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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…
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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…
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39 Goals for 2019
As I mentioned a few posts back in my 2018 Year in Review, I thought I might try to write out 39 Goals or Wishes to Complete for 2019. I’ll be 39 in July and so I thought I might write up a list of things I’d like to do this year instead of a random word that I seem to continue to forget sometime mid-way through the year. I may not hit all of these but I do find when I see what I have listed that I tend to try to make things happen. At least that’s what I did when I had the 28 list, or when…
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In the Garden | December 2018
Having an extended weekend has meant a little more time to get a lot of different things done as well as leaving plenty of room for laziness. I’ve dabbled around the garden the last few days, more than I’ve done in the last month or so. And that meant taking time to get a few photos in…so here goes a photo tour of our late December garden. The swamp chestnut oaks (Q. michauxii) are starting to develop good bark now that they have been in the ground for over five years. In the edible garden, we’re in the transition period between sowing and harvesting with many greens nearly ready to…
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Year in Review | Best of 2018
Well, 2018 is closing out and I honestly can’t believe it. We’re inching closer to the end of the decade and it feels like yesterday we were at the beginning of the decade. And as per usual it is time to start reflecting on the previous year and thinking about the next. First, I think I should review my word for the year, which was apparently strong and of course I forgot about until I went to look it up. I think I tried to be strong in some ways. I’ve been fairly consistent with workouts despite not losing weight (lots of thoughts on that for another time) and have…
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Bushwhacking in Sam Houston National Forest
In mid-October Chris mentioned that he wanted to go look for a particular rare plant, Bartonia texana, aka Texas screwstem. It is frequently on the list of protected plants we survey for but here’s the kicker, the photos available for this plant are few and not many people see this plant. It also doesn’t have visible vegetation on it throughout most of the year, sending a flower spike up only when it is time to bloom. Luckily, it also fits a particular habitat niche so you would only come across it in certain locations, and these locations aren’t places most people are going to be trekking to. So, it really…
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Exploring Mission Tejas State Park Part III
The final post for Mission Tejas State Park! A few little morsels between photos but a write-up at the end! Indigo Milk Cap, Lactarius indigo: I was so excited to see this! The state park had shared a photo on social media a few days prior to our hike of this cool mushroom and I had seen someone else share their find in Ohio, so I put it on my bucket list to see one of these. We kept our eyes peeled for them but it was Chris who found them in an early morning hike before Forest and I got out of the tent. We went back later to…
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Surprise Pipevine Swallowtail!
Imagine my surprise when I got home at lunch today to find a pipevine swallowtail had eclosed in the butterfly cage! The pipevine chrysalides I have in the cage have been in there since September and I fully expected them to continue over wintering until spring. I still have two monarchs that have been darkening the last few days and figured I would see them out soon so when I saw a butterfly on the bottom of the cage I assumed it was one of them. But no, I was completely surprised! When I checked underneath the rock that the chrysalis had eclosed from I noticed it was the one…
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Exploring Mission Tejas State Park Part II
Hidden away on the Olen Matchett Trail near a remote corner at the front of Mission Tejas State Park are a set of old CCC tubs. Constructed when the CCC workers had set up camp to construct the state park, the tubs are a few feet downhill from a spring. Before our dinner the night we stayed at the state park we made one last hike to see what this interestingly labeled point on the state park map meant. At a slope behind the top of a hill we found the set of tubs. The spring was at the top, the clean rinsing tub in the middle, and the bathing…
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Christmas Cookies
We were supposed to be camping this weekend. And then the weather forecast last week stated temperatures in the 40s and rain starting Friday afternoon into early Saturday morning, tapering off around breakfast. The rain started later than anticipated on Friday so the rain became heavy by nightfall. The problem pipe draining our front yard still hadn’t been solved; Chris had been unable to pinpoint the actual issue. Friday night I started packing up my clothes and Forest’s clothes and a few other items, with Chris to bring in the storage bins for packing the rest of the gear later in the evening. However, the rain never let up. Secretly…