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Redbud Blossoms | Wordless Wednesday
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Lovely Lupinus texensis
We have one plot in our garden that has radishes growing but otherwise we have filled it with bluebonnets we bought at a garden center and bluebonnets we seeded, along with a few other non-edible flowering plants. I like having a small section dedicated to flowers, especially since we aren’t focusing on collecting plants right now. I’d been checking on the bluebonnets but hadn’t had any inkling that they were ready to bloom. Then one day last week I walked right up and the blue-purple flower stood out and stunned me with its brilliance. Finally, the bluebonnets were out!
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An Evening
+Two mile run after work. Loving running again, slow as I may be. I like to be on my own pace, getting it done, slowly but surely. I’m also happier with warmer weather. Thinking I might try running in my Vibram Five-Fingers tomorrow. +The Runty, Leo, is feeling better and acting more like himself after whatever stunt he pulled almost two weeks ago. Tail is working better, he’s happier and running around. The cats love it when I open the doors when I get home so they can get some sunlight. +This water oak has been putting on flowers as are all the other oaks in the area. I’ve been…
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The Garden at the Turn of the Month
It seems like nature has switched ‘on’ and the plants are ready for spring. Overnight, blooms are coming out of seemingly nowhere. Sugar daddy snap pea bud Sugar daddy snap pea blossom The Brussels sprouts have not done that great. Unfortunately we have a row of beds that gets a lot of shade in the winter. The shade comes from a rodeo shelter that blocks a lot of sunlight from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, thus some of the plants in this section are stunted. I think the sprouts would have matured more had they had access to more light. I’ve been eyeing their leaves to add into my morning green smoothies,…
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Florida Trail ‘Summit’ | One Year Ago
Sunrise at Gulf Islands National Seashore, March 3, 2011….18 miles left until we finished. Finished! We walked through Florida! On top of Fort Pickens How was this a year ago? It seems like closer than that. While the Appalachian Trail seems light years away now, I think the Florida Trail seems closer because of our closer relationship with Florida itself. While I am glad to be in Texas again, I sometimes wish I had done more exploring and had gotten to know Florida more intimately, exploring its other locales. Despite the road walks, I do recommend hiking this trail. It’s a ‘quick’ trail, it’s flat and it offers up habitats…
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Rainy Weekend at Huntsville State Park
Early in the year Chris had scheduled out several camping trips throughout the spring. I had warned that he could potentially be in the field all spring—things hadn’t started up yet and he not received word about work. Even so, he made reservations to many state parks in anticipation of spring wildflower season. So far we’ve had to cancel most of them, but we rescheduled this trip to Huntsville State Park to a weekend sooner then planned since he was going to be off that weekend. Unfortunately a cool front with rain came through causing us to postpone leaving to the campground until early afternoon, when the rains had passed.…
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Prolific | February Wrap-Up
So. February. Was a bit better than January but still proved to be hectic. Writing went well, mostly because I also busted out about 4,000 words over the weekend. Honestly, if I just devoted an hour to it at least a few times a week with a larger spurt in the weekend things would be done faster. But I often find so many other things to do, which shouldn’t be the case. Alas, I’m happy with getting that much written. Running. Well, 9 isn’t good either. I have made myself a schedule for the next month though and hopefully that number goes up as does the yoga. I ran 3…
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A New Writing Adventure | Sprout Dispatch
Sometime in early January I came up with the idea of Sprout Dispatch. Of course it wasn’t called that initially, it took the brainstorming of Chel, my brother Curtis and myself to get the name, but here we are, ready to start. What is this about? Well, it’s a collaboration between the three of us on our gardening adventures. I wrote more about it in the post that is up today. There will be thrice weekly posts, one from each of us, for awhile. We’re starting with themes and interpreting them our own way, but I’m sure the blog will evolve as time goes on. So, please, subscribe to the…
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Sunday with a Red Admiral
Taken *last* Sunday at our community garden, perched on the flowers of a cabbage, Vanessa atalanta the red admiral butterfly +This week…this week….whew, I am glad it is done. I ended up in the field for a few days, honestly thinking it was going to be two days max, but then it looked like it was going to bleed into the weekend. Chris is in the field full-time right now but the project I was on was nearby so luckily I was able to stay in his hotel with him. When I realized I needed to run home to check on the cats, mostly because I wasn’t sure if I’d…
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The Turnip Harvest
We pulled all of the Golden Ball Turnips last weekend in an effort to make room for a spring crop of cucumbers. Some of the turnips were gigantic, including some that I had thinned and transplanted in a spot that we’d just harvested radishes several months ago. We took the turnips home and made two batches of mashed turnips and froze them for future eating. I love having all of this food, but I can’t wait to get a deep freezer and more storage space for keeping food for throughout the year.