From Beaches to Peaches!

Friday, September 29, 2017

9-28-17 Shaw Nature Reserve with Karen Fletcher:

My first time here, too! Karen and I both have a huge love for photography, so it's become a thing that we go out and shoot when I'm in town. It's always been MOBOT, so today we decided to try somewhere different. Since I'd never been to Shaw Nature Reserve, she suggested we go there. And we did---stopping along the way at Subway to pick up a couple sandwiches for a picnic when we got to the Reserve.
The area was opened in 1925 when pollution from coal smoke in St. Louis threatened the garden's live plant collection, especially the orchid collection. The orchids were moved in 1926, but the pollution in St. Louis decreased with waning use of coal for heat, making it unnecessary to move the rest of the live plant collection. The reserve is currently dedicated to environmental education, to the maintenance and restoration of the region's native flora and fauna, and to public enjoyment of the natural world.

We parked near the Bascom House by the wild flower area.

Took our lunch and headed into the wild flower garden.

I was a little surprised at how many flowers were still blooming especially with the dryness and heat (even now at the end of Sept. we were having a heat wave in the mid 90's).

more varieties of wild flowers

Someone told me they thought these were persimmons. They were falling like leaves and making loud thumps. I picked one up and it was really soft. Was tempted to try and eat it, but since I didn't know what it was at that time, I decided it would be wiser not to.

There were a lot of dried ferns.

They actually looked pretty cool all dried up.

one more

back to the wild flowers.

looking over to the little pavilion we had our picnic lunch in. Then we took our trash back to the car and headed back through the wild flowers again, then onto the woodland area.

a lacy heart

bridge over a dried up river bed.

more interesting dried up plants

We went from the woodlands to the meadow.

The sod house was built in 2004 and is located along Brush Creek Trail just north of the Trail House.

interesting decor on the sod house.

When pioneers decided to make their home on the prairie there were no trees or rocks to build with so they made sod bricks to build their house. The sod walls must be very thick to support the weight of the sod roof. A benefit of thick sod walls is that the house stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter due to the added insulation.

from inside the sod house looking out. Near the sod house are the teepees, which are only up for special events during the fall.

Continuing along the trail to The trail house, which was built in 1942 with native rock and is a central point on Shaw Nature Reserve's 14-mile trail system.

looking back at the teepee

a buckeye butterfly on some wild flowers.

heading back the way we came. Love the color of the dried grass in the meadow.

some more low growing wild flowers.

some taller wild flowers.

so many different kinds.

even the thistle weed is pretty.

the dried creek bed.

looking over towards the bridge we walked over earlier.

interesting leaves.

pretty pale purple flowers.

and purple berries.

another sitting area nearer the Bascom House.

metal form of a great blue heron. There's a wetlands here, too, which would be neat to see, too, but we had already spent about 4 hours here and needed to be hitting the road.

The Bascom house was open, so we went inside.

Built in 1879, it was restored in 1993.

the flower patch up by the house with the sprinkler system going----so I could see a rainbow.

another butterfly

Took a good hour to make it back with rush hour traffic. Really not too bad compared to Atlanta. Ken had also been out that way visiting some of his relatives in Washington, Mo. When he got home, we headed off to Alton, Illinois for dinner at Momma Mia's. Stopped in West Alton on our way for another pretty sunset.