Travel & Places
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The Great Kingdom of REI
Our first stop in Seattle was to the flagship REI store. As we could not fly with our stove fuel, lighter or matches we needed to purchase those items as well as food for the week. Of course we could use some new clothes too, that’s always a good excuse to go to REI. The store is huge, with multi-level parking garage and the store itself is multiple levels as well. While they did have a broad range of items, I really thought it would be a little more diverse than their other stores (I’ve been to the two in Dallas, the two in Houston, one in Austin, one on…
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The Shins
The Shins’ Port of Morrow album cover painted on the side of a record shop north of the Seattle Center. I think it was Silver Platters. I have to thank my brother for introducing me to The Shins several years ago, back when I found out about Rilo Kiley. The shop reminded me a little of Empire Records, but I never went in to see what it was truly like. I miss the days of going into a music store, putting on the puffy head phones and absorbing the music as it came into my ears….remember those days? Like in Radiohead’s Creep? Port of Morrow Simple Song Simple Song
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Muir
“It was while feeling sad to think that I was only walking on the edge of the vast wood, that I caught sight of the first palmetto in a grassy place, standing almost alone. A few magnolias were near it, and bald cypresses, but it was not shaded by them. They tell us that plants are perishable, soulless creatures, that only man is immortal, etc.; but this, I think, is something that we know very nearly nothing about. Anyhow, this palm was indescribably impressive and told me grander things than I ever got from human priest. This vegetable has a plain gray shaft, round as a broom-handle, and a crown…
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Paynes Prairie
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. This one is from early 2009. Enjoy! This past weekend we ventured up to Gainesville to meet Marc and Eliana since they had made it back to Florida. Chris and I had been wanting to go up to Payne’s Prairie for awhile and so we asked them if they would like to meet us and check it out. Our main reason was that we wanted to see some whooping cranes. Whoopers are highly endangered birds, with only…
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Day 1: Tomato Season 2008-2009
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. Enjoy! This is what the yard looked like, finally, after around six or so hours of working on it yesterday. Chris started before I did, working to right the ylang-ylang tree that has been battling itself these past two weeks, as it kept falling over. It originally was in a too small pot and a gust of wind during a rain storm blew it over, damaging one of the roots that had went into the ground from…
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Florida Trail: Seminole Reservation to I-75
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. Chris and I did this hike in January 2009 prior to thinking about hiking the Appalachian Trail (or even the Florida Trail)—this was on my list of things to do during my 28th year. On New Years Day our friend David and his kids dropped Chris and I off at our north entrance to where we were going to hike southbound through the Seminole Big Cypress Reservation, enter Big Cypress National Preserve, stay for a night and…
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A Ghost Orchid Time Lapse
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. Enjoy! In 2007 Chris found Little Slough an area in south Florida with 607 ghost orchids. We spent several summers documenting the orchids and enjoying our slough. Chris put together this time lapse a few summers ago. Enjoy!
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Rambling at Kleb Woods
It had been far too long since I’d spent any considerable amount of time outside, so last Sunday I decided to brave the 100* heat and go for a walk at Kleb Woods. I almost left to go at 1pm but waited an hour, thinking I would postpone until later in the evening, but I needed out and so at 2pm I left for the woods. Chris and I had been here back in the Fall on a weekend. It was busier then and the hummingbirds were around, sipping nectar from the feeders and the flowers in the hummingbird garden. This time the heat of the day brought stillness over…
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The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center | Part I
So way back in March when we went to Austin we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Sunday morning before driving home. And yes, here it is late June and I am just now posting photos from them! I can’t believe I have been so unattentive to my photo processing and writing about our adventures. Nonetheless here is round 1 of our trip: Lady Bird herself on the rain barrel. Not to be confused with this Ladybird. Lace cactus, Echinocereus caespitosus Horse rush Horse crippler cactus Echinocactus texensis Gregg dalea, Dalea greggii Foxglove, Penstemon cobaea Columbine Trumpet creeper Blackfoot Daisy, Melampodium leucanthum Antelopehorn (butterfly weed) Asclepias asperula And…
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The San Bernard Oak
Prior to visiting the art show at the Migration Celebration at the San Bernard NWR I took a tour of the San Bernard Oak, the largest live oak in Texas. The trail had been freshly mowed and maintained so it was not nearly as buggy as I was expecting. I took my time, meandering along, snapping photos of the way the light hit the vegetation along the trail. Fairly certain this is a mustang grape… A gas pipeline provided a nice opening for the sun-loving plants to thrive like these Mexican hats Ratibida columnifera. Finally I arrived at the oak tree, however due to the tours (they were mostly self…