Season's Greetings from the Germantown Greenway!

[Celebration]

The Greenway is a six mile bike trail by the Wolf River that goes through Memphis and its suburb Germantown. Most of these photos were taken in the Germantown portion of the trail, all in the month of December.

It looks like my main hobby has turned to bike riding, with my camera in my basket for things like this:

A major whodunnit has developed on the Greenway. Who decorated the Germantown portion of the trail with a ornaments, bows, and hats?





I can actually walk to the Greenway easily from my condo, so one day I asked the grandson to pose with the decorated beaver--



Just like the Blue Ridge Parkway has various scenic overlooks, there are various learning centers along the Germantown Greenway, and the beaver lodge was likewise decorated.



As there are a number of lakes and marshes along the path, it also has its share of real animals--

A couple from "Turtle Bayou"





This hawk was pretty far away but at least the sun was shining bright



And this is from another portion of the trail (Shelby County Greenline, in Memphis)



Our warmest December day this year:



I rather like the paws under the water:



Finally, a belted kingfisher: (lighting not perfect)



Season's Greetings, everyone!

[Mira]

1. Wonderful Christmas outing

Taking us so long is a great treat. And I also like the paws under water whole lot.

[NV Whino]

2. Love your beaver

Er, uh... especially the paws under the water.

[Celebration]

5. I think this was some sort of beaver alternative

Muskrat? Nutria? Not sure. Didn't have a flat tail, which you can't see in the photo.

[alfredo]

3. Are you the decorator? Your secret is safe here. ;)

[Celebration]

4. LOL, no I am not

It's funny, though because the Happy Holidays sign was added later, and then some more decorations to the same tree later, and then they were gone. Some of the decorations remained up but the two hats and other concrete beaver decorations were later removed. The hats were cute and brand new so hopefully the rightful owners took them to use them. Before some of the decorations started disappearing I had considered adding some of my own.

I bet a lot of people missed the beaver decorations entirely because they are in the one place where the trail veers off. The regular trail goes over a boardwalk, but this is an alternative route that goes deeper into the woods and takes a bit longer, and the trail is narrower.

So, the mystery of the decorations becomes more involved. Just about had to be someone in a bike because I don't think you would walk three miles with that many decorations. It was fun to try to find them on the trail.

This was my first Christmas on the Greenway so I have no idea if all this went on in the past or not. I moved fairly recently and actually picked out our condo because it was very close to the Greenway.

[alfredo]

6. The local park authority probably picked them up. I hope the hat went

to someone that needed a winter hat.

Our local arboretum forms groups of locals to decorate the paths. Halloween/Harvest is the big show here.