a walk on the wild side.

Deana (see links to the side) challenged her blog's readers to post pictures from a frequent walking path of theirs. I wouldn't say this is my favorite path, it sure isn't very picturesque, but we do it often. Come along for the ride...

We head down our street, Briarwood and start a criss-crossy path. There are no good streets to use. Some are pretty busy and few have sidewalks, except for ours, for which I'm very thankful. If we want a quick jaunt, we do just our block, sometimes I let Ivan walk it. It's very long, 3 blocks, so to the end and around would be like walking 6 blocks. Pretty good for someone a little over 30 inches long! Katty corner to the stop sign is an elderly lady's house from whose yard we often hear ducks, geese or some other mystery creatures. She calls her yard xeroscaping, but others call it a jungle!

Xeroscaping is supposed to be water efficient landscaping (using rocks, heat resistant plants...). Many people use cactus to decorate their yard with. I always think they look like a huge toddler hazard. This is why we moved our struggling rose bush to the front yard, next to the wall, behind a little cement wall. Ivan shouldn't fall on it, unless he is playing where he shouldn't be, then I guess it would be live and learn!

It's christmas year round here! I didn't know back home that mistletoe is a fungus, not a plastic decoration. It loves mesquite trees. It also saps all their energy and causes them to barely give their thin leaves in the summer, but it makes for a long walk of kisses or easy, cheap decor for the December festivities.

I promised a walk on the wild side, so here it is! Actually stray dogs can be dangerous, this one followed us accross the street after I took it's picture. It was just fine until I had to disturb it's potty break! We've seen people walk the streets with a club and Brian started carrying one after two incidents. We once used an umbrella stroller (that was WAY to hard to maneover) to ward off two BIG stay dogs as I carried Ivan protectively in my arms (the stroller made a better weapon than a mode of transportation). Another time, we actually called 911 when a pitbull attacked Saba, who was on her leash with Brian holding her and I had Ivan in the REAL stroller. The responder told us to be very careful- yeah, duh!!!

The only things green right now are the mistletoe, evergreen bushes and trees (some pine, most leaf). Coming from Canada, I didn't know there were evergreen leaf trees. This tree is desperate for greenery and accepted some vine to climb it in a poor impersonation of an evergreen tree.

Here's Ivan in the somewhat busy street. We go 7 blocks down this one to get to an elementary school.


This peach tree either gives off early fruit or is confused by our warm weather, as it has already budded and is blooming. It's been summer temps here (80F, 20C) today.

You can spot a pecan tree from a block away by its distinctive pecan clusters. These ones have already opened and dropped shelled treasures, but I've walked with our little neighbor Jaime and enjoyed seeing her hunt down and collect all our stroller's tray could handle in pecans. She was delighted with her "crop" off the street and headed home to eat them. Something else I learnt. Since the only way I knew how to get into a nut was with a nut cracker, I was amazed once as I watched a 3 year old crack open a pecan with no special tools. Adults can put two side-by-side in their palm and crack one with force, but this little smarty placed a pecan on the concrete, stomped on it and picked up the (crushed) pieces. He and his cousin had a little stomp and eat fest in our backyard one day and I was that much wiser.

The neighboorhoods go from what Brian calls "the hood" to suburbia the further we walk toward the school. Our street is a good blend of both. There are both trashed out yards and manicured ones, sometimes right beside each other. But as we walk, they become more uniformally upscale. This yard features a fancified condo for the wildlife. Many of the yards in this area have signs saying "well water". This means they have a well and should indicate a more lush yard, assuming they use it. The rest of us commoners are subject to the city's mandated water rationing in the summer drought. We are allowed to water on a specific day and at certain times, according to our house number twice a week. If caught watering on an off day, one can be fined.

The school is on a huge property square, 3 blocks long and wide. There is a walking path all around it and they recently added stroller friendly ramps at each corner. It's nice not to worry about traffic and greet the many walkers who benefit from the "trail". When the sidewalk was put in, they let each grade write their names in the cement, a constant reminder to us of the little people being formed on the property and how quickly they grow up. It also says each grade, the kindergarteners would be turning 30 this year!

We loop around the school property. This elementary school is being fully renovated this year. It is closed to the public, it's students are shipped to another school during reconstruction. You can see the air conditioners on the roof of this building. There are 4 octogonal buildings, linked by covered sidewalks, then a main area with cafeteria, library, offices and other classrooms.

Here's the front, with it's circular drive for crazy pick-up times. Most kids are driven to school or walk. If we are here that long, this is where Ivan will go. We may walk for pick-ups, I'm not sure how we'd do getting up early to walk for dropping off.




Either the workers really identify with the poorly decorated tree from Charlie Brown's Christmas AND forgot it is February, or this tree is extremely dangerous. Ivan and I kept well away from it!

On the way home, we like to take a different circuitous route through the nice neighborhoods. We are reminded what beautiful landscaping can occur with mucho dinero and what garages look like when they are used as garages and not add-on rooms for the home. I read that twisted, half laid down, mesquite trees were made this way by the buffalo that long time ago roamed these parts. When the trees were mere saplings, the buffalo rubbed against them and reconfigured the direction of the tree. The now old scratching post makes for interesting visuals and challenging mowing.

On we go, until we reach our home. 1534 Briarwood. It features laughs and cries, real people trying to find their way through this journey. Now that you know you're way around, you may be more comfortable to take us up on the offer of coming down. There is an extra room and you are welcome anytime. (Unless you are some wierd blog reader who I don't know, at which point we'd want to meet you first!) Happy trails!