see link )www.southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2010/04/garden-in-woods.html

Last year I went on April 30 and we had an extremely warm spring. Being so cold this spring and going 8 days earlier, there wasn't much hope of to many spring flowers popping up. Still I needed to do something with Laurie so we went. We got there about 10 am and jumped on the guided tour. The price went up to $ 10 a person. Up from $8 last year. There were a few early spring bloomers and a ton of bright green skunk cabbage.

The highlights were not plants. It was actually some animals. We saw a red tail hawk eat a vole about 20 feet from us. It swooped down on the path in front of us as we were walking. We all stopped and waited for it to eat and fly off. There is a lily pond at the garden. In the pond we saw some turtles, frogs, tadpoles, leeches, and frog eggs. It was fun to walk around the pond a couple times and see all the life. Laurie enjoys seeing frogs and turtles so it was a pleasant 1/2 hour.

After we left the garden we stopped at Wendys to plan the rest of the afternoon. Laurie suggested River Bend Farm in Uxbridge. We got the map out and figured out the easiest way from Framingham. It only took about 30 minutes to get there.

River Bend Farm is part of the Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor. It is basically a couple paths along the Blackstone Canal. You can walk to the Blackstone River and out to a field. You can fish a small pond and there are tons of picnic tables. It is a cool place. Last year we saw a couple big snakes sunning themselves.

On our walk we saw a bunch of turtles and a couple carp jump. The highlight was a muskrat that swam around the canal. Laurie got some good looks with the binoculars. I've seen so many muskrats this year, I just let Laurie watch it.

Some kids were catching sunfish. They caught quite a few. They fished while the parents watched. The kids were about 6 ( boy) and 9 ( girl). When they caught fish they used a glove to hold the fish to take it off the hook. It was a leather glove. The mother would take the hook out for the younger kid. If the older one caught a fish she would give the glove to the girl. It was ridiculous... tools

The sun came out and felt nice on our backs . It was a relaxing day. We came home and watched " The Kings Speech" I really had no desire to watch it. However it won all the Oscar awards so I wanted to see what the hype was about. I have to admit, Colin Firth deserved an Oscar. It was an impressive performance. So it was not a waste of time.

Garden in the Woods

Yesterday I went fishing twice. I went late morning and again at 6:30-9. Both times I went fishless. The only good news was the company was good at night and I wasn't the only one to get skunked ( so I felt better about myself, misery loves company). Time after time, I have gone fishing the day after a storm when a cold front has moved in over night. The next day, the sky is bluebird blue and the wind whipping from the northwest. Chances of catching fish under these conditions are slim. Still, I go, figuring its better then staying home.
Waking up this morning and looking out my window the conditions were about the same. Maybe the wind was a little calmer, but the sky was a bright blue without a cloud in it. I thought instead of going fishing I'd try something different.

I went to Garden in the Woods in Framingham,MA . The property is owned by the New England Wildflower Society. I checked out directions online along with price ( $8 for adults) and hours. There is a tour, led by a volunteer at 10 am on weekdays ( 2pm on weekends), so I timed my arrival for about 9:50. I know almost nothing about wildflowers and plants so I thought it would be best to learn something from someone who knows about plants instead of taking a couple pictures of the pretty purple flower.
When I pulled into the parking lot I saw a couple of school groups in front of the Visitor Center, so my first thought was " This (bad word ending in ing ) sucks. I made the trip up, so I was kind of stuck. Happily, the school kids were on there own tours with there own leaders. The place was big enough, that we hardly came across them. I was on a tour with only four other people.
I guess the word " tour" fits, it is just a walk around the gardens with someone that knows more then myself. There are 15 acres of " cultivated wild gardens". This means all these plants didn't magically grow in this yard. They are planted there, you could kind of call it a zoo for plants. There are many species of plants native to New England along with displays of western plants ( including prickly pear) and invasive species. There are several gardens that all have there own theme, such as woodland garden, lily pond, meadow and other habitat displays. The tour took a little over an hour, then I walked around on my own taking more pictures.
The tour leader today was a volunteer. She was very knowledgeable about plants. Apparently she had to take a training class to become a tour guide. There are so many plants there is no way she could have known all of them, unless she had a PhD in botany. I did ask a couple questions that she was not able to answer, because I am a nerd like that, so I stopped asking really hard questions.
I did learn about some of the woodland species that I see on walks in the woods. There were about five species that I have seen and photographed before and didn't know the name, but now thanks to my $8 admission fee I am a smarter outdoorsman. I was happy to find out the names of species I've seen in the woods such as marsh marigold, trillium and columbines.
There are so many species of plants it would be impossible to digest all the plant names and information thrown at me there. Also and more importantly, only some of the plants are in bloom right now. Some of the summer flowering plants have barely popped out of the soil. I plan on going back again in another month or so to see others blooming . Hopefully I can get some more pictures and learn the names of some summer plants.

Post Script: This is how I hope most of my posts are. I want to write about daytrips and fishing trips that I go on. Its more fun then writing a list. Obviously I enjoyed this daytrip and do plan on going back. If I go to a place that I don't enjoy, I will tell you that also. Since I am paying admission to a place like Garden in the Woods, I will write how I feel about my experience, whether good or bad. If you are interested in going to Garden in the Woods it should be easy to Google. The website has all the info you would need.

P.S.S If someone would like to pay me to endorse their company, I can be bought.

Just kidding ( kinda)