Over the 4th of July weekend we headed for the Hill Country and did some swimming in the Pedernales River at Pedernales Falls State Park. After a few hours of that in the morning we opted to drive over to the bird blind and sit there while we ate our lunch. Black-chinned hummingbirds, Archilochus alexandri, zipped from feeder to feeder and then to the small tree and shrub branches to rest. Luckily the glass in the bird blind was fairly clean so it allowed for some fairly clear photos of the birds. Then a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Dryobates scalaris, made an appearance and it took me a few tries to get…

In late June we took an evening out in the middle of the week, dinner at a new to us Tex-Mex restaurant and then a walk/hike over at Kickerillo-Mischer Preserve. The park is down near The Vintage in the Willowbrook area of NW Houston off of SH 249—so it is rather urban/suburban but once you get into the park it doesn’t feel like it unless you pay attention to the background noise of the roads in the distance! The park itself was very busy with joggers, strollers (not the baby kind–well, probably a few of those, too!), and fisherfolks. If we lived closer than a 25 minute-ish drive I know…

Cenizo, Leucophyllum frutescens — I think. It looks rather ragged and I can’t figure out anything else that this could be. Fairy-Swords, Myriopteris lindheimeri Small Ballmoss, Tillandsia recurvata Tiny Bluet, Houstonia pusilla Sand Phacelia, Phacelia patuliflora Now that it has been many months and moons since we visited Inks Lake State Park (February 2019), I’m now yearning once again for those spring ephemerals. Though, autumn blooms are coming our way (SOLIDAGO, I SEE YOU!)—to revisit this site now would be an interesting study in contrasts! We hopped onto the Lower Fisherman’s Trail on our way out of the state park after our long weekend camping. You can easily complete a…

*blows dust off of WordPress* Hello there! There comes a point when I take these long breaks from writing here (which I haven’t taken one this long in many years) that at some point I start having a contest with myself to see how long I can go without writing. A week? Can I make it two? Two? Why not go a month? Paired with the sporadic posting from the previous two months before, well, the blog hasn’t really been a priority. Honestly, it still isn’t but I figured I shouldn’t let it lay here floundering in the internet wasteland. So, let’s go back to early April when we made…

This is a longer post because I couldn’t refrain myself from taking all-the-photos! Write-up at the end! Agarita, Berberis trifoliolata Sonchus sp. Tradescantia sp. Cutleaf Evening Primrose, Oenothera laciniata — now that I’ve noticed this I see it everywhere! Drummond’s Phlox, Phlox drummondii Myriopteris sp. More agarita — I loved seeing this in bloom! Texas paintbrush, Castilleja indivisa Allium sp. Shepherd’s-Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris Texas Toadflax, Nuttallanthus texanus Pepperweed, Lepidium sp. Rain Lily, Zephyranthes sp. Dwarf Dandelion, Krigia occidentalis Lace hedgehog cactus, Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. caespitosus Yellow Stonecrop, Sedum nuttallii Lace hedgehog cactus + yellow stonecrop More lace hedgehog cactus Tradescantia and bluebonnets Tenpetal Anemone, Anemone berlandieri bluebonnets Drummond’s Skullcap, Scutellaria…

Ovate-leaf Cliffbrake, Pellaea ovata Tradescantia sp. Ovate-leaf Cliffbrake, Pellaea ovata Blunt Woodsia fern, Woodsia obtusa Fairy-Swords, Myriopteris lindheimeri Corn Gromwell, Buglossoides arvensis — non-native By far the most popular spot at Inks Lake State Park is the Devil’s Waterhole and Valley Spring Creek Trail. Located at the far northeast end of the park, the area is full of rocky boulders that lure both kids and adults into climbing up on them and when the season is right, swimming in the Devil’s Waterhole. It’s absolutely scenic, if not crowded, and would be a great taste of the park if you don’t have much time to spend or are driving through the…

Let’s switch gears just a bit and return to mid-March and east Texas at Huntsville State Park. We took a three-day weekend and headed off an hour north of the house to this state park. It’s one of my favorites and so easily accessible off of I-45—and it’s huge, in addition to being adjacent to Sam Houston National Forest. I’m lumping all of our hikes together into one post because I didn’t take a ton of photos. And I’m surprised I barely took any photos at our campsite. We were in the Raven Hill camping area at campsite 21 which backed up to a wooded area separating the other loop…

Sand Phacelia, Phacelia patuliflora Texas Ragwort, Senecio ampullaceus Shepherd’s-Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris Texas bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis Western Tansy Mustard, Descurainia pinnata Texas Paintbrush, Castilleja indivisa Texas Toadflax, Nuttallanthus texanus Texas Ragwort, Senecio ampullaceus Selaginella corallina We arrived to Inks Lake State Park in late February on an early Friday afternoon. Being as it was Friday, the park itself was rather quiet at first, before the Austin weekend crowd arrived. There were some folks already set up in their RVs, trailers, and tents but otherwise it was a quiet situation. Our campsite was tucked away on a quiet loop towards the back of the park next to a fishing pier and cleaning…