The person behind The Hermits' Rest blog and many others. I'm a certified Texas Master Naturalist and love the nature of Milam County. I manage technical writers in Austin, help with Hearts Homes and Hands, a personal assistance service, in Cameron, and serve on three nonprofit boards. You may know me from La Leche League, knitting, iNaturalist, or Facebook. I'm interested in ALL of you!
My friend Gail died today. She was one of my small circle of high school friends who chat frequently. So, today am taking time to remember this strong, resilient, funny woman. Probably gonna do more of that tomorrow.
Four of us who struggled through high school together: me, Anita, Gail, Jana
I feel the worst for Jana, who lost her best friend today. Wow they were lucky to have each other to share tragedy and joy.
Jana, her husband Reggie, and Gail
I bet Gail had no idea what she meant to some of us. We need to remind those we care about that we do care, through ups, downs, absences, and all that. Go hug your dear friends, or call, or text. I did a lot of that today. So glad for true friends, old and new.
We also lost this sweet high school friend recently. His presence is missed. I keep wondering why I haven’t seen him in social media.
And the tarot cards were eerie again. Yesterday was the 9 of Swords, grief. That was me, knowing Gail was failing.
Also that lady kind of looks like Gail
Today was 6 of Cups, that healing circle of friends.
It looks like our group, with one friend transformed and swimming off.
Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.
Fine. I found an article on the worst cars of the early 1970s, the Ford Pinto, Chevrolet Vega, and AMC Gremlin. These are three small cars introduced to fight the tiny Japanese imports from Toyota, Datsun (future Nissan), Honda, etc.
Pinto, Gremlin, Vega
How does this article about bad cars of yore connect to my life? Remember now, I’m old. My first car was a 1972 Ford Pinto wagon. It was light blue with fake wood paneling. It was originally purchased for my mother, but the second I got my license, it was passed on to me to drive my brother and myself to school activities. Mom hated driving on “big roads.” My high school friends and I enjoyed blasting the little radio and cruising by the homes of cute boys.
This poor car could only hit 70 mph going downhill and had a radiator too small for its engine. But it carted me, my boyfriend (one of the cute high school boys) and our roommates back and forth through college.
It went forward and held 4-ish people. This was the car of my other male high school best friend.
The actual Pinto coupe shown above was smaller than the wagon. It was great for me, Anita, and the two guys, but add a fifth person and someone had to sit on the dreaded hump in the minuscule back seat. Of course, hormonal teens enjoyed the forced closeness. Good times.
Look, it’s Gremmy.
My second car magically appeared one day in the summer between my junior and senior years of college, after too many Pinto issues. I had high hopes for an upgrade. Nope. 1974 AMC Gremlin. Black, black interior, aftermarket air conditioner. Just perfect for a summer commute in South Florida. Sarcasm there.
Speaking of heat and humidity, these Lark Sparrows are here to say today’s humidity was awful.
But the Gremlin got me through three years or more of grad school in Illinois until it got us (me and same boyfriend) home from Florida in a blizzard and never moved again. Thus ended my time with two of the three worst cars of the 70s.
By the way, my friend Lynn’s dad had a Vega, so I got to experience it as well. Those cars rusted through amazingly quickly near the ocean.
[car photos from Motor Trend in 2001]
Mission accomplished. I related the article to my life. It was nice to think back on fun teen memories. A dear friend from that time is very ill right now, and thinking of good times when we rode in our little cars is a balm to my heart.
Tarot card of the day was The Teacher again. I drew it just before an educational talk by my horse teacher.
That might not be news everywhere, but it rarely rains here in August. It was a bit less than an inch, but pretty spectacular. I was out looking at birds when I realized the wind was picking up. I had a hard time making it to the porch!
Ominous
I’ve heard the winds were more than gale velocity, so it’s no wonder cushions flew and my birding station became a bare concrete platform.
Yes. Lee likes to mow paths.
Lee, the panting dogs and I watched the storm from the new porch, since the wind was blowing away from us. Sometimes the rain was close to horizontal.
More debris
We ended up outside longer than planned because, unsurprisingly, the power went out for an hour or so. It was too dark in the house, so I came out and read while bonding with nervous dogs.
My buddy Carlton
I managed to get all my work done despite another power outage, since they came between meetings. So, all was well and the grass will be green.
Sky post storm
Oh yes, I remembered to photograph my new planter, which it turns out is English. I’m just a fan of pansies, even if they’re out of fashion, so I’m glad to have it. It rained during the time I was going to plant baby plants in it, but maybe I can soon.
Yep. Pansies.
Sorry it’s not too exciting right now. Wait, I’m not sorry. It’s GREAT to not be all stressed about anything! Even the tarot card of the day is cheerful.
Or King of Cups
This guy is gazing at a bird, accompanied by his otter pal. Yay, another otter. The meaning is to use the wisdom you’ve gained from introspection to be of service to others. I get the hint. Now off to bed.
I hate to get in bed after the house cleaner makes the bedroom look so good! Lee’s recliner is so sweet with its pillows. But he can’t sleep in it like that! The bed is for me and dogs. If you think that’s all weird, I can assure you that LOTS of people of a certain age sleep in recliners.
Today was hot, but otherwise a fine Sunday. I started the day by listening to birds, as usual. I felt like getting some exercise, so I took the long walk to the cemetery. It looked very spiffy, and the birds were happy with how nice things looked, both there and at the old school/church property.
I found out later that whoever the Walker’s Creek people are will be holding a picnic there next week! Maybe it’s people with plots in the cemetery—they do that at other cemeteries in the area. what a nice tradition.
While I was there I noticed many Black Vultures gathering in two of the grand dead oaks adjacent to the old “town center.”
That’s a big gathering.
I also heard lots of dogs barking and a familiar voice telling them to stop. Were they barking at me or the birds? I went around the corner to Vicki’s house to find out. The answer is that her dogs really don’t like those birds, or they DO and are enjoying themselves. Since I was already there, I paid a visit (so un-hermit-like) and checked out an Australian saddle she’d bought to try to use with Drew.
I also got to see a hummingbird!
And, since I was there, I got to go inside and see extremely cute Sheltie puppies. They are very fluffy and bounce around most charmingly. They are destined for great things, given their lineage.
They are very wiggly and hard to photograph.
I had so much fun being a new stimulus for them. Much tummy rubbing and fur ruffling occurred. I also got to see the brand-new puppy whose mother is a national reserve champion herding dog. There was a lot of dog beauty and skill in that house!
The little black girl was too fast to photograph There were two Merle boys. Click to enlarge!Puppy frenzy
I dragged my self back home for a shower and some rest. I don’t know why I showered, since I was soaked with sweat after working with Apache and dealing with the water trough Spice had managed to overturn. She, Drew, and Mabel seemed mighty pleased to have done that. At least Apache was good. He’s really getting used to the paths in the front field. He likes the Johnson grass and goldenrod and I like the shady areas.
No horse photos today, so here’s a tired Spicebush Swallowtail.
But, I’m out of sequence. Before horse time, Lee and I took one of our random drives, since he hadn’t been exploring all weekend like I had. We saw lots of crops, which we have in this area because we are east of Interstate 35. The soil is completely different on the west side, because the road follows a fault. Fertile farmland to the east, and alkaline karst formations to the west. Anyway, we saw feed corn being harvested, cotton in bloom, and to my surprise, a rice field. It was irrigated by the Brazos River.
We ended up in Calvert, Texas, which is fairly close to Cameron. Lee saw that some of the antique stores there were open, so we stopped by one, which is in the tallest building in the town. The building was erected by the first Black millionaire in this area as headquarters of a benevolent organization. This is probably inaccurate and no doubt a local person can set me straight.
Picture of a woman teaching a little girl to knit.
The shop had lots and lots in it. Luckily there wasn’t much of what I want, but I wished I had a space for this embroidered screen. It’s very cool. I’d love to restore it.
The screen is tall but I just took pictures of the embroidery.
I did end up getting a planter with pansies on it. I’ll show you once I get it set up. I didn’t get these. They had two similar pairs.
The Queen of England and her spouse as bedroom slippers. Classy.
Enough blather about my day. But I investigated many things, ranging from cute to weird!
I’m missing RV travel, I can tell. Anytime I get an offer to go do something, I try to figure out a way to tack on a nature trip. I did that today!
Nature. She is good. Maximillian Sunflower.
I stayed in College Station last night after the dinner with my friends, which provided me with the chance to visit some parks there. After a hotel breakfast with many food labels in Spanish (see, Texas IS bilingual), I walked around behind all the hotels and restaurants to find a nice, older neighborhood that was chock full of Blue Jays. They love urban spaces! I found some wild areas, so my iNaturalist needs were sated.
Common sunflower Horse weed Hackberry Pubescent Gall Midge TievineSlim pickings
I checked out and went to the next place, which I could probably have walked to. It was a small nature preserve in the middle of the nice neighborhood.
Dr David E. Schob Nature Preserve
I noted it had a Texas Master Naturalist sign. The park has seen better days, maintenance-wise, but the paths are still there, and there are good places to sit and look at wildlife. And if you like ragweed, it’s a great time to visit.
Pearl CrescentLittle Yellow
Still, I found some interesting plants and saw lots of birds, including this Greater Roadrunner with its catch.
I decided next to go check out Lick Creek Park, where lots of the outings at the Texas Master Naturalist meeting in October will be hosted. I’m glad I went, since I couldn’t register for the Annual Meeting until today, one day after registration opened, so all the field trips were full.
Park map
Anyway, it was already hot by the time I got to the huge park, so I just did a short loop trail. There was much to see and photograph, plus quite a few summer birds. A Summer Tanager taunted me for at least ten minutes hopping from tree to tree, but hiding. I certainly knew it was there!
Little Yellow on Rose PavoniaBeautiful beauty berriesBird blindPepperdineBluestem along pathPartridge peaBeautiful oakWeird Mockingbird on the ground. Hope it was ok. Gulf Fritillary on Turk’s cap
I made my way home full of nature and happiness, only to spend the rest of the day enjoying nature at home. Beautiful clouds came in bearing very welcome rain, which was pleasant to observe from the shelter of the porch. Lee and I read, looked at birds, and relaxed for quite a while!
Big ole clouds! We got .33” of rain It’d flock heading to a tree. Zooming All in the treeOur viewpoint.
This all constituted a fine day in which I had no complaints. Well, I didn’t get to ride horses. Maybe tomorrow!
Lee got these pictures of the Mockingbird babies in our small tree. They look great!
Write about a random act of kindness you’ve done for someone.
Seems that this here blog prompt wants us to brag on ourselves about some spectacular kind thing we’ve done for someone. I don’t feel like doing that.
I don’t have to follow instructions! Here are basil blossoms.
Instead, I’ll share how I manifest my small and unspectacular acts of kindness. In a nutshell, I just make an effort to see the humanity of people I come across, even when I’m tired, hungry, in a hurry, or distracted. It’s hard to do! Perhaps that’s why I mentally pat myself on the back when I’m kind under pressure.
Treating people who serve you your food or check you out at a store like someone worth knowing and sharing a kind word with is usually pretty easy and always very kind. I’ve had some great conversations that way!
Bonus: Lee bought and repotted this lovely angel-wing begonia for the porch. He also got the screens clean! He did a kindness for me!
Waving at people going down the road, that lets them know you remember a human is in that car. So I do that.
At work I try to check in with folks, to remind me that they’re not just annoying employees and remind them I’m not just the weird Planview lady.
I have a long history of being that weird lady, though.
No need to go on and on. I truly feel that the best kindnesses we can bestow are when we could most easily skip them. I find it takes no more energy to be kind than to be grumpy, though often being kind makes you stop and think about what you’re doing. And voila! you’re being kinder to yourself.
In more mundane news, I started August with dusty violet hair (way more subtle) and purple geode nails. It’s already Lammas, the first harvest celebration. The year is flying by.
Before hair After hairHair, nails, sky, purple shirt. Nails.
I drove to College Station all by myself this afternoon to go to dinner with friends. Great food, fun stories of war, crime, and peace…and even some pleasant live music. Tomorrow I may seek out a park and birds.
Italian restaurant aftermath.
Tarot card of the day
The Hanged One, or the Tree in the Gaian Tarot. It’s about keeping your center even when things get topsy turvy. I love the sky in the upside down yoga woman (tree pose)’s outfit.
I have more confidence than usual that I’m handling all the world’s weirdness. Hope it lasts!
How would you describe yourself to someone who can’t see you?
I’m out of cheery topics today, since there was another family health scare today, but it’s not my story to tell. All is okay though, so let’s get trivial and answer today’s blog prompt.
My self image. Drab and brown. Well, tan.
Hello, person who can’t see me. I’m Suna. I’m a human being age 67, which makes me an elder, but still active. I’m short for a 21st-century human, partly because my parents were small, but also because of my mother’s drinking and smoking during pregnancy. She meant well.
I’m sturdily built, big-boned and strong for my size. I’m physically healthy and can walk long distances, swim well, and ride a horse. I’m neither fat nor thin. Medium in most ways, nothing really remarkable about my body other than it works.
Shaped a lot like a bumblebee.
I have long, fine, wavy hair that used to be much thicker. It was originally medium ash brown, but now is half gray, with grayer streaks. Currently it’s pink. Tomorrow it will be lilac. My hair is not as unremarkable as other parts of me.
I have light brown eyes, a reasonable nose and odd but functional teeth that look ok when I smile. My face has freckles and wrinkles and old person defects. My neck is wrinkled and wattled. I look a lot like my father, which is fine.
The part of me other than my hair that is remarkable are my fingernails, which grow long and straight. I dress like a man half the time, but my nails always look shiny and fun. I’ve had the fun fingernails habit for 50 years, ever since I stopped biting them.
Random nail photo from the past.
Like I said, I usually have jeans and a t-shirt on, but for work I wear nicer tops and jewelry, often turquoise. I do wear glasses, some boring, some not. I’m often found looking at a bird or tree.
Tarot card of the day has me up in trees looking at birds! Coincidence? Maybe not.
Basically, I’m a pleasantly plain dumpy older woman who sometimes has unnaturally colored hair and always has colorful nails. That’s enough to pick me out in a crowd, or teach the algorithm to find me. Nice and dull.
A friend posted that today was Murphy’s Law Day. Suddenly, I understood my morning.
I felt like this poor bird grasshopper who keeled over right in front of me today.
The power glitches last night had both my computer systems confused. I couldn’t get my peripherals to work right. Every way I tried to plug my monitors and camera in failed.
I got frustrated. Then I found out I’d botched setting up meetings in India. I lost cables. I spilled a soda on my desk. Ugh.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Thanks, Captain Murphy at Edward’s Air Force e Base, who came up with this saying. You are right some days.
I was ready to join these Purple Martins and migrate outa here.
I persisted, though, and by 3 pm I had my work setup functioning. I just plugged things into and out of the weird docking station with no instructions until things worked. I just have too many cables and power sources.
I even broke a nail. Woe is me.
Middle finger has repair. The others are shorter.
My friends at lunch thought I was going to explode, but the hour away from blank monitors did me good! And I did have a couple of good work meetings. So Murphy wasn’t everywhere.
But like Penney watching cows, I didn’t take my guard down in case of new complications.
By the end of the day after a successful session with Apache the horse followed by a cold rum and soda, I was fine. Life has ups and downs!
Tarot card of the day
Eight of swords
Ha. The Gaian Tarot has an image of people working cooperatively. I did a bit of that today. Sorry I forgot to take a photo.
Robin Wood shows how I really felt today., however.
I was feeling pretty trapped my technology issues, but I found that path out, the one shown in the card. Whew.
Judging is something humans do. People unlike themselves get judged. Much judging is unfair and undertaken without the necessary information to make a fair judgement. If you think you’re not judgmental, examine your thoughts. It creeps in, even when you dearly hope to avoid it.
Easier said than done
I’m improving in this area, after too many people have accused me of it. I’m always truly surprised, but eventually learn to see how they might interpret things I say or do as judgmental. Or sometimes they’re judging me. Ha! What a web of judgments!
It took me longer to create this image than to write the post.
I started thinking of this when a family member posted this on Facebook:
I have never been hated or judged by someone I want to become! Think about that for a while
It made me think not of other people, but of ourselves. The person I’ve judged and felt negatively toward the most is ME! Much therapy and practice of self love has gone into getting me where I am today, which is in a space where I’m comfortable with myself just as I am, mistakes and all.
And wrinkles, I love them, too.
I don’t want to become like anyone else anymore, nor do I want to bend over backwards to please others so much that I’m no longer me, but some miserable fake. So if someone hates or judges me, I’m much better at noticing it and letting it go. It’s their problem.
Have you read this before? Probably. Periodically I’m compelled to write some version of this “new and improved me” statement. My guess is that it happens for one of three reasons:
I’ve found myself judging someone or a group of people and need to remind myself that I’m trying not to do this. It’s hard at times, though.
I’ve realized someone has been judging me and it stings a bit. That’s okay; I just need to let the moment pass and not ruminate on it.
I’m reminded of some things I did in the 1980s that make me cringe now. That happened today. Then I remembered this person was also going through a series of very public poor decisions at the time. We both need to forgive ourselves and each other.
So yeah. I think most of us want to become our best possible selves, and a good start would be to love and have compassion for ourselves rather than hatred and judgment.
Tarot card of the day
It was another repeat, but another good one, the Ace of Cups, reminding me that I’ve been on a long journey and am tired of struggling, but I e made it to where I want to be and ready to start afresh with love in my heard.
Yesterday I wrote a long post about my day yesterday. But did I manage to share it? Nope. At least the email subscribers got to see it. I shared this evening. Better late than never.
In related lateness, I finally found a moth, after moth week ended. Helicoverpa zea, a huge pest to agriculture.
I also was tardy with my own health. Thanks to the internet outage last week I wasn’t able to go to my nurse practitioner to get my thyroid medication prescription refilled. Today it was very obvious that my body wants its pig hormones (I use natural hormones for all my faulty bodily functions). TMI. Anyway, I have a sore “throat,” which is really sore glands. Let’s hope I can get to the pharmacy tomorrow, which may be hard given my schedule.
I’ll try to be as persistent as this scary robber fly
That’s enough whining. I will end this short blog with three different species of Ruellia that I’ve seen in the past three days. It’s been a good year for these “Mexican Petunias” around here this year, but I only have one kind here at the Hermits’ Rest. These are so pretty, but they get around—the flowers shoot seeds for quite some distance. I’ve witnessed it at my old house, where I actually planted some. I feel sorta bad for the people who bought the house.
Metz’s Ruellia, Ruellia metziae – I’ve only seen this one other time The flowers look like wet paperDrummond’s Ruellia, Ruellia drummondianaViolet Ruellia, Ruellia nudiflora – the one at our place
Tarot card of the day
Today was a welcome return of the 9 of Pentacles. It’s funny, because I told the nurse practitioner how content and grounded I am right now. I’m so much better at observing the negativity without absorbing it these days.
The Hermits' Rest 