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Hibernation Mode
Pasture Heliotrope, Euploca tenella I have entered hibernation mode as we switch from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time. One thing I do relish about this switch, at least for the first two months or so, is that after dinner there is time to do nothing and everything. I don’t feel the need to have to go outside because it’s still sunny out. I can become a cozy hobbit and mindlessly move from one thing to the next and then ponder that it is really too late while looking at the clock and being dismayed it is only 6:30pm. *sigh* (Patrice, in Alaska, is laughing at me now!) I haven’t…
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Goodbye NanoWriMo, Hello NanoEdMo
Four days into NanoWriMo and I think I’m going to call it. Why? I realized I have a plot issue. The plot where I left off last year doesn’t work in my brain this year. And try as I may, I can’t get it to work. Typing words is difficult and I find myself stumbling. But I came up with an alternative plot this afternoon that works better. However, I’m going to have to edit the first half of the book before I get back to writing so that I can get into the groove of the book again. *phew* So, no winning for me this year. But coming to…
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NanoWriMo Round 2
Somewhere on the northern part of the Appalachian Trail, 2010. Last year I won at writing and accomplished my goal of finishing a NanoWriMo event (National Novel Writing Month) for the first time. I’d written about half of that about a decade ago but had never finished the full 50K words. This year I’m at it again but am finishing the book I started last year. I had intended to spend time editing and finish the book earlier this year but my interest waned. Instead I have spent the last few days reacquainting myself with the book and characters. I thought I had remembered enough about it but apparently not…
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How can you grow native plants if there aren’t native plants to buy?
A discussion that Chris and I get into on occasion is, how can gardeners grow native plants when there aren’t native plants to buy? Ok, sure, there are native plants to buy but the diversity of native plants is terrible, as you will see further into the discussion below. To take this idea even further, some gardeners and ecologists think gardeners should be growing by ecoregion or habitat type, not by USDA hardiness zone, which is the prominent method of identifying plants that will grow within a certain gardening region. Some recent discussions on social media prompted me to really ruminate on this issue and write about it, so let’s…
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Disappearing Act
Hello! You look down and suddenly it is over two weeks since your last post and time just keeps on ticking by. Life has been busy but I can’t really blame it all on that. Part of it is that I got a new computer for my birthday back in July and in August it started giving me blue screens of death with various warning codes to decipher and after both Chris and I tried to negotiate it ourselves, it is now on its way back to HP. I still have my old laptop but it is limping along with various issues of its own so I don’t like toting…
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Scratch and Sniff Butterfly Ginger
Ever since the gardenia died after the Snowpocalypse in 2021 (there are a couple of tiny shoots coming up, but it is basically gone) I haven’t been able to enjoy that heady aroma in the garden. The next best thing is the butterfly ginger which blooms in the autumn, though it doesn’t waft its scent from backyard to frontyard like the gardenia. It’s not a bad consolation and will lift your spirits while cleaning up the potting bench or starting new seeds, but you do have to force your face into the flower to drink in the full scent of the flowers! I keep hoping some of our other gingers…
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Thankful to not be in Florida…
Last night I saw a rumor that the Sanibel lighthouse had been taken out by Ian but this morning that appears to have been false, thank goodness. But I did see that the bridge to Sanibel/Captiva sustained damage and is completely unusable. I’m trying to wade through social media and the news for reports and we’re hoping a friend/acquaintance in Cape Coral made it out ok. I have a lot of thoughts and memories about Sanibel and Fort Myers to write up but will save that for a few days to process. Living in the Houston area we’re subject to our own storms and floods but moving out of Florida…
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Birdwing Passionflower, Passiflora tenuiloba | Wildflower Wednesday
Last summer during our stay near Dripping Springs I spent some time wandering the area just outside of our AirBnB to see what I could glean for iNaturalist. I noticed a gulf fritillary wandering along a vine and it made me pause for a moment. Gulf fritillary should mean a passiflora somewhere but nothing was standing out to me directly as a passionvine. Of course a closer look meant that I found small fruits and flower beds and once I focused in on the interesting leaf shapes I knew it was for sure a passiflora species. My first thought was Passiflora affinis, which I had seen in areas nearby in…
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Jones Spring at Pedernales Falls State Park
Tucked in far back along the southeastern boundary of Pedernales Falls State Park is a little spring called Jones Spring. Chris and I had been there many years ago and I wanted to visit again during our trip in July 2021. When we hiked in originally we came from the Wolf Mountain Trail near the main park road, a hefty hike in from that area. You can also park off of County Road 201 on the south side of the park, parking in the parking lot there, or we pulled over at the eastern junction of the Madrone Trail and that road where it was obvious other cars had parked…
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Best of Summer 2022
Oof, the last week or so has been busy and I’ve been solo parenting while Chris has been doing field work. It hasn’t left a lot of time for writing. But I thought I would do a Best of Summer wrap up while Forest is getting his bath tonight. Summer isn’t officially over until late September, but I think we all know June, July and August are the summer months in our heads that we care about—or the ones we cared about as kids. And the ones that rule the roost for anyone who has a kid in school. This summer breezed by quickly but there were some delights! I…
