• Thoughts

    Life Lately | January 2019

    Thinking: On the politics front: +An Open Letter to Howard Schultz by Jon Lovett of Crooked Media/Pod Save America/Lovett or Leave It. Unless you are a third-party (and not insane) conservative, stay out of the 2020 race. We don’t need you jacking up the election. +Any time Ted Cruz gets taken down a notch is a good day in my book. From what I understand Senator Bennett is usually mild-mannered so him going off on Ted is pretty spectacular! +I’m glad to see so many women announcing exploratory runs for president but the only two that I see so far having a chance are Senator’s Warren and Harris. And to…

  • Creative,  Reading

    January 2019 Book Report

    It’s been a bit since I’ve done one of these but the reading groove has returned and so my book reports are back! Trespassing Across America: One Man’s Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland by Ken Ilgunas: I’ve had this flagged to read on Hoopla Digital for a long time now and had been in the mood for an audio book one day and it sounded enticing at only around 7 or so hours. I sped it up to 1.5x and after a few minutes my brain caught up and I was able to handle the pacing change. The author has several books out that are…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors

    3.5 Miles on a Sunday Afternoon

    *Photos are from our phones. Left the cameras at home.* It’s always hit and miss in December through February with camping plans around here. We canceled a weekend camping trip back in December and I thought we were going to make last weekend’s reservations but it became clear that it was going to be iffy as the week wore on with rain and cold front. The rain came at night in a short downpour leaving strong winds in its wake the next day. While it was sunny, it was also quite chilly. Nighttime temperatures were dipping in the 30s. And when it is only one night, packing for a family…

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    Life Through the Lens of a 4 Year Old | 1

    We got Forest a cheap digital camera for him for Christmas so he could start taking photos. He hadn’t really expressed a ton of interest in doing so but I take photos plenty and he knows we take photos with our phones, too, and I thought it would be a nice non-toy to get him. He’s used it a handful of times and I took off the ‘best’ photos from the SD card and deleted all of the hands-covering-the-lens photos—hah! A few more photo lessons are needed, I think. Here’s a short selection of his photos so far. I thought it might be fun to do a series from time…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    Indian Lodge Trail | Davis Mountains State Park

    I’m going to skip ahead a bit as I edit photos of our time at Davis Mountains State Park and go straight to our first hike on the Indian Lodge Trail on our first full day at the park. I’ll be putting together other posts about our campsite, trips to the bird blinds, wildlife, and sunsets at the overlook on Skyline Drive separately. Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma woodhouseii We drove over to the trailhead and parked in the parking area behind the lodge. A scrubjay was perched in some trees nearby so we took the opportunity to get a few photos before we started. I had been calling these scrub jays…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    Clayton’s Overlook Trail | Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center

    Ephedra sp. I put a guess up on iNaturalist and my guess was wrong—I figured it would be—but someone with more insect knowledge suggested Darkling Beetles, Family Tenebrionidae. Maybe I’ll investigate further soon. I’m fairly certain this is Eaton’s Lipfern, Myriopteris rufa. Nylon Hedgehog Cactus, Echinocereus chloranthus Echinocereus coccineus ssp. transpecosensis Star Cloak Fern, Notholaena standleyi Mitre Peak–We came to Fort Davis from Alpine via Tx 118 and this peak was a stunner from the road as we drove by and I noticed a sign for a county park (I believe) as we passed by. I had wished we’d had time to stop in and thought we might make a…

  • Botanic Gardens,  Gardening,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    A Peek Into The Chihuahuan Desert Botanical Gardens

    New Mexico Agave, Agave neomexicana Now that’s a deer/antelope/sheep fence! Cowpen daisy, Verbesina encelioides Queen butterfly Tree cholla, Opuntia imbricata Beaked yucca, Yucca thompsoniana Finally I’m starting these west Texas posts! It was after lunch when we arrived close to Fort Davis and the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute and Botanical Gardens. Chris had found the place in his scouting for other things do in the region and the admission for that day was half price, I believe. Just a day or two before there had been a presentation and book signing with an author on plants for the region and Chris was bummed to have missed it. That didn’t stop…