Winter Walk in Runneymede

It's a rainy, cold day today, but yesterday I took a nice walk in Runnymede Park, a nature park about a five minute walk from our house. I have walked there before, but not for awhile and it was kind of nice in the morning, so quiet, not a soul in sight. A path follows the Sugarland Run stream and loops around the park for about 2.5 miles. I saw a notice that they have regular walks there, "Runnymede Rambles," where a guide talks about the wildlife and plants in the park and then leads a walk. Who knew they did that? I'm so glad I rediscovered this park for when I feel like walking in a natural area instead of in the town.

Near the entrance to the park there is a sign about the The Native Plant Project,  a small garden planted entirely with native plants. The idea is to highlight the value of locally native plants to the environment, homeowners, and the community, and it encourages residents to use native plants in their landscaping. I hadn't seen this before, but I thought it was a cool idea and I will be interested to see how it looks in the months to come. The sign said many of the plants had been rescued from former gardens and meadows that have now been developed (many of the plants were from the site where Target was built).  I also learned that the reason the park has such interesting plant life is because it was the site of dairy farms and cattle once grazed there. All that good manure must still be working! I'm sure where we live was once part of this park land, before it was developed for houses.

There is supposed to be lots of wildlife in the park, but all I saw were some ducks. I am sure this is where most of the deer in our neighborhood wander away from.