Potentially Peachy

A great many stars would have to align perfectly for this transaction to go through, but I have my eye on a piece of property in Montgomery County - 48 acres of mixed uplands and wetlands with 0.42 mile of frontage along Peach Creek, about 45 minutes north of Houston.

We took a drive out there with our realtor today, and these are some things we experienced.

Much of the upland acreage is wild pineywoods, a dense and unruly forest characteristic of this area.  I estimate it was last logged perhaps 40 years ago.

Proceeding down into the floodway, there are various oxbow-like features and fluvial avulsions.  I wish I could identify the species of duck that we saw here.
Incidentally, Nyx did very well off-leash during this, her first real trip into the woods, first of her life.  A hound would have been SO outa there, but she the shepherd generally stuck close by.

January is fairly colorless here so this doesn't look very picturesque, but this is Peach Creek, which Nyx investigated gingerly.

Trees reflecting in the opalescent waters of Peach Creek.

A massive, massive elm (I think) down by the creek in the thick of the bottomland hardwoods.

Speaking of trees, I'm fairly familiar with this area, and I'd never seen one like this before.  It resembled a species of birch, and it grew in abundance on the property.  Here, the sun has backlit the bark making it appear
more orange than usual.

In one spot, I found the weathered remains of a cow, including these spalling vertebrae.

Incidentally, Peach Creek is the same creek that runs along the western side of one of my favorite places (and the site of Lawrence's marriage proposal), Lake Houston Park, formerly Lake Houston State Park and now apparently renamed Lake Houston Wilderness Park.   We stopped there for some quick freeze dry en route back to Houston. 

He was born with a nylon spoon in his mouth... and that is one unhappy dog, tethered because the place was crammed with other excitable canines on this extraordinary day (65 degrees F, speckless sky, with hard freeze expected within 24 hours).

It's easy to see why natural selection
might favor brindle coloration...

Poor suffering dog needs sympathy because of
that leash situation....

Anyway, it sure would be neat if we could get some land.  We are well off financially, both of us, and Lawrence's family owns a beach house in addition to their suburban homesteads, but that beach house (as nice as it is) is on a postage-stamp-sized piece of land, and I'd really like to see us all have some SPACE in which to run around, explore, make our own rules, and celebrate freedom.  This is especially important for kids, all of whom grow up with no genuine spatial freedoms at all.  Not sure if this will prove to be the appropriate piece of land in which to invest, but it was neat to visit it.