Travel & Places

  • Texas,  Thoughts

    Local Flavor

    Last weekend we moved to our new house in far-far-far Northwest Houston. So far out we’re not even in Harris county, but we’re close enough to all of the far suburbs that it is easier to call it Houston. Except we’re in the ‘country’. There are more country-ish places out there, but this is pretty much the most country place we’ve ever lived except the hotel we stayed at in San Augustine, Tx last fall for work. *That* was country. We were out in the nearest big town to us, Tomball, checking on various things like furniture and getting the various sundry items to fill up the house so it…

  • Outdoors,  Texas

    Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve | Part 3

    In case you missed it: Part 1 & Part 2. Wrapping up our tour of the Watson Preserve a few months later… We begin the final part of the tour through the pitcher plant bog that was actually quite dry. A bud of the Calopogon tuberosus orchid. Love the orchids intermingled with the pitcher plants in this one. Pitcher plants certainly have their own personality. Love the unassuming yellow colicroot, Aletris lutea. And the beautiful pitcher plant flowers… I also love finding the green lynx spiders tucked under and between leaves. They can be finicky to photograph that’s for sure! I really should stop and take photos of myself more…

  • Bolivia,  Travel & Places

    Baby Pumas | My Most Popular YouTube Video

    In March 2008 I’d only known Marc & Eliana less than a year. In the Fall she’d been to Bolivia to visit Inti Wara Yassi and take veterinary medical supplies to them. She started putting a bug in my ear at the New Year and finally I was able to convince Chris we needed to go somewhere since we hadn’t done anything since our honeymoon in 2002. The most expensive thing would be airplane tickets. Anyway, we went to Bolivia and you can read all of those posts here (warning, it is on my old blogging style so it takes the pages awhile to load): Day 1, Day 2, Day…

  • Local Adventures,  Texas

    Local Adventures | Trinity Trail & the Gigantic Sycamore Tree

    We found out about this gigantic sycamore tree via Chris’ mom’s landscaper. We tried to find a back way into this park but to no avail, so we went the long way from the Highland Park trailhead at Lake Lavon. It is 4.5 miles one way to the tree, but well worth it. This is a multi-use trail so in addition to foot traffic, horses are allowed on the trail. Where: Trinity Trail at Lake Lavon, Highland Park Trailhead Trip Distance: ~9 miles round trip. Coordinates: Entrance is located at 33° 6.191’N 96° 32.583’W Additional Information: Trinity Trail Riders, Trail Map, Scroll to C2: Highland Park, TWPD site Bring water…

  • Local Adventures,  Outdoors,  Texas

    Local Adventures | Crosstimbers Trail at Fort Worth Nature Center

    Let me tell you something. This post was a booger to put together. Why? Because I did a lot of research. Why? Because I don’t know everything—duh! First, a brief explanation of the Local Adventures title. While some aspects of it might be similar to Nature in the City posts they will differ in that they aren’t going to be strictly nature or in the city. NITC posts focus a bit more on parks/areas that are within an urban environment and they may or may not have a playground. (Now I am reminded I need to do some NITC posts again soon.) Local Adventures will focus on anything from a…

  • Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    A Tandy Hills Evening

    A few weeks ago we went for an evening walk at Tandy Hills to scope out some Passiflora lutea that had been mislabeled as Clematis pitcheri in a TH newsletter. I got the general locale for the vine so I could verify in person and sure enough we found the plants and many, many more! When we arrived we took the main trail from the playground out towards I-30. To the west was a stray shower over downtown Fort Worth. We found the original plant… and then 50 yards down we found more passionvine and a clematis. Smilax mixing it up with passiflora… and maybe a variegated passiflora? Some flower…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas

    McGuire Tract @ Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge

    A few weekends ago Chris and I ventured out to the McGuire Tract of the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge. It was a hot and humid day by the time we arrived so there wasn’t a lot out on the trail. We had to drive through some back roads to even reach this tract and I wondered how often it was even used. Luckily the ‘trail’, a wide grassy road of sorts, was mowed so we didn’t have to deal with itchy grasses. I’d love to explore more of this area and paddle around on the Trinity too…some day! Next time we’ll attempt it in a non-heat and buggy season.…

  • Texas,  Travel & Places

    Prairie Fest 2011 Recap

    It’s been over a week since Prairie Fest happened and I’m just now getting around to blogging it, but here it is! It was a gorgeous day, albeit windy, but still beautiful. Storms plagued the evening, but we were there during the pre-lunch hours so it was great during that time. The place was crawling by the time we arrived and got even busier by the time we ran back after lunch to pick up some free plants from a scout troop that we forgot to pick up when we left the first time. Lots of dogs out and about in the park. The fest was set up primarily along…