• Botanic Gardens,  Gardening,  Outdoors,  Wildscape Photo

    Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve | Part I

    A few weekends ago, on our Sunday off, Chris and I went to the Watson Preserve. It’s about an hour from Beaumont and well worth the drive. In fact, it has such a diversity and beat the Sundew Trail at the Big Thicket that day for having more blooms and plants worth seeing. I’d love to meet Geraldine Watson sometime (you must watch the video that is the link!). If you are ever in the area I highly recommend stopping by this place and checking it out. I’m breaking the trip down into several posts as I took a zillion photos. The photos on this post are with three areas…

  • Thoughts

    And Summer has arrived.

    Holy Moly it is hot! Heat paired with humidity and oof, it is going to be a long summer. In Florida I would’ve hibernated for much of the summer. I remember going a few weeks not mowing our backyard because I just didn’t feel like doing it. The grass would get tall and inch up between the container garden and then at the end of the summer we’d do a gigantic trim from the humongous growth that had occurred. Texas is similar in heat and humidity, though the humidity varies depending on the region. Since we’re working on the coast the heat might not be too high, 90s instead of…

  • Outdoors,  Wildflowers

    Texas Wildflowers: Borrichia frutescens, sea ox-eye daisy

    This is another plant I learned in my Coastal Plant Ecology course in college, Borrichia frutescens. Found in dunes and salt marsh areas this is a colorful favorite for those areas. This salt tolerant coastal native is a perennial and has a slight succulent feel if you pierce the leaf. This large colony was found at Texas Point NWR, but anywhere along the Texas coast you can find sea ox-eye daisy. I imagine that the yellow flowers are great wildlife attractors, particularly butterflies and the brown seed heads would make interesting inclusions to cut flower arrangements. If you’ve got a bright sunny spot in your garden and are looking for…

  • Art,  Creative

    In Progress | Hollyhock in Pastel

    After more than a year and a half hiatus from drawing I’m trying my hand at it again. I’ve been toting around some art supplies every time we went to a project but it had been gnawing at me to do this for awhile. So, here it is. I go back and forth from thinking I’m doing ok to wanting to say it sucks. If I look across the room at it I think “oh, it looks good”, and then I look at it up close I think “who am I kidding?” So there it is. I’ve had the photo I am working from printed for maybe three years. Yep.…

  • Florida Trail

    Florida Trail Tales 11: Blountstown to Nokuse Plantation

    Preparing for our first 30 mile day, we got up well before dawn to start hiking in the dark. We’d informed the motel managers that we’d leave the key in the room since we were leaving so early. It was pitch black when we left the hotel, our headlamps on full blast. This was our first night hiking adventures since summiting Katahdin back in August. We followed S.R. 20 for a mile or so before trying to locate a bike path that went through the north end of Blountstown, through neighborhoods. The sky was starting to lighten as we made it to the edge of town and we finally extinguished…

  • Outdoors,  Thoughts

    Swamp Work Part III

    Similar posts: Swamp Work & More Swamp Work. More happenings in the woods and swamps of SE Texas: So, I love my job, even when I’m wading in chest deep water. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! Luckily we didn’t see any alligators or water moccasins! You know it’s a good day when you are canoeing at work! We had a nice canoe, though it got a little bit tough when we ended up in a thick mat of salvinia…talk about friction! Look at that view! The salvinia we paddled through, tough stuff! Frog on salvinia. Driving down a canal road we saw our first softshell turtle, a…

  • Florida Trail

    Florida Trail Tales 10: Apalachicola National Forest to Blountstown

    Apalachicola National Forest is a wonderful little place in the panhandle of Florida that has a very unique ecosystem. Carnivorous plants can be found and vast ti-ti sloughs stretch across the area. The day had started off drizzly and cloudy at St. Marks NWR but by the time we’d entered ANF it was clear and beautiful. We knew that there was potential for being wet in this entire section, particularly in Bradwell Bay, a well known swamp that the trail goes through. Chris and I had been arguing about doing it or not and during the afternoon we played phone tag with the ANF office trying to find out the…

  • Creative,  Thoughts

    Sunday ’round here…

    Lots of good things I’ve read in the past week or so on the ‘net. Thought I’d share: +Dr. Who Regenerations: A compilation of all of the Dr. Who’s through the years. I’m personally fond of David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston. That’s when I first started watching, however sporadically I watch. +Sour Cream and Onion Kale Chips. I tried making kale chips about a month ago or so and while some tasted well they didn’t come out how I imagined. Chris turned his nose up at them and while they didn’t taste bad, they weren’t as crunchy as I thought they’d be. Not sure what I need to do next…