We took a brief walk in the Sloan Preserve near Dexter, MI, this morning. It's a short distance from the small parking lot to the creek. It's one of a few preserves in the area that keep some space open but walkable, without being a full-service park.
You can walk across the creek on the rocks. After this short walk, we drove into downtown Dexter, where we looked briefly at the very small Dexter Farmers' Market. Fresh vegetables, pots of herbs, jams and home-made cookies, and massages are all available.
Just down a stairway from the market is a beautiful hiking and biking path that goes along the same creek we saw earlier, but quite a bit downstream from there. The path goes under the old railroad tracks and on through wooded areas and hillsides and fields with many flowers.
In the afternoon we went to a garden center and bought several outdoor plants, including this rather strange looking hanging basket for our porch. These flowers remind me of the blossoms on a bottle-brush tree:
Late this afternoon we went to the home of one of Len's fellow birdwatchers. The garden faces the Huron River and is filled with bird feeders and native plants. A hummingbird landed on this feeder several times:
Nice looking preserve! Too bad the maintenance is so haphazard. But there will be a better stream crossing soon, and better trails on the island.
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