most of you know by now that rice creek regional trail is one of my favorite places to walk. it is not the prettiest walk (vadnais lake), nor the nearest (snail lake), nor the most varied (pike island).  but it is the least used. which means that i can, more days than not, let my entitled puggle walk off-leash. we’re in the mid-february doldrums around here, and i am  convinced every day, as I pull into the parking lot and grab leash and poop bags from the center console, that everything i’m about to see has already been picked and identified and featured on still blog. but yet again today, jack and i came home, happy and pleasantly winded, one of us with empty bowels, the other with three new treasures.

twig from an unidentified february trailside shrub

rice creek regional trail, saint paul, minnesota