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Irises for Saturday
While the wildflowers this year might not have been as stellar as we’d hoped, the Louisiana irises in the ditch are now putting on quite a show! We have a few varieties, including the typical native Iris virginica down near the pond but I’ve not had a chance/remembered to get photos down there so far this month. There will be more gardening photos this week! Look for them on the latter end with camping photos at the beginning of the week. Hope you are having a good Saturday!
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Exploring the Falls on the Pedernales River
Nemastylis geminiflora, Prairie celestial Over Easter weekend we made the trek to west of Austin to Pedernales Falls State Park. The last time we visited this park was in September of 2011. I went back through my archives and realized I barely wrote about visiting the park. I think I intended to put together a video from the park but I remember that at the time I was having trouble figuring out how to use the editing software. And then I abandoned that project, went to Pennsylvania to work for a few weeks, and life kind of took off. I had a lot of trouble trying to remember the park…
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Great Horned Owl | Wordless Wednesday
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Great Horned Owl Watch
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The Village Creek & Tupelo Trails | Village Creek State Park
We’re flashing back to February when we went camping at Village Creek State Park. Our morning walk along the Village Creek and Tupelo Trails was very quiet. Aside from encountering a few people near the primitive campsite near the trailhead, we found no one else on the trails that morning. There were plenty of Nyssa aquatica, tupelo, specimens lining the bayous and bottoms that drained out into Village Creek. Village Creek was calm and serene that morning. Adjacent to the trail we found a couple of jack-in-the-pulpits! The Village Creek trail deadended into the beach at Village Creek. We spent quite a bit of time scouting the edge of the…
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March 2016 Book Report
Read +Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon: As I finish my third reading of this book, I have to say I have developed an appreciation for taking it slow and sussing out the details of this book and series. With any of Diana Gabaldon’s books, when they first come out it is a race to devour the story, to see where it leads. Often I finish mentally exhausted, which is to be expected after 800+ pages. And then I don’t pick the book up again for years. I’ve read the first four in the Outlander series multiple times and really need to pick up the last four once again. I’m…
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Hello!
Hi friends! I’m still here, just taking a little bit of a blog break at the moment. About a month ago I decided to buckle down and get down to business with finishing my book. The first round of editing was finally completed a few months ago but then I had to format the book into chapters. That took some time because I was also including a break down of campsites along the trail. After all of that, I began researching how to submit books to publishers. I am not a writer by profession but I had enough knowledge to know I had to send query letters to publishers first.…
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Early March Yard Ramblings
I walk around the yard these days and I get glimpses of life pre-Forest. I will never be that same person, have those same moments, but I get glimpses. It’s peaceful, and yet still incredibly fast-paced and definitely not still. Just being able to notice the sun (Earth) changing positions as it heads towards spring, seeing the different ephemeral weeds popping up in the yard, or the budding of the trees; those were things I barely caught a glimpse of last year. As much as I get those pre-Forest glimpses I really, really love the here and now with Forest as he wanders the yard. He loves it so much…
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Friday Five | 5
Downton Abbey!!! The series finale was almost everything one could want after several ‘blah’ seasons. You know, one character I never thought I would come to like was Thomas. Frankly, I think he and Edith might have become the better characters by the end of the show. And Bates? His character just went from loveable to creepy. 7 Lessons Bindweed is Teaching Me Super Tuesday and Primary voting: I know this is not the week that happened, but I did vote in my first ever primary and Super Tuesday. Florida has closed primaries, and as I was a registered Green party member in that state, I did not ever get…
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February 2016 Book Report
Read The Lady Elizabeth by Allison Weir: I started this back in late January but didn’t finish it until sometime in mid-February. It was fairly long and took a lot out of me! However, I really did enjoy it. The author has several historical fiction books of this era that I want to read at some point in time. What I liked about this book was that it followed the life of Elizabeth Tudor (Queen Elizabeth I) from about 3 years old until about 25 years old, when her sister Queen Mary died and Elizabeth became queen. The book picks up on the rumor that Elizabeth may have become pregnant…
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The Late Winter Yard & Garden
Justicia spicigera, Mexican honeysuckle Gladiolus dalenii A creeping violet thing that we’ve long lost the tag for. Prunus mexicana, Mexican plum blooms. Tomatoes in the vegetable garden. Bolting Chinese cabbage. Peach blossoms Sophora tomentosa, necklacepod The last of the cauliflower Sugar snap peas Carrots Our strawberries are finally looking like they will do well this year! ‘Bali’ tomato seedlings Variegated hydrangea Mexican flame vine Foxglove Budding brugmansia Budding azalea Crawfish burrow Bolting mustard greens Collard greens Red Russian kale Parsley Bolting cilantro Dill Nun orchid flower spike Woodland painted petals flower spike Scilla sp., Leopard lily spike