06 Dec A Visit Back to See the Swan

It’s December and it’s 76 degrees outside. Tomorrow, the weather forecasters are threatening us with freezing temperatures. That’s what it’s like in Texas in the winter – shorts and t-shirts one day, scarves and mittens the next! We don’t often take the weather forecasts very seriously, but today, we thought we would get in one more visit to the park before it became, as one meteorologist called it, “entombed in ice.” Dramatic much?

We had noticed that our friendly, neighborhood swan was still at the pond, and the kids had been begging to go back to see the swan. So we headed out for a walk.

The kids were excited to walk to the park. This whole effort to get out into nature more is one of the best things we’ve ever done! It calms the soul and soothes the mind. One would be hard pressed to be stressed while in nature.

The ducks, however, didn’t get the message. Maybe they’d gotten news of the upcoming winter changes? From the moment we got there, they were so aggressive. They charged at us, hissing and snapping at each other, fighting over the food we’d brought. Similarly to our last visit to see the swan, the Canada geese were especially aggressive. We actually had to get up onto the dock so we could throw the food into the water without being attacked!

We had fun until Clark stepped on a fire ant hill. Seriously, why don’t fire ants have the sense to go hide if it’s going to freeze? Unfortunately our plan to go back to see the swan turned into a bit of a disaster. The swan was there, but not friendly, and between the geese and the fire ants, we took off running home.