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On Sunday I got on our NextDoor group and saw that several people were posting about President Bush’s funeral train supposedly traversing a track that runs through a town very nearby. I can hear the train horns from inside our house, that’s how near this track is. Sure enough, I looked up the route and it was set to go through Magnolia sometime around lunch or just after. I told Chris about it and thought it would be neat to go. Honestly, when I thought about going I didn’t imagine that a ton of people would be going considering it was the middle of a work day. Little did I…
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Hanging Around Camp at Mission Tejas State Park | Wordless Wednesday
(Ok, so nearly wordless, but you can’t quite tell here but the piece of wood to the right of the fire pit, there’s a pipe coming out of it. yes, that’s the water source. It’s usually near the electrical outlet, typically near the parking. Let me say, getting water when smoke is blowing your direction isn’t fun. Poor planning on whoever did this!)
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Exploring Mission Tejas State Park Part I
Salvia azurea Liatris elegans Passiflora lutea Oak mistletoe, Phoradendron leucarpum, I think! American Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana Texas Bull Nettle, Cnidoscolus texanus Black walnut, Juglans nigra Before we arrived at the state park that last weekend in October, Chris had noted that there was some kind of trail run going on in the park. I was a little surprised considering the park isn’t huge, but after looking at the park map and seeing that it was adjacent to a Davy Crockett National Forest tract I knew that there was much more here to be explored. The park was very busy when we checked in and we were unable to get to…
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Christmas Tree Time!
Yesterday was one of those typical Texas December days that had you thinking it was early March. It was shorts weather and if you didn’t know any better, you would be loading up on plants at the nursery to get going for spring. A cool front came through last night which chilled the air just a bit but the temperature is back up today, though not nearly as high as yesterday’s. We had intended to get out and get our Christmas tree last weekend after we got back from Thanksgiving but the goal of cleaning up our upstairs living/play area was thwarted when Chris realized the pipe running under our…
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Life Lately | November 2018
Thinking: I didn’t write about it earlier this month but I went on my first overnight trip away from Forest in early November. I’ve been ready for a weekend away for several years now but I knew Forest wasn’t. Finally this summer I knew that it would be a lot easier to get away for the weekend and so two of my friends and I made plans to spend a night away. We’ve been friends since the summer of 1998 and were living aboard the TS Texas Clipper II. Ideally we would have liked some quaint cabin in the Hill Country but with last minute planning and driving distance we…
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We Got Bees! | Wayback Wednesday
No, we didn’t get new bees, but I was on my podcast’s YouTube channel the other day, something I’ve kind of abandoned but am thinking of resurrecting, and found some adorable videos of Forest. One was the time we went to pick up a new package of bees and the second is him planting green beans. Man, it’s been so long since he talked toddler/baby-like I forgot what it was like! Also, I’m going to reach through and pinch his cheeks! Feel free to skip around on the bee video, it is a bit long. Anyway, I’m thinking of doing more videos again and just keeping them simple. All the…
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Late November Harvest
I’m usually a lounge-about morning person, sipping my coffee, surfing the internet as I eat breakfast. This morning I was itching to get outside after our week away. It was compounded by the freezes the week before that and general dreary weather the last several weeks. I was outside by 8:30 this morning with a wonderful spring-like atmosphere. It was glorious! My goal was to start attacking the edible garden. Before the freeze it was in decent shape though it needed to be weeded and some leaf removal from the rows of seedlings needed to occur. After the freeze lots of plants needed to be taken down and added to…
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West, To the Mountains
*Photos are from my phone, sorry for the sketchy quality* Planning Thanksgiving campouts can be tricky. Is it going to be too cold? Rainy? Sunny and cold is one thing, rainy and cold is another. A few months ago we sat down and made our camping reservations for the year, which you have to do because reservations at popular state parks fill up months in advance, and Chris pinpointed that he really wanted to go the Davis Mountains State Park in Fort Davis. For those unfamiliar with just how big Texas is, this drive from our house to the state park is akin to driving from Washington DC to Portland,…
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Lepidopterans at Mission Tejas State Park
Campsite six at Mission Tejas State Park turned out to be a great spot in the late fall afternoon sun to butterfly watch. I think I’ve seen hackberry emperors around a few times before but I’ve never spend a lot of time watching them, so I wasn’t even sure that’s what it was when I noticed several of them basking in the sun on the trees at the site. Luckily we had brought the fold out nature guides of Forest’s and I was able to confirm it was hackberry emperors hanging around out campsite. Joining it was a red admiral and a couple of honeybees as they feasted on the…
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Flora, Fauna, and Fungi at Lake Livingston State Park | Part II
White Heath Aster, Symphyotrichum ericoides I think this is likely late goldenrod, Solidago altissima. Either way, an open field of goldenrod flanked by bushy bluestem is my kind of fall scene! Bushy Goldentop, Euthamia leptocephala. Solidago’s look-alike cousin. The trail we were on when I saw this mushroom was an elevated boardwalk. I hadn’t seen a mushroom that large before so I hopped down, clambered over some smilax vines and rotting logs and took a few photos. I know mushrooms get much larger in other areas of the country but this wasn’t something we normally see here in my part of the world. I put this into iNaturalist as Carolina…