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Beech Creek Explorations in the Big Thicket
To continue a bit from last week’s post with the nodding nixies, today I’ll share a few items from the Beech Woods trail at the Beech Creek Unit of the Big Thicket. We’ll start with this Rosy Wolfsnail, Euglandina rosea, seen near the picnic area at the trail head. Followed by an invasive Asian Tramp Snail, Bradybaena similaris. And a self portrait with my best kiddo! That tooth is mostly grown in now. This was a very interesting mushroom I found, turns out to be a Stalked Puffball-in-Aspic, Calostoma cinnabarinum. Chris is admiring something about this tree but I have no idea what! Patient poses for mom on a very…
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First Encounters with Nodding Nixies (Apteria aphylla)
Apteria aphylla, nodding nixies, were one of those fall blooming species that I had been dying to see for several years now. Chris couldn’t believe I hadn’t come across any but we hadn’t been in their habitat locations during the fall and typically he’s the one doing the field work these days which meant he’s had ample opportunities to see them, moreso than I have. But, seeing them in person finally happened for me when I came across the in the Big Thicket last year. And there were tons to see! Nodding nixies are in the Burmanniaceae family, which means if you’ve ever seen a Burmannia spp. before, you know…
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Kleb Woods Wanderings | April 2022
During the summer of 2020 a new road opened that connected the road our office is on to FM 2920 which made getting to that road much faster than it used to be, which entailed going down two long and windy roads. This direct shot is equal parts good and bad because while we are thrilled about getting to 2920 much faster and now have access to run into town or to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch, it means a lot of forested tracts are now open to development. Several have been cleared this summer. I might be less upset about all of this is a Kroger or HEB…
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Ruby Eclipse Sunflowers
One of the highlights of early summer were the Ruby Eclipse sunflowers I sowed in the spring. I planted a couple of different varieties and these were the only ones to come up but it wasn’t until they bloomed that I was able to figure out which ones they were. I watched as they went from knee high to chest high and then eventually towering over my head. I thought these were tall but I have a tithonia right now (Mexican sunflower) that’s several feet taller than these sunflowers were! I originally bought these from Floret but I believe you can find them other places online. I’m saving seed for…
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Rhexia + Green Lynx Spider
On Saturday, Chris and I drove over to Gus Engeling WMA east of Fairfield after we dropped off Forest with Chris’ mom and step-dad for a week visit. He’ll then go to my parents for another week after that. To cap off our kid-free time, we drove over to the WMA to look for some bogs that are tucked away in the property and to see the property itself for the first time. It’s been one that I’ve wanted to visit for a few years now and with good reason—there are some very unique habitats and plants there! We will definitely be going back when it isn’t hot as Hades.…
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Io Moth Caterpillars in the Big Thicket
You may have noticed the uptick in posts here this week. That’s because I am finally returning to blogging regularly after relinquishing some of the grip social media has had on it. What I would have been posting to social media I am returning to posting here. Blogging, for me, really took a hit in 2020, though there had been a downturn for about a year before that. And looking back now, I realize just how much never made it to the blog. Even some of the stuff I would share to social media, not everything even made it there. But, I’ve been feeling to tug to get back here…
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Wetland Conversion Down On The Pond
So, before I start this post let’s travel back in time to late June and early July 2012 when we moved into our house. We were coming off of the 2011 drought and even had some drought conditions (and flood) throughout 2012, which also meant some lower water levels in the pond our property abuts. You can see Chris here getting a hole ready to dig to plant a new tree, a water tupleo which died last year, likely from the deep freeze we had. The hailstorm a few months later didn’t help when new leaves were coming out. But, I digress. The stream that feeds our pond has brought…
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Art with Hummingbirds
While in New Mexico I had hopes to spend more time working on some sketchbook art, primarily my perpetual nature journal that I started in early September last year. I’m several months behind because I sunk into a pit of not doing anything in May so I’ve been continuously working to get back on top of things. A perpetual nature journal is one that has some flexibility but ideally you are using one page or set of pages to chronicle something in nature for a certain time period on every year until that page is full. Mine is set up weekly, though the weeks will slide a bit as they…
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Skylight Dreams
As the heat ramps up again here in Texas (we had a brief respite of lower 90s on Friday after some rain), I dream a bit about the cabin in New Mexico that Chris and I stayed at last month. Being able to open the skylight to let fresh mountain air into the cabin was delightful. You can see a bit of the bookcase over on the other wall (and I’ll share more of it soon) which made the idea of reading in bed with the skylight open and an accessible library all day a rather wonderful activity to ponder and make a little of it happen. In an alternate…
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Things I’m Loving Lately
In Austin over the weekend we popped into an HEB to get some groceries for our short stay. I wanted to check out their kombucha case because HEB usually has the Live brand that is cream soda flavored. My Kroger only carries the root beer, which is fine, but I like the cream soda better. I picked up a couple of the cream sodas but then became enamored with these Greenbelt brand kombucha so I snagged the strawberry and peach. I drank the strawberry there and it is far better than GT’s and this may be my favorite brand now! Luckily our HEB has them too so I bought a…
