• Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places,  Wildflowers

    Trout Lilies at Tandy Hills

    Continuing in the theme of “OMG, that was this year?” because apparently March has turned into January and is now the longest month ever (beware, I think April is going to be double in length as well)…let’s rewind to a month that blitzed right on by—February. Ah, we were out and about, seeing family and friends, taking hikes. And now? We look fondly back at photos and miss all of that time we spent out of doors (or eating in restaurants, or not being paranoid about the grocery store. Hm, I think I need to write an updated pandemic post…) So, back to our chilly afternoon hike at Tandy Hills…

  • Memes,  Neighborhood Nature

    Neighborhood Nature | 1

    Considering we’ll be staying close to home for the foreseeable future I figured it would be nice to start a new theme here—Neighborhood Nature! I definitely encourage you to join along if you’d like and showcase what you see around your own neighborhood. Yesterday evening we went out for a walk and right off the bat I rescued a caterpillar crossing the road. I took a few photos of course and later when I tried to identify it on iNaturalist nothing seemed to fit. I opened my caterpillar book and still had a hard time thinking any of the potential families that I knew would fit. Then my book haphazardly…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    The Last Wildflower Walk for Awhile

    It’s looking more and more like our hike at Lake Somerville State Park two weekends ago is going to be our last hike for a good while. Last weekend we had camping reservations at a state park just an hour from here on the west side of Houston but opted to cancel due to the rain forecast. It was a good decision but I was already concerned about using the bathrooms. Most state parks do a decent job of cleaning up every morning but still…you can only control the surfaces you know, right? And even up to this weekend I thought that maybe we’d get out and go somewhere less…

  • Alaska,  Outdoors,  Travel & Places

    Spotted Tussock Moth (Lophocampa maculata)

    As we walked around Skagway and then over to Yakutania Point to go for a hike in the afternoon, we noticed a ton of these wooly bear like caterpillars. They were everywhere! I didn’t identify them until I got home a few months ago and put them into iNaturalist. A more northern and western species, the larval stage of these moths feed on “poplar and willow, but also feed on alder, basswood, birch, maple and oak.” The adults are variations of brown with some patterning like so many moths out there and their larvae are definitely the most colorful thing about them!

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places,  Wildflowers

    Texas Spring

    If there’s one thing we can count in in spring here in Texas it is that the bluebonnets and paintbrushes will continue to rise out of the soil and bloom. The sandyland bluebonnets (Lupinus subcarnosus) were the species blooming on our trip over to Lake Somerville State Park last weekend. Only a few paintbrushes (Castilleja indivisa) were seen but there were plenty of other wildflowers to gaze upon. We did find these wonderful patches of bluebonnets nearly 2 miles down the trail in an open field as it sloped towards Nails Creek. This weekend is rainy and cooler and so we’re not leaving the house to explore much. I suspect…

  • Alaska,  Travel & Places

    Exploring Skagway, Alaska

    If you are anything like me right now you are probably a bundle of nerves. My friend Eliana posted a photo the other day from some travel around Alaska—they emerged from the YK Delta and saw what was going on and had no urge to return to Florida immediately—so they took a trip to Kodiak. The photo was this beautiful sunset photo of oranges, reds, and purples and looking at the photo made me feel like things were normal. They are now heading back to Florida and all this. But since we’ll be at home all weekend I will probably work harder on editing more Alaska photos and getting blogs…

  • Thoughts

    What a March.

    Ah, late February, how long ago you were. I casually said in that post that I was wondering how seriously we should be taking Covid-19. It was already on my mind and had been since January. When I flew to Florida there were people with masks on and it didn’t take until I had a conversation with someone at Billy Goat Day for it to register why. And then the flight back home, other people with masks on. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough to think a little bit harder about the implications. Sometime around that post I told Chris we should add a few extra items to…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    Lepidopterans & Sunshine at Lake Somerville State Park

    Yesterday I wanted to get out and do some hiking and thought it would be nice to head west to Lake Somerville State Park. We haven’t been there since I was pregnant with Forest in May 2014! Not for lack of interest, though. Every time we checked into going we would find the state park closed due to one of the various flooding events over the last few years. Harvey did a number on the parks and just within the last month was the Somerville Trailway between the two units open once again. Our last good hike on the trailway was in 2013 with our AT friend Redhat. Wanting to…

  • Appalachian Trail 2010

    A Decade Ago – Our Springer-aversary!

    As this date started approaching I wondered how I was going to be able to write anything about it. And I find myself sitting here unable to really figure out what to say. Time flies. I miss the ability to be able to get up and do this sort of thing and yet my brain could definitely not focus on a thru-hike right now. I think I’ll come back here in a few weeks or later this year when our Katahdin anniversary comes up and see if I can write anything more. But I just wanted to commemorate this day by posting here. I love you, Appalachian Trail!

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    Signs of Spring – Huntsville State Park

    Camping two weekends ago at Huntsville State Park was pretty fantastic. The weather was gorgeous for late February and everywhere the signs were out that spring was coming and there was no stopping it. On Saturday we took a 7 mile hike around the lake and got to see what was blooming or beginning to push through the pine needles. Fox Squirrel, Sciurus niger – the squirrels at our campsite was all about looking for whatever scraps might be left from campers. One of them wanted to become our BFF and hop into the food containers which required constant vigilance even if we had the lids on to our food…