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Narrowleaf Goldshower, Galphimia angustifolia | Wildflower Wednesday
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed by email! Thanks for visiting! Let’s rewind to July 2021 and a hike at Pedernales Falls State Park for today’s Wildflower Wednesday. We were there to celebrate my birthday weekend and if I recall the hike was rather cloudy, which was probably good considering the heat. When I found this flower back along the Wheatley Trail near the property fenceline, I thought it looked very similar to a tropical gardening plant I knew in Florida, thryallis. Which makes sense because they are both in the genus Galphimia! There’s not a lot of information online about the species…
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The Peace of a Tent
Over the weekend we drove up to Elkhart to camp at a new-to-us location, the Ivy Payne Preserve. It’s a Texas Land Conservancy property, donated to the TLC by Ivy Payne in the late 1980s. I stumbled into the whole ordeal in early March when looking into a different TLC property to see if I could access it (I couldn’t) and decided to click around to see what other properties they might have available that were open to the public. Enter the Ivy Payne Preserve and the Weekend at Ivy’s campout! It turned out to be a wonderful weekend, full of meeting new people, hiking a rarely visited property, and…
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Life Lately | April 2023
Thinking: How is it nearly the end of April? April isn’t usually a month that flies by and yet, here we are! I’m thinking about a lot…let’s do a run down! Heart Rate Variability (HRV): This came onto my radar a couple of months ago but I didn’t really do much with it or pay attention to it until Fitbit changed a bunch of things with their app back in March (goodbye friend challenges *sobs*) and put HRV on their list of things they keep tabs of. Paired with a couple of online acquaintances beginning to talk about it I’m realizing my HRV could be a lot better. I haven’t…
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Agalinis fasciulatus, Beach False Foxglove | Wildflower Wednesday
The Agalinis species can be a little confusing to tell apart, well, at least I tend to think they are. I’m trying to get better at identifying them so if I’m completely goofed, let me know! These were seen in Angelina National Forest last October, along the Sawmill Trail. We were in the area again two weekends ago but the bustling area of various blooms from October didn’t exist quite yet. I was a bit disappointed not to see at least something blooming there–I was mostly on a lepidopteran and insect hunt and was thus disappointed. A couple of guides for figuring out this species: pfau_tarleton’s iNat journal entry and…
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Cemetery Botanizing – Tillis Prairie Cemetery | 3
Oxalis dillenii Carolina anemone, Anemone caroliniana – so glad I got to enjoy these this spring! More prolific than I expected. Missouri violet, Viola missouriensis The non-native largelower sorrel, Oxalis debilis Sidewalk firedot, Xanthocarpia feracissima – I think. Cemeteries are a great spot to find interesting lichens! Bulbous woodrush, Luzula bulbosa – I’m beginning to really love this plant and wish I saw it sold in garden centers. Beaked cornsalad, Valerianella radiata Another Missouri violet Stemless spiderwort, Tradescantia subacaulis What remains of a poor armadillo. It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve done any cemetery botanizing (or naturalizing!) and I’m feeling it a bit. Twice a week physical…
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Easter 2023
These three continue to grow like weeds, though I think Zoe might have finally reached her max height? We’re not sure! She will be 15 in August, Grayson 12 in August, and of course, Forest 9 in September. A mere 8 years ago…time flies. I think next time they are all together I need to convince them to get dressed up for another cousin photoshoot.
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Butterflies at Medina River Natural Area
Little yellow, Pyrisitia lisa Dainty sulphur, Nathalis iole Orange sulphur, Colias eurytheme Gray hairstreak, Strymon melinus Reakirt’s blue, Echinargus isola Orange skipperling, Copaeodes aurantiaca Gray hairstreak, Strymon melinus Ailanthus webworm moth, Atteva aurea Vesta crescent, Phyciodes graphica We went to San Antonio for a weekend getaway back in January with no real plans other than going to the zoo, eat at La Gloria on the Riverwalk, and going to the Alamo. I hadn’t been to the Alamo since I was in high school and I don’t know if Chris recalled when he had been, and it was Forest’s first time. We had driven by it several years ago but now…
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March in the Garden
The garden really began unfurling last month and I was rewarded with some wonderful blooms, especially in my native bed in the edible garden, such as this columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). I’m really enjoying this Helenium brevifolium in the bog garden! Adding in coastal germander (Teucrium cubense) several years ago has been great and it has reseeded itself in several areas in the garden. We think this is a hitchhiker Spiranthes vernalis in the bog garden. The fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) was magnificent for several weeks up near the street and I wish I could bottle up its blooms to drag out in August! I almost missed all of the irises…
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The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
For some reason I’ve had the inspiration to finally look at some New Mexico photos from our trip last June! I want to start with our visit to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, which is a place I’ve wanted to go to since forever. My first introduction to O’Keeffe’s work was in my 6th grade art class back in the spring of 1992 and I’ve been smitten ever since! I *may* have seen her work before at the Kimbell in Fort Worth a long time ago but I don’t recall it so the first time I actually recall seeing her work in person was about four or five years ago at…
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Cemetery Botanizing – Corgey Cemetery | 2
Back to some more botanizing of cemeteries today! This one is a very tiny family cemetery, with one or two more recent burials. On aerial imagery this area is mostly undeveloped, some farm field and thick pine forests but when I arrived I found one of the pine forests clearcut for a housing development. “Progress” continues onward… There were a lot of Carolina anemones (Anemone caroliniana) here! I think I still love the tenpetal anemones better but I do love seeing these! And then I found something interesting! The leaves were tall and they had what looked like sporangia on the back, which led me to thinking this was some…
