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Texas Wildflowers: Clematis crispa, swamp leatherflower
We first saw this flower on the side of a levee in the Beaumont Unit of the Big Thicket National Preserve. We later found another plant on another roadside in the northern section of the same unit. The initial flower we saw had more purple in it compared to this nearly all white flower above. It appears they can vary in color from pink, blue, purple and white. Blooming throughout the spring to very early fall, Clematis crispa isn’t relegated only to Texas and occurs throughout the southeast. We found this plant among purple vetch and pinkroot, two plants that will be shown on another wildflower post later. The Lady…
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Florida Trail Tales 8: Suwanee River to U.S. 221
I forgot to mention in the last post that Shamrock Steve had shown up at our motel the evening before after spotting our boots out drying. He’d been doing some hiking around the Osceola National Forest area and had left us a message on our phone but we had been further than where he was planning to hike. He’d seen our note in the journal at the Madison shelter that we were planning on taking a zero in White Springs so he knew he’d catch up with us. After breakfast at the bbq joint that morning with Shamrock Steve we left White Springs. It was a sunny, beautiful morning as…
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A Good Day
Yesterday…. +Breakfast with my mom at Bacon’s with a Groupon coupon. Tried a salmon eggs benedict—delish! I love me some hollandaise! +A trip to the Parker County/Weatherford Farmers Market despite cooler weather and clouds. Bought some veggies for dinner and browsed at the plant selection. Can’t wait to go back when Parker County peaches come in season! +Dropped by Foch Street in west Ft. Worth, the ‘new’ upgraded area around W. 7th to stop by The Greener Good. Found them at Prairie Fest the other day and wanted to see their location. I had a 15% coupon from the fest and bought some bamboo ‘silver’ware to use in the hotel…
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Big Thicket Pitcher Plant Trail
On our way home from Beaumont we stopped by the Pitcher Plant Trail in the Turkey Creek Unit of the Big Thicket. We showed up just after sunrise, Chris was a bit miffed we didn’t get there a few minutes prior, but I think it worked out anyway. We’d been to this trail before last November but the pitcher plants weren’t blooming or looking too swift. Now they were blooming and looking great! It’s only about an hour from Beaumont so I’m sure we’ll end up there again during our next two months in Beaumont. I tried the white background thing again but it wasn’t that great, however I got…
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Being Green
I’m trying to re-think my enviro ways a bit and go at it a little harder. When you see a coworker use the same styrofoam cup over and over and over again you kind of realize that you could do that too. Or, just bring the cups you were supposed to down to where you were going to work! Duh! My goals for the next two months when we go back to work: +Take my own leftover container when going to restaurants. +Always use my own cup or mug when I can. +Take recycling to a higher level and recycle everything I can. +Rethink items I buy or am thinking…
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Shangri-La Botanic Gardens: Orange, Tx
Great white egrets nesting Itea virginica and white ginger flower Bunny, something I don’t know, beaver dam, and green heron Pond covered in small and giant salvinia, an invasive exotic Banded water snake, Nerodia fasciata The same day we went to the Beaumont Botanic Gardens we drove over to Shangri-La Botanic Gardens to see what they had in store. This was an affordable garden, $6 entry for a regular garden tour and then $10 for a garden tour and a boat tour down a bayou to a few of their education centers and maybe to see a beaver dam or two! We opted for the $10 and arrived there when…
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Texas Wildflowers: Gaura coccinea, Scarlet gaura
Scarlet gaura is a fairly common herb growing in the central and western United States. Part of the evening primrose family, Onagraceae, it seems to have a variety of color shades. A quick search yields photos of truly scarlet flowers to pink and then white varieties as well. It seems that this plant can be a bit weedy but it has drought tolerant attributes that would lend it to be good in a garden. I might have to add it to mine one day! –Gaura in the garden –Dave’s Garden on gaura –A blog on gaura in the garden –Gaura coccinea information
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2800 Miles Ago
Today is April 20th. And in pot smoking lingo it is 4/20. Now, I’ve never smoked pot but I do know some of the lingo and when I saw that it was 4/20 I remembered that we were on a ridge above Watauga Lake in Tennessee, somewhere near the 420 mile mark. I remembered this because there was a hiker named Strider, one of at least two named that, who was young, maybe 18, and had this desire to get to mile 420 on 4/20 so he could smoke a joint—or perhaps a few. He wasn’t anywhere around us on that date, but we were at shelter there and wondered…
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Florida Trail Tales 7: Lake Butler to White Springs
As we were leaving Lake Butler the sunshine that had decided to poke through during the lunch hour seemed to be retreating. Clouds were rolling in and we still wanted to get another 10-12 miles in before stopping for the end of the day. We left town following a road west and then north before entering the Lake Butler Forest, a pine plantation owned by Plum Creek Timber. It’s a forest but it’s a crappy one. Back when we’d first met Shamrock Steve down near Titusville he’d told us of an area with these weird mounded hills that were a pain to walk across. Then it was some foreign location…
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Beaumont Botanical Gardens
On our Sunday off a week ago in Beaumont we took a trip to a few botanic gardens. One of them is a free to the public garden, the Beaumont Botanic Garden. We arrived too early to see the conservatory but we did a tour of the garden. I think the rose garden was the most stunning but they did have some other beautiful parts in the garden. Several people were taking graduation photos. We’re off for at least a week as we switch projects down in the Big Thicket but when we return we’ll drop by the conservatory and see what’s blooming in there.