Thoughts

Life Lately | Mid-May 2022

Hello friends! Let’s make this a rambling post, shall we?

I feel like summer is over. And by that, I mean, June and July is practically planned out and I can already see August and the start of school. Now, I usually keep a pretty good calendar in my head because I have a visual calendar and dates and such usually stick out well for me. But I have so much going on in May-July that I’ve had to write everything down! Between end-of-school activities, camping or outdoor events, visiting relatives (here or there), trips being taken, appointments, and so forth, I’m trying to find empty weekends for the summer. There are a few but not many. And honestly it makes me a little sad knowing that a leisurely summer isn’t on the agenda. Am I going to enjoy a lot of what is going to be happening? Yes! But also, I just see it all zooming by so quickly. It makes me miss the slowness of spring and summer of 2020, without all of the panic of the unknowns of the early pandemic. Slow. I want slow, and front porch popsicles, and wandering the yard looking for wildlife.

And so I had that one week where I managed to schedule some posts ahead of time like I would have in my regular blogging days and now that has flashed away, gone the moment it started. I think about a post and writing here, maybe even work myself up to it all day but then it comes time to sit down and write or edit photos and I just don’t wanna. So, I don’t. It all feels so hectic that I even hid a few social media apps off my home screen. And that has been so nice to not have to feel the burden of that and to just live through life and not even bring my phone to take photos. I have, of course, taken photos. I took a boatload last weekend when we went camping at Mission Tejas State Park. And yet…will those posts see the light of day here? I never blogged last year’s trip there. I’m trying to go with the flow…

Summer is in full-swing. We’ve hit high 90s already this year and the humidity is on level Sticky Swamp. In the garden I have never mulched several beds and quite frankly not even sure I will get to any of that until fall at this point. I’m behind on weeding but have plans to start slowly making my way through some of the beds and paths. I’ve been babying my native plant bed in the edible garden. Tucking in seedlings that are big enough to transplant and looking for new plants to add in and other seeds to buy. Seeds I bought from Woodthrush Natives back in February or March were stratified and then sown a few weeks ago and most have germinated. I have other seeds I’ve ordered and some I’ve gotten in trade and I have this romantic notion of all of the native plants I’m going to be growing in the next year or two and I can’t wait to see it all come together after everything gets established. Let me tell you what I really want. I want a deer cull in our neighborhood. We have too many herds and too many deer lovers who feed them and they need to go. It isn’t going to happen, this deer cull, but I do want it. I’m frequently jealous of people who garden without deer. I never understood it in my suburban south Florida rentals when I read about people dealing with deer, but now I do. And the more I hear about how bad deer are damaging plant populations in the east/NE because there are too many deer—well, bring back the top predators! Or at least, let’s get a few more hunters out there to control the deer a smidge more. But, I digress—or I guess, I rant, because I said this was going to be rambling, right? To be fair, the deer have been a bit better (do I even dare to try to say that??) since we got new neighbors a few months ago. The neighbors are more active (OMG, they mow all the time), the deer aren’t hanging around as much, but they do still come through. I ran six off just last night. And baby deer season is starting…so they will be on the “awww, cute” level for a bit.

I have watched a lot of tv this spring and am looking forward/glad several things I watch are coming to an end. I’m trying to get back to less tv watching as is what I used to do before we had Forest, but again, I hit that end of day lull that my brain is fried and the only thing I can focus on is a tv show, and well, you see where this goes. This is Us has been a permanent tear jerker this season and that Miguel episode was !!! Ozark went out with a bang. I never thought I’d enjoy that show but my interest was piqued last year and soon it was a binge. Same with Queen of the South, with a similar cartel theme. Almost as, no it is, as violent as Ozark. But equally as good. It’s based on a book and I am trying to track down a library copy to read at some point. Russian Doll—wow, what a trip that second season was! Possibly more trippy than the first? I know I’m forgetting a lot—oh, the Emma remake is on Amazon Prime and I didn’t think I would like it because I’m not a fan of Anya Taylor-Joy but she does make a fantastic Emma.

Reading has been going well this year, which is probably one point for stepping back and getting off my phone, writing less here, etc. Having at least one paper book, a kindle book, and an audio book going has helped with keeping my reading numbers up. There’s always something to read!

Oh, on my native plant kick, I have been diving into some Texas naturalists as well. Mostly folks who did a lot of work in the 60s and 70s but others, too. I have always thought and still think we are terrible in Texas at preserving our natural history but I have come to realize there are quite a bit of folks who did a lot of work to get what we currently have protected and not a lot of people know about them. I’ll hopefully write more on that at some point in the future. Just need to get through a few books on them, first!

And that is a rough summary of what is going on right now!

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I’ll leave you with this gorgeous section of trail at Mission Tejas, that when merged with the heat and humidity reminded me of some areas of the Mid-Atlantic region of the Appalachian Trail! Oh, how it made me wish I was on a thru-hike, walking through that section last weekend.

3 Comments

  • Judy Bass

    I am ahead of you in life and my advice is to enjoy your busy days. The time will come when the kids move and days drag on. Eventually, we are going to move closer to them. But darn COVID got in the way. I am doing the same as you trying to keep up with the weeds. We live on a through street with lots of houses and I have at least one deer eating my front yard plants. This deer will eat anything, including plants and shrubs that haven’t been touched in 20 years. I wish the deer would move (trying to be nice). I just read an article from Penn State about deer overpopulation and trying to develop solutions. There is a shortage of hunters and one solution was to allow individual hunters to harvest more deer. Also, in PA hunters will donate to food banks.

  • Anna K

    I hope you can squeeze in some quality time with yourself as well. I remember those crazy kid years. Like Judy, ours are now adults, and life has taken on a different kind of busy. I’m kind of enjoying it, but I do wish I had more time to be in my garden. It’s still not readied for summer. Mind you, it’s been unusually cold and rainy here since March, and so many things are behind in development. On the positive side, the rains make everything look marvelously lush. And I’ll take that over heat any day, so I’m not complaining. 🙂

  • Patrice La Vigne

    I could have written those first 2 paragraphs! Well, I don’t have kids, but my life feels so hectic lately, and I crave the S-L-O-W pace. I had that this winter, so I feel grateful. But summer has barely started here and I know it will blow by in a blink!!! Also, I’ve been a very bad blogger lately …

    We finally finished Ozark and OMG. I’m not sure I’m happy with the ending, but it seemed inevitable at some point. We probably won’t start Queen of the South until next fall/winter.

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