+On our second to last day of work on the Neches River and the Beaumont Unit of the Big Thicket National Preserve our animal score for the day were these perching swallowtailed kites. +Only one other time have I ever seen these birds perched, once on the 8 miles of the Florida Trail between Loop […]
“Decide what to be and go be it”
My musical obsession of late has been The Avett Brothers and particularly their song Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise and of course the lyrics, Decide what to be and go be it. So, I’m deciding what to be. I am a runner: It keeps nagging at me, this running thing. It was […]
Bird Butts, A Swim and a Gigantic Cypress
More from our work adventures. Only a few more days out here in the Big Thicket. We came across a similar nest last week but didn’t get a photo. This time we stopped to peek in… There were bird butts in there! The term ‘bird butts’ stems from ‘pony butt’ a baby pony we met […]
2011 Summer Interview Series | Chel Micheline at Ginger Blue
I first came into contact with Chel via Marc and Eliana when they stopped over at Chel and Tom’s house on their cross country road trip a few years ago. I started reading her blog and became hooked and through commenting and friending on Facebook we’ve become internet friends. It’s a shame I never actually […]
Blue, Green, Yellow and Complete!
I inched along long enough that I finally finished the shawl! I’m not quite sure when I will ever wear this. Maybe it will be a take to the movies shawl or a grab to fancy up something when I go out shawl. I dunno… It would also make a great scarf, too, so I […]
Texas Wildflowers | Rosa bracteata, McCartney Rose
We initially saw these roses growing along Texas Point NWR and later discovered they are an invasive rose. Originally from China they join a host of other roses that have naturalized across the south, including the Cherokee rose and prairie rose. While they are beautiful, they are like other invasives and smother out native vegetation. […]
June in the Garden
I had to go home a few weeks ago for an interview so I snagged a few photos of my parent’s backyard while I was at it. The tomatoes were doing great and had a ‘doh’ moment and forgot to take any back with me to Beaumont. Anyway here’s a mini-tour. Hoping some are still […]
Florida Trail Tales 14: Navarre to Fort Pickens
As we crossed over the bridge at Navarre, across Santa Rosa sound, to Santa Rosa island, we had to squish against the side railing of the bridge for bicyclists who couldn’t manage to get off and walk their bike and share the path and fisherman reluctant to move their poles. Where’s the common courtesy?! We […]
Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve | Part 2
For the first installment: go here There will definitely be at least one more, if not two, posts about this tiny little preserve. Had to do some digging to come up with names for some plants and then I still don’t know a few! Had some fun chasing this ant around on what I believe […]