It's just a nature walk

Ah, the Sunday afternoon walk in the rain, the scourge of every British childhood, when all you wanted was to be curled up by the radiator watching snooker on a black-and-white telly.  But no!  Hannah hated having to go out for these miserable jaunts all through her younger years...which is why she now forces me and Pete to do it at least once a weekend.

Usually it's not raining here in Texas, but it was today, so she insisted on taking a picnic.  We drove to a nearby nature centre and went for a soggy saunter.

OK, I have to concede it is fairly interesting to wander around a forest listening to tree frogs calling to each other.  And we don't have many alligators lurking in the ponds of Somerset.  We don't have bald eagles either, but we have seen them before, along with the buffalo the centre had in a nearby paddock.

I didn't want Hannah to think I might be enjoying myself, so complained that I wouldn't be happy unless I saw an armadillo.  And then we saw an armadillo.  The state animal of Texas!  I cautioned Pete not to scare it, but the little armoured beastie had zero interest in us and scurried and snuffled its way around the woods, digging up grubs, at one point tearing at a fallen tree so much that it fell on its head.  It shook it off and went on its way, because we're tough here in Texas.

I'm not going to admit to Hannah how much fun a walk in the rain was, but I suspect we'll be doing it again next weekend.  They don't show the snooker on TV here anyway.

Wet walk.

Wet woodland.

Gator!

Thankfully this chap was in a glass tank in the nature centre.

And these guys were fenced in.

This guy was not fenced in.

Armadillo!

And off he goes.