-
Cemetery Botanizing – Tillis Prairie Cemetery | 3
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed by email! Thanks for visiting! 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…
-
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.
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Spring Garden Abundance
We returned from our west Texas adventures for Spring Break to much greener pastures here. Yes, there were some plants blooming in the Davis Mountains but as we lowered in elevation and drove east, the greening climbed significantly. I was glad to return to see I hadn’t missed some blooms, particularly the penstemons, which I knew were coming. The Penstemon laxiflorus is just beginning and I am delighted to get to enjoy them once again. I transplanted these pineland milkweed, Asclepias obovata, seeds before we left and worried they wouldn’t take well without some constant watching but they have thrived. I’ll leave them in the pot for a month or…
-
Big Sky Country
A week in the Davis Mountains, spring this time instead of our usual Thanksgiving. Which meant warmer, but much windier weather, and the beginning of spring blooms for plants we haven’t gotten to see bloom before. All the warm weather and early blooms will be dusted with snow this weekend as a cold front came through last night, our last night. The city of Fort Davis was preparing for the storm by salting the roads and brought out a big truck with some weird thing on the front, and after our southern sensibilities faded we realized was a snow plow! Hah! You certainly don’t see those around our part of…
-
Life Lately | February 2023
Thinking: A few life updates can go here I presume…. So I finally had my hip MRI a few weeks ago, really probably a month ago by now, and no surgery needed. I do have an impingement but not to the extent he originally thought I might. But as I was talking to him he started thinking more on it and had me get an x-ray of my lower back. There was some narrowing between L1 and L2 and he thought my nerves are being affected which would be causing some of that pain, so I’m now starting physical therapy. I had my intake appointment this week with the PT…
-
Mahogany Hammock Trail at Everglades National Park (2007)
Let’s travel back to Florida and less depressing things like losing a state park—because nature continues on even while we fight to save it. I actually remember very little about this trail. I can recall part of the boardwalk and that there were mosquitoes but I don’t recall seeing some of these plants! The peeling skin-like bark of a gumbo limbo tree, Bursera simaruba The fruits of a Florida strangler fig, Ficus aurea A nurse log filled with long strapferns, Campyloneurum phyllitidis…a common scene in many swampy hammocks in south Florida. An orchid that has died, probably a butterfly orchid. Hammock viper’s-tail, Pentalinon luteum. This is one of the plants…
