Today I was able to identify the mystery flowering bush. It was indeed the multiflora rose; after looking at some more pictures and doing some more research on how to identify them, I knew as soon as I saw the plant's "fringed stipules," which I have a photo of below.
Today's walk was definitely during the wrong time of day. The way the sun was shining with that golden hour glow was beautiful, but it made spiderwebs uncomfortably obvious. Lately I've been trying to move past my childhood (and andolescent...and teenage) fear of bugs, hornets and spiders in particular. I believe I've made some personal progress in countering my fear of hornets - I feel like we can peacefully coexist now - but my fear of spiders is apparently still kicking. I spent what I think was a good minute debating how to avoid walking directly into a stray spiderweb that was stretched across the trail, glaringly poignant in that perfectly angled sunlight. I ended up just taking a deep breath and walking straight through it without thinking too much about it, but I was particularly paranoid the rest of my walk. Next time I don't think I'll go that time of day. Jeepers.
I ran into a few squirrels this walk. The first one startled me (it was right after the spiderweb incident) and I fleed past it, worried it would jump at me. That may seem unwarranted, but I swear the squirrels on this trail are prepared to jump on any too-curious passers-by. Except for the second squirrel I encountered on my walk, which was happily munching away on some seeds that had been left for it. I was able to comfortably get close enough to take some poor-quality photos of it without facing any of the same skittishness and aggression as the majority of Hail Pond's squirrels. I honestly don't even think it cared I was there, which I greatly appreciated. It looked so gentle, and, as a bonus, it was very adorable.
Tomorrow I want to take some more pictures so I can bring them home and identify some more plant species, or at least gather some research identification tools I can bring with me the following days.
- W
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