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Wildflowers at McKinney Falls State Park
Let’s return back to McKinney Falls State Park over Easter weekend and wrap-up our time there with some wildflowers (with a side of vines, trees, and shrubs—it was spring, things were blooming!). According to my post drafts, I have another post for Pedernales Falls State Park that I didn’t get around do. Looks like I’ll be sharing another post from there soon! Lupinus texensis, the Texas bluebonnet Callirhoe involucrata, winecup Gaura coccinea Possibly Bidens (aristosa?) Onosmodium bejariense, soft-hair marbleseed Nemophila phacelioides, Texas baby blue eyes Tradescantia ohiensis, ‘alba’ version Torilis arvensis, spreading hedge parsley, I think Amorpha fruticosa, false indigo bush Clematis texensis Achillea millefolium, yarrow Allium canadense Salvia farinacea,…
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A Sunday Afternoon
Chris and Forest left around 1pm to run errands: Lowe’s, Target, a haircut for Forest, grocery shopping. That left me to several hours to do what I needed to do around here and for the most part that has been chores. Last weekend was a weekend away and next weekend is a weekend away so that leaves me to cram into this weekend all, or most, of the things I need to get done. Cranking up the “Romeo and Juliet” station on Pandora—that would be the Dire Straits song—I’ve been jamming my afternoon away to not only Dire Straits but plenty of other good music that puts me into a…
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Life Lately | August 2018
Thinking: About the passage of time…my niece Zoe turned 10 a few weeks ago and my nephew Grayson turned 7 on Saturday. We went up to Fort Worth for their birthday party this weekend and I can’t believe they are that old already! I can always mark Grayson’s birthday and age with my work anniversary (the office version–the field version is about 10 months longer that) since I started here a few days before he was born. It feels like yesterday that we were wrapping up our period of vagabonding, settling into our tiny rental, exploring local flavor, and Grayson was born!. But nope, 7 years ago y’all! And I’m…
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Juniper and Fern Hammock Springs
*Lots of photos, write-up and videos at the end!* #*(&#$*(& Air potato Palamedes swallowtails After our paddle on the Juniper Run, we had nothing else on the agenda so we opted to hang out at the Juniper Springs pool itself and take a walk over to its sister spring, Fern Hammock springs. I had forgotten to stow my bathing suit in the car that morning so I opted not to jump in and swim, which was probably a good thing because Chris said the water was rather chilly. He and Forest splashed around while I sprawled out on the ground next to the spring to relax a bit. Forest made…
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The View From The Front Porch
This summer we’ve been spending a lot of time on the front porch. It’s Forest’s go-to location to hang out and play, mostly because he likes to run around barefoot and we like him to wear shoes in the yard here because of snakes, so the porch is one place he be without shoes. I tend to wear minimal footwear around the yard as well but I’m (generally) more observant than he is when traipsing around the yard. So, he plays on the porch or if the cars are out of the carport he plays under the carport where he can more easily ride his bikes and trikes. When we…
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More Summer Lepidopterans
I’ve been attempting to slow down a bit in the garden and just sit and be still and that has included sitting on the perimeter blocks to watch butterflies. It’s been a lesson in working my stealth mode photography skills as well as a lesson in not reaching out to pull weeds constantly. In my attempts to learn a bit more about what is using the garden and when, I’m getting my camera out and taking photos to document it all. The other day I was weeding out the strawberry bed and had this tiny insect on my hand that I couldn’t identify. It was possibly some sort of leaf-footed…
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Paddling Juniper Run
One of the items on our list to do before we moved away from Florida was to paddle the Juniper Run in Ocala National Forest. Chris and I did paddle that run in 2009 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s within the Juniper Prairie Wilderness so it doesn’t take much for you to feel as if you are in a very remote location. It rivals the feeling of being in areas of Big Cypress National Preserve or paddling the Turner River in Big Cypress/Everglades. The next time we’re in SW Florida I think we need to revisit the Turner River again. When we began planning out our limited time on our…
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That Time I Was On A Podcast(s) Part II
Hey there! I’m around but July has been a busy month at work and the last week and a half even busier—which has meant working from home after hours, something I am extremely averse to do unless absolutely needed. Once I emerge from the fog of all of that I promise to return and wrap up posts from our trip to Florida, summer gardening, and continued writing here. In the meantime, I wanted to write a quick update and to let y’all know I was on two podcasts recently. The first was back in May on The Beginner’s Garden Podcast with Jill McSheehy. That episode is here: Organic Gardening in…