Weekend Outing - Cedar River (the courtyard)

I've been trying to squeeze in a tiny bit more *life* amongst trying to maintain my family/household and the ongoing busy-busy current work schedule. As part of that quest, last weekend some POBL friends and I spent a morning at the Cedar River Watershed Nature Center on a guided walk to discuss native herbs.

It is a gorgeous, slightly out-of-the-way location - with views of water and mountains (and can you believe that the vine maples are already showing some color? July feels too early for red leaves).

The center is a beautiful complex of buildings and boardwalks - all trying to integrate into their natural surroundings.

I loved these views of wild-things growing on the roofs of the various structures....

One of the coolest aspects of the courtyards were clusters of large, wooden drums they had scattered about nestled under the trees. Each drum had its own tiny, barely visible pipe that was dripping water from several feet above.

The drips must have been on computer timers or some other mechanism because they were varied and random, and the whole courtyard would echo with deep-throated percussiveness. Talk about magical and atmospheric! It was like something out of a Shakespearean fairy glen. (We discussed the possibilities of setting a similar thing up in our own backyards - but it seemed a bit beyond our capabilities).