Memes
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Big Thicket Coral Snake Encounter | Wildlife Wednesday
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen a coral snake so we were delighted to find one crossing the road on our way to the Watson Preserve one evening back in May. The road is lightly traveled, being residential and all, but we still stopped to get out, take photos, and to block other cars from coming and intentionally killing this beauty. We haven’t seen one in our yard in a few years so I figure we’re due for one soon!
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Impermanence
The last time I had film developed was almost a year ago. Recently, I had four rolls I wanted developed so back in June I sent them off. This time I only had the film developed and no scans done because I got a film scanner back at Christmas! It’s a bit cheaper and my next step to make it even a little more cheaper is to see if I can find a camera shop or photo lab within a 30 minute drive from me so I can get it developed locally. Either way, stockpiling some film for once or twice a year isn’t a big deal but film development…
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Good Things on a Sunday Morning *Monday Edition* | 3
Hello! My head hasn’t been in the right space to be spending much time here so here’s a post to get me back into the groove again! I have been very engrossed in working to save Fairfield Lake State Park, something I wrote about here a few months ago. Things have really hit the fan in the last month after TPWD voted to use eminent domain to save the state park. The developer, who took ownership of the park, lake and adjacent properties on June 1st, has since gone on a whirlwind PR tour in Freestone county to sway local opinion. There was a last minute PR dog and pony…
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Good Things on Sunday Morning | 2
I was in a nature funk the last three or four weeks but it seems to be lifting. *phew* Most definitely a good thing! Some good things from this week: Notes from Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter: I read Spare (listened) a few months ago and really enjoyed it, though I didn’t particularly like the short chapter lengths. This was an interesting inside into life as a celebrity memoir ghostwriter. I know only a little about ghostwriting from a cousin who has ghostwritten romance novels in the last decade so it was interesting to see this perspective from a high profile ghostwriter. I can get the perspective of someone ghostwriting something such…
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Good Things on Sunday Morning | 1
I had intended to write this out this morning but alas, I slept in and the rest of the day was a mix of busy and lazy. I used to do Silent Sunday’s around here but have stopped in recent years. I feel like doing something weekly so let’s make it Good Things on Sunday Morning (or evening!). A few things from this week: Charade is my Favorite Movie via Summer Brennan. This is probably the best thing I’ve read in a long time on the internet! It was utterly delightful and any Audrey Hepburn fan will love it! I can’t recall when I first watched Charade but I think…
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Narrowleaf Goldshower, Galphimia angustifolia | Wildflower Wednesday
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 but you can find it throughout the Texas Hill Country from Austin to San Antonio and scattered west…
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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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Woolly Ironweed, Vernonia lindheimeri | Wildflower Wednesday
We came across this gorgeous ironweed species back in July 2021 at Pedernales Falls State Park. Like many other Texas species, it was named after Ferdinand Lindheimer, the botanist who was the first permanent-resident collector in Texas. I have a book about his journals that I’ve been meaning to read for a year and this might be the year I actually tackle it! This particular species is very much a central Texas plant, and on iNaturalist you can easily see all of the observations starting in DFW and trailing down along I-35 to San Antonio and then west towards Kerrville. There are a smattering of sightings west of this area…
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31. My Word for 2023 – December Reflections 2022
Well, these last few days have escaped my attention here and that is all fine by me. I’ve been off this week and with Forest and Chris was out of town for work, so Forest and I have been doing various activities together and cleaning up after the holidays a bit. My parents came down (and are currently here) so my focus has been elsewhere and not on writing here. But I figured I should at least wrap up on this last day of 2022 and finish out this reflection challenge. I haven’t done a word for a few years now. I found that much like resolutions I would focus…
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27. Windowsill – December Reflections 2022
At home we don’t have houseplants because we have housecats. They enjoy nibbling on plants that would end up poisoning them so we keep those out of the house. But at work, we both have a varying array of plants. I mostly keep clearance rack orchids from Kroger but also some other various ‘houseplants’ and that has expanded over the years. Earlier this year I bought a plant called string of needles or Ceropogia linearis. It’s a succulent-ish plant that requires low water. I keep it and several other low water plants in a south facing window in the kitchen at work and the heat that the window gets allows…
