• Gardening

    September Lepidopterans

    The lepidopteran show here at Tadpole Hollow is full swing. I thought I had a bunch of monarchs back in August but nope, the migration is really in full swing now. I have caterpillars and eggs out my ears and I’m doing my best to raise what I can though most are doing their own thing out there on the milkweed. Raising the monarchs are been educational and rewarding but also a little heartbreaking at times. Smaller caterpillars just up and disappear, probably chomped on by their larger counterparts because they don’t know any better, and I had my first case of OE that showed up in a chrysalis just…

  • Thoughts

    Life Lately | September 2017

    +In My Head It rained earlier this week, the first time since Harvey. I think all of Houston twitched for a little bit. A few people I am friends with or follow online, one of them had their house flooded for over a week, weren’t so happy about the rain. I actually hadn’t driven beyond Tomball down to the south of us in these last several weeks so I hadn’t seen anything flood related other than what was around here and it was minimal compared to what happened in Harris county. I drove to Baytown last week to do some field work and saw several piles of trash that were…

  • Friday Five,  Memes

    Friday Five | 10

    It’s been awhile since I’ve done any of these but here are some things I’ve loved this week! Pod Save America’s interview with Hillary Clinton. I’m on the list to borrow her book at the library and I can’t wait to read it but this was a very satisfying show to tide me over. I just wanted to reach through the computer and hug her and it dragged up a lot of feelings I had from the day after the election. She would have been an excellent president. The latest two episodes of the With Her podcast. Yep, more interviews with Hillary. So good! This adorable, make-you-cry video from Serena…

  • Florida,  Travel & Places

    Oh, Florida.

    This isn’t Craig Pittman’s Oh, Florida! This is I have no words for what is likely to happen to my favorite state, our friends, our former coworkers, our favorite places and spaces, and everything we love in Florida. Harvey was literally in my backyard and yet this feels so much more personal. It doesn’t help to see pictures coming out of the BVI of what Irma did there. I went to Tortola and Virgin Gorda with my parents and brother in 1996 for my parent’s 20th anniversary so those places have memories for me as well. I didn’t—couldn’t—watch the tv coverage from Harvey. I suspect I won’t be able to…

  • Creative,  Reading

    August 2017 Book Report

    I read five books in August! That’s what happens when I have an hour to read each night when I’m getting Forest to bed. Completed Deep Summer by Gwen Bristow: I was searching for historical fiction on Hoopla Digital and this sounded great. It wasn’t until I was a few chapters in that I had to stop and look up the book a bit because I was a little confused by the blatant use of the n-word and some other racial issues, as well as some awkward language/wording at the beginning. This book was written in the late 1930s and book covers have been updated which is why I didn’t…

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    Forest is THREE!

    Forest and I are making the best out of a weekend that just couldn’t come together like we wanted. First, Harvey wrecked Rockport and then Chris had to go out of town since he didn’t get to leave last weekend, and then plans to go to DFW (and into OK to meet Chris) were messed up with the gas panic throughout the state. We’re eating cake, opening presents (the ones we have—half are at my parents that were sent there thinking I’d be there, the other half are hopefully coming in the mail today but mail isn’t quite back to normal here yet), and trying to make the day the…

  • Gardening,  Thoughts

    Happy September!

    Let’s pretend this is a pretty fall vignette of Seminole pumpkins that I harvested freshly from the garden. In reality this is still a rather pretty fall vignette but all three of these pumpkins are rotting thanks to the floodwaters from Harvey. Instead of enjoying these fruits later this fall and winter I now have plenty of seeds to grow more vines next summer! The bright side, I guess?? There are still three pumpkins out there that looked like they might make it through but only time will tell. On Tuesday I thought many things might pull through but by Wednesday it was clear that was laughable and I ripped…