Memes

  • Hiking,  Memes,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places,  Wildlife Wednesday

    Hickory Horned Devil | Wildlife Wednesday

    Back in late October we went camping at Huntsville State Park. It had been several years since we’d been and I needed to tackle some trails there for the hiking guidebook I’m writing. Which, now that I look at my archives, I can’t find that I wrote about that here….??? Oh, wait, I found it, hiding in a life update post from June. Yes, still plugging away on hikes for that and I probably should post an update soon of how that is going! It was rather warm for October at the state park but we carried on and sweated it out. On Saturday of that trip, we had one…

  • Gardening,  Memes,  Outdoors,  Wildlife Wednesday

    American Lady Caterpillars (Vanessa virginiensis) | Wildlife Wednesday

    Last spring we were fairy negligent about weeding our paths. Up popped all sorts of interesting but less desired native and non-native plants, including what I think was Pennsylvania cudweed, Gamochaeta pensylvanica. I knew they hosted American lady caterpillars but I had never seen any on the plants around our yard before so I left them to see what would happen. We had adults flitting about the Texas ragwort that grows in the front yard during March-late April and I knew there was a good chance we would see the caterpillars if I gave them time. And they arrived! The caterpillars make little leaf nests like other species such as…

  • Memes,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places,  Wildflower Wednesday,  Wildflowers

    Large-flowered False Foxglove, Aureolaria grandiflora | Wildflower Wednesday

    Bumblebee on large-flowered false foxglove BONAP range iNat Observations Aureolaria grandiflora and it’s Aureolaria cousins have been on my to-see list for quite a while now. Imagine my surprise when Chris found them growing at Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve last July. I wasn’t expecting them to be there but I should have checked iNaturalist and paid more attention. The bumblebee video is from July at Watson. The other photos are from stumbling across the plant alongside the road in the Turkey Creek Unit of the Big Thicket last September. We’d just come off the Turkey Creek Trail and were walking back to the truck when Chris saw them growing…

  • Memes,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places,  Wildflower Wednesday,  Wildflowers

    Meeting Nabalus barbatus, barbed rattlesnake root | Wildflower Wednesday

    We went camping at Martin Dies Jr State Park in October, and while I had some usual suspects to check out on the trails there, I had a plant in mind I wanted to attempt to scout out in Jasper County—between Jasper and Kirbyville. Nabalus barbatus, aka barbed rattlesnake root, came on my radar a few years ago. It is relatively scattered and uncommon in east Texas as you can see in the map from iNaturalist above. Being uncommon and also trying to make sure I’m in the area at the right time for a bloom, well, it hadn’t worked out for a while to visit. I asked Chris to…

  • Memes,  Silent Sunday

    Early Winter at Watson | Silent Sunday

    December 10, 2023 view of Geraldine Watson’s cabin at Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve I grew up in the, as I say, these beautiful woodlands and everything. And on Sunday afternoons my mother would take us walking in the woods flower-picking. And we would pick Birdfoot Violets and Winecups and all those things. And mother would point plants to us that her mother had made medicines from and dyes from. And she would tell us stories all about how they made their own cloth and all that. And, then I learned the trees from my father who worked for a lumber company. And, the mill there at Doucette was a…

  • Memes,  Outdoors,  Wildlife Wednesday

    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!

  • Baby Teddy,  Creative,  Family,  Fun with Film,  Photography

    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…

  • Good Things on Sunday Morning,  Memes,  Outdoors,  Thoughts

    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…

  • Good Things on Sunday Morning,  Memes

    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…