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July 10, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was an occasional surprise smell of mushrooms on the dirt path through the tangled woods on this early morning. Crows laughed and gossiped in the treetops. Cardinals and wrens flirted back and forth high in the blue sky. Down low there was an annoyed hissing and rapid rustling and hustling away in the crispy fallen leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was summer and time for our seasonal photograph of the Bend in the River<\/a> in Houston\u2019s great Memorial Park. But Big Jim, our devoted photographer,<\/a> naturalist, and conservationist<\/a>, was not in town, so it fell to the assistant to take the shot. We\u2019ve been documenting the same bend in Buffalo Bayou throughout the seasons for the past eight years.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Memorial Park Conservancy<\/a>, preoccupied with bulldozing trees, pouring concrete, and hanging name plates, does its best to block access to this wild and peaceful southeastern section<\/a> of our beloved people\u2019s Memorial Park, throwing up wire fencing, tree limbs, and warning signs. But the simple, narrow paths are well-trodden and maintained by anonymous volunteers. Someone has restored the wood handle on the rope swing used by the adventurous to fly across the lovely, shaded creek that drains the center of the park. Further downstream someone else has hung a small rubber swing on the bayou bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a long Houston tradition of swings over the bayou, of course, thanks to the strong, gracious trees that grow near the sloping banks. Historically this was a thrill mainly available to those privileged to grow up in upscale neighborhoods on one of the only local bayous that hadn\u2019t been stripped of its trees and straightened in misguided and counterproductive flood control projects<\/a>. But Memorial Park belongs to everyone, and for many years there was a knotted rope swing hanging from the great arm of the ancient Southern Magnolia that still stands on the bank even further downstream. The rope disappeared years ago, and the massive tree is looking somewhat haggard. One of the world\u2019s oldest plants<\/a>, there are few magnolias left in the wild. This Magnolia grandiflora<\/a> <\/em>could be 200 years old. Could have been there when the great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted passed through, noting the beauty and perfume of the magnolias on Buffalo Bayou. (p. 29<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/2.-bend-summer-1.jpeg\")
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