Growing up, my hobby, other than playing outside, was reading. Now I don’t devote nearly as much time to reading as I should, though the internet is my source of reading a lot of times these days. Anyway, this is the stack of magazines I need to weed through. Chris’ dad gave me a stack of Outside magazines, a new Yoga Journal came in the mail, as did Urban Farm, and Backpacker. So did Texas Parks & Wildlife. I have a lot to flip through!

And then there is this stack, too! I have finally worked up the nerve to start The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series. The first one was excellent but incredibly disturbing and mind-provoking that I had to give the story a rest. I think I’m ready for Lisbeth Salander again.

Me and Mr. Darcy is a chick-lit/Austen re-mix book that I am looking forward to breezing through.

That Used To Be Us is a political snoozer but still very interesting. Received it from my boss at Christmas and I’m still trying to finish it. It is very interesting and up to date with information from the latter part of last year. If it was leaning any way I’d say it leaned left but for the most part it is non-partisan and hanging all sorts of politicians and media out to dry.

And finally The Heirloom Life Gardener just arrived the other day unexpectedly for me, but not for Chris since he ordered it. It’s kind of a history of Baker Creek seed company but also about getting into gardening and the plants themselves. I loved the part where he describes wandering around Mexico looking for heirloom seeds at farm stands.

Maybe I’ll finish these all in May?

Last weekend I drove down to the San Bernard NWR for the Migration Celebration. It was very busy and full of activities but I only had time for a trip to the San Bernard Oak and to see the exhibit hall which included the photo contest exhibits. The photo above is the 2nd place award I won for the Nature Photography as Art part of the contest. As I said, I entered on a whim, mostly to test my skills to see if I even had a chance. And I guess I did.

But, I don’t think I will enter this contest again.

The photos above were the rest of what I submitted but did not win anything on.

I think I need to find something less bird-crazy next time. Something a little more artsy like what my photos tend to be.

I spent some time this spring working on my galleries on my section of our website. When I put everything together in late Fall 2010 I was rushed and hadn’t thought it through. I’ve taken so many more photos since then and while I haven’t put all of those up yet, I have re-organized the website into better galleries. I’ve also created an image index because our galleries aren’t easily searchable. I also wanted the words to be able to be pulled up in a search engine and this way they will. The headers of each listing should be linked to the appropriate gallery.

I still have a lot of work to do! I have many images to add and at least two more galleries I want to add, a personal garden one and a botanic garden one. But—-that requires going through all of my files from Texas and Florida and that will take some time. Maybe by the end of summer I’ll have everything caught up…maybe. What I am hoping to do is to start doing small posts here of photos I do end up getting into the gallery, because after all, what I want is to sell my work! (Sell *our* work…Chris likes to sell his stuff too!) (Side note: I know the white is hard to read on black—I’m going to look at making the font larger soon.)

More than likely I will do away with the portrait section soon. As much as I want to get into portrait photography my life is not situated for that right now. I still love it, love taking pictures of my friends and family—and don’t get me wrong, if you want a portrait session, I am not going to say no to a paying client—but it isn’t my focus.

In other news, this photo won 2nd place in the category for Nature Photography as Art in the Friends of Brazoria Refuges: Migration Celebration Photo Contest! I’m very excited! I entered four others, two in the same category and two in the animal category. I’m curious to see what the winners were in all of the other categories. I’m going to go sometime this weekend to the festivities they have going on down in Lake Jackson this weekend. They are doing tours to the San Bernard Oak…it’s a big tree and I’m all about big trees! I think it over took the Goose Island Oak as largest live oak in Texas.

Anyway, hop on over to the website and check it out. Let me know if you see any blatant errors—I do know the PA gallery won’t work because I haven’t put a gallery to it yet—but the others should work.

Thanks and please spread the word!

Remember back in February how I photographed trout lilies at Tandy Hills? Well, I finally finished processing my macro shots taken with our 65mm macro. And let me tell you, I think this lens is the sweetest thing ever! The photos were awesome and now that we bought the flash to go with it I’ll be able to do more with lower light conditions, which happen easily when using the higher ‘X’ magnifications.

Here they are…enjoy!

Today I’m also over at Sprout Dispatch, so come by and say hi!

The awkward mirror self portrait.

Followed by the faux day dreaming self portrait.

I brought out Big Bertha to work with this yarn. The yarn was a skein of Lang Maxima I received from my mother in law for Christmas. I chose the yarn to work with because I knew it would be fast and get results (creative satisfaction) in the manner I needed. The problem was the thickness. I was going for a cowl initially but there wasn’t enough yarn for that, so I went for skinny scarf instead.

After I reworked it a few times, when I realized I wouldn’t have enough for a thicker scarf, I finally settled on a chain of four and then worked in single crochets throughout. That was it!

I think it worked out well!

The other day I was lamenting that it is incredibly frustrating that I have my best creative moments in the middle of the work day. Those moments where I think, ‘Man, I wish I was at home because I could really get some writing/art/whatever done right now.’

So, in those moments, in the middle of the day I get excited for my creative energy and inspiration and then, what happens? I go home. And what happens when I go home? I’m hit with being tired, lack of motivation and an overall brain drain from working on projects for clients instead of my own works.

I thought about this as I read Mandy’s post about that…“In the space between anxiety and boredom was where creativity flourished.”. Later Mandy writes, “Though I have not been bored in years, I can’t claim that my creativity is always flourishing. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the number of choices I have, rather than the lack of them.”

That. Is. Me. I’m not bored. But boy, do I get overwhelmed. Not only by what I can do, but the goals I set for myself. Every weekend that I’m alone, which is a lot these days since Chris is doing field work, I write up a to-do list of things I want to do, all the big, important things I’m going to get done, and by the end of the weekend I’ve only done a tiny inkling of what I set out to do.

Somehow in the mix I shuffle my creativity into being overwhelmed and then sidetrack it into doing other things from the mundane (chores) to not so mundane (shopping or nails painted).

Sometimes I hear my sister in law saying “I’m gonna need you to focus.” I can’t remember the backstory on that, but she was saying it quite a bit a year or so ago….I need her here to say this to me.

Focus.

Here I am writing a book and the next thing all I want to do is draw or crochet. Part of that is the instant/semi-instant gratification that comes with those two. I can, if diligent, draw something in a couple of days, and likewise depending on the crochet project, have something crocheted in a few days. It’s something that I can say “I did this. Good job, self.”

This writing thing? It’s a whole other mountain to climb. There isn’t instant gratification at all. And you know what? I’ve talked myself into writing two other books, with a third being a distant idea that needs fleshing out. I’m not sure when I’m going to do this, I haven’t even finished one book.

The creative process is hard.

So, I guess I will keep plugging away at the book, writing it until it is done. I’m trying to allot myself at least an hour to write a night, hoping for more, but most nights I don’t even write. In the hour time frame that I do manage to write, depending on how easy the words come to me and how much I have to look up (I try not to look things up, saving that for editing later) I can get between 1,000 to 2,000 words in an hour.

The rest of the time I’m trying to catch up on photography in order to update the website which is in desperate need of updating, fitting in blogging which is another creative outlet, and somehow getting crochet and art into the mix.

But, I know I am not alone in this creative process, that others have the same issues, even those who get to devote their entire days to their craft.

You just keep trudging along until you get it done. It’s the only thing we can do.

A couple weekends ago we finally broke down and bought new phones and upgraded our cell phone plan to include texting. We could text before but we paid by the text not by an unlimited amount a month. We’d eliminated that when we were jobless in order to save some money. Anyway, our cell phones were also from 2004…well we had multiple incarnations of the same phone. Any time our phones would die, Chris would go on Ebay and find a refurbished or cheap one from overseas somewhere.

So, I hadn’t had it but a week and it was starting to get scratched. I know you can get screen protectors and I still will probably get some, but I came up with the idea to make a cell phone cozy. I’m sure I’m not the first one, but I didn’t even Google it, just whipped it up while watching t.v. one evening. I was actually more inspired by the coffee cup cozies out there than anything.

It was easy, took about fifteen minutes after I figured out the right size to make it. Just made a chain of 9, then worked half double crochet’s into a round around the chain. Pretty simple! Good use of spare yarn!

One of our Christmas presents to each other with Christmas money we received from family was this beauty a 65mm macro lens. I had yet to play with it so I took it out in the backyard one day at lunch and shot some seedlings, garlic, and dill. It is pretty freakin’ amazing! I love using the reverse macro mounting technique and use it quite extensively, but this lens is crazy! The depth of field has a similar feeling to the reverse mounting, but it seems sometimes I can get more in focus in the whole frame with the macro lens.

It will definitely be a working experiment!

I toiled over this blanket for so long. Its original incarnation looked nothing like this. In fact it was going to be a simple square, half double crochet alternating between the back and front loops in a striped pattern. Somehow along the way I kept decreasing my rows. The first time I did not get very far into it before I unraveled it. The second time I thought perhaps it just needed to stretch out.

I do not know what happened. All I knew was that I felt that I had just begun crocheting not that I had been doing it for 9 years. I was dumbfounded. Finally, I scrapped it all, actually I left what I had finished together and let my cats sleep on it for a few days and instead went for the yarn still in balls from the store. Initially this was going to be a blue dominated blanket as it is for a baby boy, but then I went for the grey/white dominated with blue accent. Eventually I booted the cats off of the original one because I need to unravel it for extra yarn.

And here is how it ended up. I’m worried it might be a bit girly because of the frilly sides due to the circle pattern.

In all I am happy with it but I will not be crocheting a blanket for anyone for awhile. In fact, maybe ever. Unless I buy really chunk yarn that whips up fast. I have definitely learned to favor the quick quilts I have made for a few friends. Time wise they whip up in a few hours, money wise they can be a bit more expensive unless I make separate trips to craft stores with coupons. Yarn isn’t cheap either and I don’t always buy the lower end stuff for babies. My tastes in yarn have grown finer over these 9 years.

My mother in law went beyond my normal line for fine yarns and bought yarns that I probably would have splurged on only occasionally. It was definitely a great idea for a Christmas present and I have yet to figure out what to make with them.

This is sock yarn. I think I have recovered enough from my last pair of socks to make another pair. I am still looking for knitted (or really nice crocheted) candy corn colored socks for Fall/Halloween.

I’m hoping this is enough for a shrug but I might have to buy more if it isn’t. Love these colors so much!

This will be a great chunky scarf!

Now that I have finished the blanket I will probably put crochet on hold for awhile. I need to write and process a lot of photos.

While I was crocheting I watched a lot of movies…
+Sideways: Never saw it when it initially came out. It was not what I imagined, good but not nearly as much wine as I imagined. Slightly depressing.
+Emma: with Romola Garai. I had listened to most of this on my mp3 on the AT so I knew the story. I still feel the ending is rushed and so is the pairing between Emma and Knightley.
+North & South: This has to be my absolute new favorite. Mr. Thornton is the 1850s industrial version of 1800s Mr. Darcy. Rent this. See this. You will fall in love!
+And if you aren’t watching Downton Abbey you must be living under a rock. Ok, I’m not currently watching because I watched all of S2 on YouTube, including the most recent Christmas special, but everyone in the U.S. is watching on PBS right now. Rent S1 and then catch up with S2. And if you have 30 minutes to spare, listen to Elizabeth’s commentary on the new season.

That is all!

A few months ago we were in REI when I spotted this book, Paddling the Wild Neches. Having spent the better part of spring and summer working on and around the Lower Neches River near Beaumont I thought it would be a fascinating read.

Ever since we did our two thru-thikes I have been intrigued by those who also paddle source to end (or sea) down rivers, particularly relatively unknown or lesser known rivers such as the Neches. I think many people in Texas know about the Sabine since part of it forms the boundary of Louisiana and Texas, or maybe the Trinity and Red Rivers, or particularly the Guadalupe or Comal since are tubing rivers in the summer time.

But the Neches? Or the Angelina? Or the multitude of other streams, creeks and small rivers that surround those two rivers? Not many except those who are familiar with the land in east Texas and even then those will be a relative few.

The author, Richard Donovan, sets out to revisit the river and surrounding lands that he grew up on. He had a history of working for Temple-Inland, well known for their pine plantations and logging in and around the Piney Woods/Big Thicket. In the late 90s and early 00s two dams were being proposed along the river, the Fastrill Dam which would help support Dallas’ thirst for water, and the Rockland Dam, which would also help aid in Dallas’ thirst but also the surrounding ares of east Texas. The Fastrill Dam has since been stopped by the Supreme Court (if you click on the Fastrill link). As far as I can tell the Rockland Dam is still being proposed.

So, Donovan sets off down the river starting not at the source in Van Zandt county near Lake Palestine and ending at B.A. Steinhagen Lake in the south. A couple of years later he paddles the original route but then adds in the final southern portion all the way to Beaumont with a varying group of reporters and friends to join him.

Overall I really enjoyed this book but was disappointed in some of the lack of detail. He includes great anecdotes of the history of the area, stories about bears and albino deer (that ended up being a goat), bootlegging and days of the ‘open range’ before barbed wire and folks were able to hunt and gather on any land they pleased. The days of fencing properties occurred when too many cattle were wandering around in the middle of roads causing accidents. The fencing properties led to game theft and trespassing and a spirit of debauchery that was eventually slowed when the timber companies began putting together hunting camps.

He also writes about the impacts of logging, not only to the local economy but to the forests. The logging of the virgin pine and bottomland hardwood forests was done heavily in the early 20th century, but provided jobs for the local towns until the areas was cleared completely and they moved to another region. Then the towns were hollow shells of their former tent camp selves. I can only imagine what the vast stands of longleaf pine looked like prior to their near eradication and subsequent replacement by tight stands of loblolly pines.

The river itself is mostly untamed with the exception of two lakes and the salt water barrier dam located in Beaumont. At the time of the book’s writing the dam was being built; this summer it was definitely in operation….or rather not because they wanted to hold back water to the north due to the drought. Donovan also tells tales of the river being traversed by paddle and steam boats in the 1800s and I can’t imagine that because the river isn’t all that large, but apparently they did make their way a good distance up the river. Then they would be log jammed, literally, because the loggers would send all the logs they cut upstream into the river to float down to Beaumont to the mills. Sometimes the logs would get stuck when the water level dropped; the author surmises that some of these logs are still under the water and in near perfect condition.

If you are looking for a different book to read, something adventurous but also environmentally relevant to the current politics of the Texas environment, definitely pick this book up.

+Paddling the Wild Neches via the Conservation Fund
+A Trip Report
+Article on the author in Texas Monthly
+Transcript from an interview with Donovan
+August 2011 article on how other places are tearing dams down, Texas is going for more.
+Drought Schmout from 2009 about DFWs largest water users. Ross Perot is on that list.

Now it is time for some frivolous reading as I have finally got hold of a copy of The Help.