Thoughts

  • Thoughts

    Thoughts on Time

    People on the internet like to joke that 2016 was actually 2016-2020 and that 2020 was actually 2020-2023 (and maybe even 2024) and I would agree with that sentiment. There’s also those jokes about how 1998 is the same distance away from now as it was from 1988 to 1968, the time period the Wonder Years took place and aired. Nah, can’t be….and yet it is. I’m increasingly feeling like time is an amorphous thing, something ill-defined and increasingly circular. I remember on our Appalachian Trail hike that days would feel like months and months would feel like days. We might have been in the White Mountains but surely it…

  • Art,  Creative,  Thoughts

    Trespassers: James Prosek and the Texas Prairie at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

    I came across James Prosek’s work last fall when someone I was following on Instagram posted that he had an exhibit, Trespassers: James Prosek and the Texas Prairie at the Amon Carter in Fort Worth. I hadn’t been to the Amon Carter in probably two decades but put it on my list to wrangle some people to go with me during the Christmas holidays when we were in Fort Worth visiting family. My mom had taken Forest and his cousins there last summer, an activity to beat the searing Texas heat, and they had all loved it. So, we wrangled up the kids again and my mom, Chris, and I…

  • Creative,  Reading,  Thoughts

    Reading, Writing, Creating (and Health) in 2024

    Drosera capillaris, Chuluota Wilderness Area – Florida, 2020 December turned out to be busier than I expected, so my goal to write here daily went *poof*. Such is life! Forest had several school functions, I had some last minute doctors appointments, including my third MRI of the year, as I tried to milk the most of out having met my deductible earlier this year. So far in 2023 I have received pretty digital pictures of my hips, brain, and now my cervical spine! This was certainly the year to figure out so many health issues. I managed to get my hip mostly into decent condition again with four months of…

  • Outdoors,  Texas,  Thoughts,  Travel & Places

    Down but Not Out

    *TLDR: Short backstory for what I’m talking about. Energy company created Fairfield Lake for cooling water for its power plant back in late 1960s. Early 1970s, they asked the state to put a state park in on part of the land. State leased the land for ‘free’ (re: yes, monetarily free to landowner but also consider the millions in infrastructure and staff put in by the state, but also the repercussions for the plant to pollute, tax incentives, etc, etc…so very much tit for tat here…) for 50 years. Energy company went bankrupt in mid 2010s, closed plant in 2018, decided to sell off portion of their property, 5000 acres…

  • Thoughts

    Hello Out There…A Little Update

    Powdered Dancer, Argia moesta It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written here. I intended to step away to try to do some writing for NaNoWriMo again but I did very little. Instead I spent October and November trying to get my head on straight and attempting to get into the holiday season a little earlier than usual. NaNo fell apart, though I still intend to do more writing soon, and the back half of the month fell into heavy Fairfield Lake State Park advocacy after about two months of quiet. I have been writing about all of that over on my On Texas Nature Substack. I guess I should…

  • Outdoors,  Thoughts,  Wildflowers

    Roadside Rudbeckias

    I have wanted to grow some of our more gregarious Rudbeckia species for several years but it wasn’t until this year, in my small native plant bed inside the deer fence, that I was able to do this. I’m always enamored with how they look when I spot them on roadsides. These were on the road near the Hickory Creek Savannah Unit of the Big Thicket, where the Sundew Trail is located. I spotted them as we were leaving that unit back in May and had Chris pull over so I could take a few photos. I believe these are Rudbeckia texana but there’s also R. maxima and R. grandiflora…

  • Thoughts

    Stale Cigarettes

    In recent years there has been talk about how we’re losing certain words and even accents in our lexicon as language adapts and changes. One thing I hadn’t considered was lost smells, or at least fading smells. Over the last weekend I was in DFW to visit some friends and after we’d spent some time browsing and becoming over stimulated with the Christmas décor at Decorator’s Warehouse, we were all lamenting how we should have eaten lunch before embarking on our shopping excursion. Now, I eat on a fairly regular schedule, as Chris will attest to, so I knew better than to leave our campsite without eating lunch. But my…

  • Thoughts

    Life Lately | October 2023

    The newly minted 9 year old with his leopard print Snuggie. Thinking: I started drafting this in early September, intending to do a Life Lately for that month but stopped writing. So here’s an expansion from that month: Forest turned 9 last month! 9!!!! We are fully into the tween years and I’m enjoying it so far. Next steps are to try to cultivate more independence, which he’s doing on his own in some manner, but needs a push in some areas. Plus chores. More chores need to be on the agenda! The best kiddo ever! Also, I’m very heavily into “Wow, I’m middle aged now” thoughts. They strike at…

  • Outdoors,  Texas,  Thoughts,  Travel & Places,  Wildflowers

    May 2023 at the Big Thicket Pitcher Plant Bog

    In May, we spent a weekend around the Big Thicket, the same weekend we went to the Solo Tract. There will be several posts from this weekend as I divvy them up and share here. On Saturday evening before we went to the Watson Preserve to do some mothing, we stopped in at the Big Thicket Pitcher Plant bog to eat dinner, drive-thru Whataburger. I don’t think I had been to the bog in the early evening before so it was nice seeing it in a different light, literally. Sarracenia alata, yellow pitcher plants in the Big Thicket’s Pitcher Plant Bog Rhexia lutea, yellow meadow beauty–my favorite of the Rhexia…

  • Hiking,  Native Plants,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Thoughts,  Travel & Places

    The Big Thicket Solo Tract | May 2023

    I first heard about the Solo Tract at the Big Thicket from Linda Leinen when she started a blog series called A Year of Going Solo earlier this year. Since seeing her posts, I have dipped into this tract myself twice, the most recent time back in May. It’s very close to the Big Thicket’s Interpretive Center which makes it easy to access if you are short on time but need to get into the Thicket for a few moments. Some highlights from that trip: Wooly rosemallow, Hibiscus lasiocarpos blooming. Tall green milkweed, Asclepias hirtella—I was very excited to see this one in bloom! I love when I come across…