Thoughts
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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…
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Life Lately | July 2023
Hello. Three posts in July. Four in June. I had already been slowing down posting here this spring but I didn’t mean for things to drop to a trickle. I have been absorbed in writing elsewhere and then even those other places have dropped off the cliff. I’ve been inside my head, drafting posts, drafting emails, drafting other essays, but not showing up here. It isn’t for lack of content but lack of time and then, in attention. I’ve written here several times about the plight of Fairfield Lake State Park but I’ve slowly morphed into taking a more active role in advocating for the preservation of the park, with…
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Good Things on a Sunday Morning *Monday Edition* | 3
Hello! My head hasn’t been in the right space to be spending much time here so here’s a post to get me back into the groove again! I have been very engrossed in working to save Fairfield Lake State Park, something I wrote about here a few months ago. Things have really hit the fan in the last month after TPWD voted to use eminent domain to save the state park. The developer, who took ownership of the park, lake and adjacent properties on June 1st, has since gone on a whirlwind PR tour in Freestone county to sway local opinion. There was a last minute PR dog and pony…
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Respite on Drakes Creek
It was oppressively hot this weekend, as it has been for the last two weeks. Spring, our wonderfully mild spring, went *poof* once the calendar hit June. I’m glad we had such mild temperatures for so long, it made being outside much more enjoyable. Now? I’m re-thinking my twice daily laps around the yard at work. Opening the office door this last week has been met with the feeling of the inside of a furnace. So much for the pleasant tour about the yard looking for wildlife–I’m now hurrying to get my steps in and stretch my legs and back inside to the cool AC. Even outside time after dinner…
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Lazy Summer Days
Well, it isn’t quite as lazy of a summer as Rusty is having lounging in the office window to sunbathe for hours every day, but I did go into this summer with the intentions to move a lot more slowly and enjoy life’s simple pleasures a bit more. We met my parents in Corsicana last Friday to drop Forest off with them for a week and this weekend he will transition over to Chris’ mom’s house for another week, so we’ve been kid free the almost the last week. We took some of that time and went over to Gus Engeling WMA to do some botanizing and exploration and I…
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2000s Nostalgia
I had already been thinking about writing about some music that I’ve been listening to lately that has transported me to the 2000s but today’s news that Heather Armstrong, aka Dooce, passed away yesterday by suicide has me (and the entire 2000s blogosphere) reeling and falling even further into the 2000s reminiscing. Let’s rewind to me reading somewhere on the internet recently that Feist had a new album out. I went to Spotify to listen to the new album but suddenly got a craving for 2000s Feist—the Feist of Mushaboom, 1,2,3,4, I Feel it All, and My Moon My Man. Why? Because they and other musicians and songs encapsulate that…
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Life Lately | April 2023
Thinking: How is it nearly the end of April? April isn’t usually a month that flies by and yet, here we are! I’m thinking about a lot…let’s do a run down! Heart Rate Variability (HRV): This came onto my radar a couple of months ago but I didn’t really do much with it or pay attention to it until Fitbit changed a bunch of things with their app back in March (goodbye friend challenges *sobs*) and put HRV on their list of things they keep tabs of. Paired with a couple of online acquaintances beginning to talk about it I’m realizing my HRV could be a lot better. I haven’t…
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Life Lately | February 2023
Thinking: A few life updates can go here I presume…. So I finally had my hip MRI a few weeks ago, really probably a month ago by now, and no surgery needed. I do have an impingement but not to the extent he originally thought I might. But as I was talking to him he started thinking more on it and had me get an x-ray of my lower back. There was some narrowing between L1 and L2 and he thought my nerves are being affected which would be causing some of that pain, so I’m now starting physical therapy. I had my intake appointment this week with the PT…
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Does Texas actually care about its land? The Pending Loss of Fairfield Lake State Park
Sometime in the fall I started a Substack newsletter where I was hoping to focus my writing efforts on Texas nature and environmental writing. I was going to re-purpose some blog posts here but also work on focusing on other important environmental news efforts in the state. It was a different kind of writing than what I typically share here, which is sometimes rambling and a lot more personal. The Substack was a way for me to stretch my writing skills and write for a different audience. If you haven’t heard of Substack, it’s a newsletter platform that allows writers to be paid if they want, so you can write…
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Heart’s A Bustin’ on Valentine’s Day
I totally meant to actually schedule this post and write something more formal but I forgot I had even drafted this to begin with! Euonymus americanus, also known as strawberry bush or hearts-a-bustin’, is a really cool native shrub that comes over into east Texas. Unfortunately it is also known as Deer Candy so it isn’t something we really really grow, though I do have one in a pot on the potting bench that I am hoping to possibly grow in my perimeter bed in the edible garden once we get that finalized (someday). But, I hope your heart’s are a bustin with love for someone, or at least for…
