Drake's Corner in February

February 20, 2009

My first visit to the site since the inaugural-walk-through with Jared on Jan 6^th 2009. Not much has changed – but I wanted to take a look around and get the feel of the space. It was an extremely cold and windy day – but good to be out there.

This is a 14 acre plot in a corner of Princeton that is otherwise becoming overgrown with large homes and it is almost an island within that. Like many islands (which it seems to be) it has a bit of everything - the good and the bad, and plainly the habitat has stood up to a lot.

There is a meadow, a stream, and a range of different woodland types all in this small area. Some of the land seems to have been just left untouched for many years, other parts have a number of invasive species roaring in and doing very well.

There are some lovely native trees and so for this visit I decided to focus on a few of the bark textures.

Here is a trunk of Persimmon (left) – a lovely native tree that seems to be doing well on this site, on the right

is hornbeam also called muscle-wood – and you can see why!

My favorite (below) is shag bark hickory.

There is a trail through the preserve that students at Stuart School have laid and that is both impressive and a most pleasant route through.

I’ll be back up there soon- it is a true oasis! Mary.