• Baby Teddy,  Family

    “Here Momma.”

    Forest is getting better as talking now, speaking short sentences and saying adorable words and phrases. The way he now says yes, with a little grin, makes me want to nibble his little cheekies as he cackles away. Succinctly saying yes instead of no when he was meaning yes has become more common over the last six weeks. When he says no he usually means no these days. And he will tell you “Don’t want!” if he really doesn’t want! But the sweetest is when he says Momma to me and in particular when he starts picking flowers from the yard and bringing them to me. Here Momma as he…

  • Creative,  Reading

    January & February 2017 Book Report (And TV/Movie Report!)

    I took about a month off from reading from the middle of December through the middle of January and it was great to disengage with books for that bit, but like always, I tend to come back around to take another gulp from some books. Since it has also been a season in which I’ve watched far more television than I usually do, I thought I’d talk about some shows and movies I’ve watched over the last few months. First, books! Completed Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher: With her untimely death back in December I kept seeing everyone talk about her books. I found this audio version, read by Carrie,…

  • Gardening

    The Garden Awakens

    The fig tree is putting on new leaves! One of the pipevines has returned! As have some of the ground orchids! Still waiting on the Nun’s orchid to see if it will be revived. We will be flush with strawberries soon! The flame acanthus are greening up. Tropical milkweed sprouts! The monarchs will have food! The deer really enjoy gladiolus shoots! They chomp, it regrows, they chomp again. I think it’s safe to say that spring is here. A string of 80-almost-90 degree days gave us a taste for what a few months down the line is going to be like. Having the weather that warm already was pleasant in…

  • Thoughts

    Persist.

    Consider this MY warning: We won’t be silent. We will speak out. And we WILL persist. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 9, 2017 Action items for this week: While there are a ton of items that I care about and I’m concerned about everything from civil rights to education, right now I feel like my focus has to be on the environment and public lands. It isn’t that I’m not paying attention to everything else but this is what I can manage to put my energy to and where I feel like I have the most knowledge and vocal strength. So. First up: The March for Science happening on Earth…

  • Outdoors

    Shelling on Bryan Beach

    Once Chris was off work last Saturday he met Forest and me at the hotel in Clute and we drove down to Bryan Beach located in the tiny beach hamlet of Quintana. To get there we drove through Freeport and past a maze of various chemical plants, common in this region. Chris commented on a large fenced parking lot full of new car—he’d seen the cars being offloaded from a cargo ship that he’d sent me a video of when it cruised by him (as he was fishing on the jetties) as it headed for the port. It was not a great day for being on the beach; clouds and…

  • Texas,  Travel & Places

    Sea Center Texas

    Me: Aww, I’ll take a photo of Forest looking at the turtle. *Looks through camera* ahhhhhh, nooo, don’t touch the turtle! Kids are fast. The eel was ‘spaghetti’ according to Forest! Chris has been working in the Freeport area over the last week so last weekend Forest and I went down to visit him. My original plans were to go down on Friday night but I came down with some kind of stomach bug so the trip was delayed until Saturday morning. It has been several years since I went down to that area, I once went to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory with Keely and went and saw the…