Travel & Places
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Orchid Recovery Program Video
Chris was contacted by the Illinois Orchid Society in conjunction with the Orchid Recovery Program to utilize the video he put together of the sphinx moth pollinating the ghost orchid. You can see their video below with Chris’ video spliced in at around 3:43. We’re hoping that maybe this summer we can get to Florida in order to get some better photos of the sphinx moth pollinating the ghost orchids. Chris has something he’s trying to rig up. Of course that all depends on our job situation! But, don’t worry, you haven’t seen the last of ghost orchids from us!
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Awaiting Spring at Tandy Hills
Chris and I ventured to Tandy Hills on Friday to check on the trout lilies for the season. While we did find a lot of the plants up and growing, we didn’t find a single bloom. We couldn’t decide if we were too late or a bit early, even though last year we saw blooms at about two weeks prior to this time. So, who knows? It has been dry this year so perhaps a rain event would trigger some blooms? If not, I guess I will have to wait until next year. I didn’t leave empty handed photograph wise, though. We did find a few flowers poking out and…
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Tame, Feral Albino Ferret
We went to Kathy and Randy’s friend Dar’s house last night for their Thursday Night Drinking Club. Dar is an animal lover and feeds the local cats, an opossum and apparently one day an albino ferret showed up. It came around last night for us to see and Chris took a camera phone photo of me with it. It had a nice, outside smell to it and was super sweet, yawned a few times for us and made me want a cute little ferret. I think Leo would eat it, though.
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New Years Eve in downtown Ft. Worth
Having grown up in the suburbs of Ft. Worth I am partial to this town versus its neighbor Dallas. I love walking through the streets, checking out the old buildings and when the Tandy Center was still in existence, my friends and I would drive down to the subway that took you to the Tandy Center and we’d go shopping or ice skating and then walk around Main Street or Sundance Square. It’s an easily maneuverable city and in the past several years has seen a revitalization on the west side of the town. I particularly love the arts district on the west side and with the new shopping and…
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Of Sycamores and Endings
Yesterday Chris found a gigantic leaf in the woods that turned out to be an American Sycamore. It is almost 18″ in width and the little Chris has found on the internet it seems that the largest so far is only 15.5″. Perhaps this is a record? If anyone out there can find more information, please let me know! Our time in Sabine National Forest is up. I think I’ve walked over almost every inch of this forest from Patroon to Shelbyville. It has been an awesome experience, walking this forest. When we first arrived it was warm and fall was just beginning. The leaves were turning red and yellow…
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Galveston
Karen at Chookooloonks is posting some photos of her recent trip down to Galveston and it reminded me that I never got around to posting photos from when we went in early October. We drove down to go to the TAMUG All Class Reunion and to visit some friends while we were there. Living in Galveston was very fun while in college. I lived there from 1998 until 2002 when I graduated and we moved to Florida. There were many instances where ditching class occurred in favor of the beach. I remember thinking I’d go and study on the beach—hahahahahaha! Yeah, right! Anyway, it was nice to see some old…
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Nature in the City: Trinity River Audubon
On our last break we took a visit to the Trinity River Audubon south of Dallas. Not much was going on in the way of wildlife, but it was still a beautiful place to visit. I had no idea the place even existed until a few months ago. It was cold and windy the day we were there so the wildlife was probably hiding as well. I am sure migratory birds enjoy a nice stopover here. Now some photos: The education center. It hosts an area for school groups to eat lunch, nice restrooms, and great exhibits, including a hands on build your own river exhibit. Pretty cool! Near the…
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The Woods: Part III
When I initially saw the plant there on the right I thought it was some type of coral root orchid. After consulting our Texas orchid book I quickly realized it wasn’t but was left hanging on what it actually was. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps it was a parasitic plant but I still wasn’t sure. So I sent an email off to Prem who is much more of an orchid expert than we are and I knew he’d be able to tell me what they were. Turns out we have beech drops a parasitic plant to beech trees! Pretty nifty and interesting! Parsley hawthorn What I really need…
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A Photographer At Work
Caddo Lake, Texas.
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The Big Thicket
The Big Thicket is a patchwork of forest in east Texas that is run by the National Park Service. It is similar to Big Cypress National Preserve in that hunting and other recreational uses are allowed unlike many other national parks in the system. I had been here 9 years ago in a wetlands class in college but didn’t quite remember everything about it. We went to a few different trails, the Sundew Trail, the Pitcher Plant Trail and the Beech Woods Trail. The last ivory billed woodpecker verified in the United States was seen in the Big Thicket near the Neches River. Interesting stuff! We found a black rat…