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The View From The Front Porch
This summer we’ve been spending a lot of time on the front porch. It’s Forest’s go-to location to hang out and play, mostly because he likes to run around barefoot and we like him to wear shoes in the yard here because of snakes, so the porch is one place he be without shoes. I tend to wear minimal footwear around the yard as well but I’m (generally) more observant than he is when traipsing around the yard. So, he plays on the porch or if the cars are out of the carport he plays under the carport where he can more easily ride his bikes and trikes. When we…
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More Summer Lepidopterans
I’ve been attempting to slow down a bit in the garden and just sit and be still and that has included sitting on the perimeter blocks to watch butterflies. It’s been a lesson in working my stealth mode photography skills as well as a lesson in not reaching out to pull weeds constantly. In my attempts to learn a bit more about what is using the garden and when, I’m getting my camera out and taking photos to document it all. The other day I was weeding out the strawberry bed and had this tiny insect on my hand that I couldn’t identify. It was possibly some sort of leaf-footed…
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Paddling Juniper Run
One of the items on our list to do before we moved away from Florida was to paddle the Juniper Run in Ocala National Forest. Chris and I did paddle that run in 2009 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s within the Juniper Prairie Wilderness so it doesn’t take much for you to feel as if you are in a very remote location. It rivals the feeling of being in areas of Big Cypress National Preserve or paddling the Turner River in Big Cypress/Everglades. The next time we’re in SW Florida I think we need to revisit the Turner River again. When we began planning out our limited time on our…
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That Time I Was On A Podcast(s) Part II
Hey there! I’m around but July has been a busy month at work and the last week and a half even busier—which has meant working from home after hours, something I am extremely averse to do unless absolutely needed. Once I emerge from the fog of all of that I promise to return and wrap up posts from our trip to Florida, summer gardening, and continued writing here. In the meantime, I wanted to write a quick update and to let y’all know I was on two podcasts recently. The first was back in May on The Beginner’s Garden Podcast with Jill McSheehy. That episode is here: Organic Gardening in…
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Formosa Lilies | Flower Friday
The Formosa lilies have finished blooming for the season. I noticed a few differences this year than in previous years. For starters, they didn’t grow nearly as tall. Usually they grow at least 6′ tall. This year they hovered between 4-5′ which made them the perfect height for deer chomping. I took a photo of two blooms at lunch and came home to find them devoured by the deer. The other thing I noticed was that I didn’t have as many plants as previous years, mostly from pulling too many seedlings (the plant is a prolific seeder) and I think some of the roots from the established plants got dug…
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April, May, June, July 2018 Book Report
Eek! I didn’t mean to go four months without a Book Report here! Soooo, obviously that means I have a lot to catch up on…here we go! I’ve decided to start adding some books from the library (or our own library) that Forest and I enjoy. I’m starting to try to go at least once a month with him. The trick I’m employing is to renew the books online immediately after we get them so that we have them for that full month instead of two weeks. So far it is working! Forest Books: Box Turtle by John Himmelman: This was an ARC from Net Galley and Forest loved(s) reading…
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Afternoon Ramble at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center
Let’s reverse a few months and blow off some dust on a draft post I’ve had sitting here since May and head to Nacogdoches and the Pineywoods Native Plant Center. The last time we were here was in 2014, though I feel like I’ve been to Nacogdoches since then and haven’t dropped by the Native Plant Center. Chris was working in Angelina National Forest and so Forest and I drove up over a weekend to visit him. On our way we stopped at the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, which I had only really seen at night when Chris and I went for a Zoo Brew event in 2013. Chris…
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Silver Springs State Park
After we left the Ocala National Forest, we drove towards Ocala and made a stop at Silver Springs State Park. It’s taken me some time to rack my brain and then look at Google Maps, but Chris and I had been here before in maybe 2007 or 2008. I recall a trip to Potts Preserve to look for orchids and maybe geocache and then a driving up to Ocala to geocache and I feel like we did something else in Ocala but maybe not. But, I did remember being somewhere near the town of Silver Springs because when we arrived there in June I definitely remembered the area. A quick…
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Summer Lepidopterans
Long-tailed skipper, Urbanus proteus Long-tailed skipper larvae—aka: the bean leaf roller! Between the lull of monarch seasons—I’m awaiting their return but we did see one at the zoo the other day—there is plenty of other activity in the lepidopteran world. Here’s just a sample–I’m seeing plenty of others I just don’t have my camera on me lately. And these are all phone photos–I’m sad to admit I’m blogging with phone photos!!! Time to pick up the big camera or even the point and shoot a bit more than my phone. I noticed a beautiful butterfly bouncing along the agastache on the side yard garden last week. I took a few…
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The June Garden | 2018
*Photo Heavy* There’s been a definite jungleization of the garden since the beginning of June photos I took. The cucumber photos I show here are now a massive tangle of vines, threatening to over take each other with a few vines wanting to just have a run of the bed. Which is fine, I suppose I’ll be eating a lot of cucumber salads over the next few months. It’s just too bad the tomatoes aren’t on the same page—or rather our climate isn’t on the same page. Actually being able to enjoy the garden this year has been wonderful. Ooo, as I’m writing this from our dinner table I’m watching…