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Autumn at Huntsville State Park
Symphyotrichum drummondii maybe—definitely a Symphyotrichum We’ve had a busier fall than normal, I think, or maybe it is just that we’ve been spending time at home a little more frequently. We had a camping reservation for October but that was cancelled by Texas Parks and Wildlife because the state park flooded during Harvey and they don’t know when it will open again. Chris has been working on several different projects around the house, namely building an aquarium, but he also had to replace our water heater a few weekends ago and that took some work as well. Needless to say, getting out for hiking or camping hasn’t happened nearly as…
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Around the Garden | Early November
Three more Seminole pumpkins have ripened out on the vines. I pulled these and processed them for more pumpkin butter. There are several more still out there and I will process those and just freeze the pulp to use for baking later throughout the year. My great pantry chia seed experiment has finally come through! Back in the spring I threw out some seeds to see how they would do in a different location. A couple of years ago I tossed a couple of seeds out on the side gardens but it was too shady and the plants just got leggy and never bloomed. Well, this year I threw some…
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Cute Crawlies in the Garden
The monarchs may have moved on for the most part but the garden is still active with other critters. About a week and a half ago, before the cold front, I was out in the edible garden during lunch. Some days I move with purpose out there and other days I mostly tinker with plants and check different things. This day I was in the latter mood, moseying around to look at what had germinated over the last few days, when I looked up and noticed something amiss with the tomatoes. It looked like something had chowed down a couple of the top branches of one of the vines and…
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Friday Read | Disconnecting & Social Media
Why is the US So Susceptible to Social Media Distortion? via the New Yorker. Sarah from the Pantsuit Politics podcast mentioned this article in their episode today–and it is a good episode to listen to because they talk about this issue as well as a variety of other pertinent topics from this week. As I read this article it reminded me of the pre-social media email forwarding/chain emails that used to be so prevalent—this was how memes and ‘fake news’ was shared back in the day. It just morphed into a larger platform with social media. I have thought time and time again how glad I was to have been…
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Life Lately | October 2017
+In My Head I was folding laundry last night and had queued up my Jefferson Airplane station on Pandora and Buffalo Springfield came on with For What It’s Worth and as I was listening to the lyrics I thought, man, you could easily just transport that to the last couple of years and it would easily apply to current times. I guess Beyoncé is our protest music these days? +Watching I may have binged season 2 of Stranger Things last weekend. And it was still just as good as season 1 and incredibly high on the 80s nostalgia. I recommend a good binge—it’s only 9 episodes so it doesn’t feel…
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October In The Garden
Leaf rollers on my false nettle. I ruled out the three species that are known to use this plant so I’ve got an unidentified caterpillar using the plant! I feel like, no, I know, I did not take nearly as many photos this month of the garden. I’ve been out there fairly frequently but have never brought along the camera for extended periods of time to document anything. I know last month I mentioned being ready for things to slow down outside just a bit, and they certainly are. Weeds are finally not germinating nearly as much and I’ve been making slow but steady progress on getting mulch down on…
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Piecing Together Trails at Pedernales Falls State Park
A late blooming Castilleja indivisa I think this is Sorghastrum nutans, yellow Indian grass. The end of September marked our first camping trip of the season. We drove out to Pedernales Falls State Park, somewhere we hadn’t been since the spring of 2016. Forest was only 1.5 at the time and definitely a little more difficult to deal with camping but this time around he was much easier and definitely more fun! We didn’t end up doing as much as hiking as I envisioned we would this time around and instead we spent more time at the river and hanging out at the campsite, too. But when we did hike,…
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September and October 2017 Book Report
I’ve been reading quite a bit and I’m actually reading a paper book right now! Forest finally got a big boy bed so we’re trying to switch up bedtime routines which means hopefully more paper books are in my future. I do like the ease of hopping into the Kindle and browsing the library for books, though, so that won’t go away. Lots to review, let’s get to it! Completed The Orphan Mother by Robert Hicks: As I said back in August’s book report this was a sort of sequel to The Widow of the South. It’s post Civil War and freed slaves are attempting to adjust to live as…
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Paectes abrostoloides moth caterpillar
Yesterday after work Chris decided he was finally going to attack the two pine trees that fell into the pond during Hurricane Harvey. He’d been contemplating how he was going to deal with them since they fell—they aren’t in any good position for total removal. Finally he decided he would just cut them near the shore and let them rot for several years in the water and allow them to be turtle and fish habitat in the meantime. Maybe the beavers will decide they like pine wood and chew on them, too. So, that’s what he opted to do before dinner and after work yesterday. Forest and I were out…
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Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) caterpillar
Yesterday I bailed from work before lunch because I wasn’t feeling well. At some point I knew I wasn’t going to be able to power through it and hope I’d feel better. I came home and spent a few hours watching tv, taking a nap, and slurping some soup. Around 3pm I walked outside for a few minutes to get some fresh air and to enjoy the sun; it was far too nice of a day to be cooped up inside as I had been. I grabbed my camera and decided to go for a walk around the garden for a few minutes. I was almost done and heading back…