That’s what I tell myself when I get overwhelmed or frustrated. Just keep moving. Sometimes just putting one foot in front of the other seems hard. I have a notion that we all feel like it’s hard to keep moving sometimes. I’m glad I’m to the point where it’s not too often.
There are always thorns or other obstacles on our paths! These are thistles.
Today was one of those days. I was just wondering why I was making so much effort. Maybe I was just coming down from all that self-help book energy. I stood on the porch and looked out at the nice, full pond, took a few deep breaths, and decided I’d get back to moving forward…tomorrow.
Porch view. Yay for full pond.
Today I mostly crocheted, watched a variety of television shows, ranging from the rather crude Ted (Seth McFarland humor at its crudest) to art history and a documentary about lobsters. Meanwhile, Kathleen cooked a fine traditional Easter dinner, and I provided wine. I’m not much of a helper.
It looks like I’m over halfway through!
I’d have had more blogging time if we hadn’t reached the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The final episode was very long, since it had to neatly end many story lines and “regale” us with endless battle scenes. That may have been the next-to-last episode. I get bored watching tiny model ships pretend to explode and shoot rays of various colors. Actually I knit, crochet, or read during battle scenes of all kinds. I like character development.
No reason for this photo except I still can’t believe the false dandelions this year.
On that tangent, I’ll take my leave so I can drive back down to the Austin suburbs for a visit with the dentist. That’s just the start of a long couple of weeks!
There’s an old sappy song going through my head right now.
Where are you going, my little one, little one? Where are you going, my baby, my own? Turn around and you’re two – turn around and you’re four Turn around and you’re a young child going out of the door.
It came up when I was watching my friend Ellie, who’s going to have her second baby next month. I met her when she just started college, and now she’s got a career and beautiful family. I’m so happy to have watched her grow and mature over the years.
Look at that face!
And to see Ellie and her husband, Jimmy, with their older daughter just warms my heart. They’ve done a great job raising a polite, intelligent, and charming little girl. I enjoyed spending time with her, drawing, problem solving her strange pen, and trying out the child’s binoculars I got her. The binoculars came with a whistle. She really liked the whistle.
Lord of the Rings themed decor. Baby Charles Christopher has a LOTR mural in his room.
Ruby can even read already! My heart burst from pent-up love, I guess. I don’t know how I’d cope if I had grandchildren and could see them all the time. To get to watch the child of your own children grow up is a real privilege. (I respect my children’s decision not to reproduce, so I’m glad to have bonus grandchildren.)
I want those hair things. I didn’t want to share Ruby’s face, but you can see her hair! That’s what mine looked like—same color and curls.
I also made a new friend and got two new friends on my Finch app. All in all, I had a good day, and didn’t mind one bit driving to Round Rock in the rain. Yes! We got 1.8”! The ponds filled. Joy!
Yes! It finally rained more than a few drops today!I’ve grown weary of the crunchy dead stuff underfoot (though as a bonus, most of the crunch was bur clover that never formed seeds!). Lee, the dogs, and I enjoyed sitting on the porch and listening to the welcome raindrops.
See, we’re all watching.
Morning coffee and rain are a fine combination, though we’re hoping the predictions of more rain come true; only ,75” doesn’t raise the ponds/tanks at all.
Carlton spent much of his morning “fleaing” Lee, the ottoman, and me. Plants got a little windblown water.
By mid afternoon the rain had stopped, and it honestly seemed like the fields were already greener.
Still some brown but better.
The sun had peeked back out and I was talking to my colleague when the dog alarm went off. It was the UPS truck, featuring the dogs’ favorite visitor, the Treat Man, who also happens to hand Suna boxes before doling out the treats.
The dogs were poised to dash out the door and bark frantically for the Treat Man to get out of the truck, but they stumbled over another humble visitor who was scratching at the door.
It’s a red-eared slider.
Most of the dogs jumped over the turtle, but Alfred was torn. Should he investigate the intruder like a good guard dog or go get his treat? To my relief, he chose the treats. I was able to get back to the door, pick up the displeased reptile, who seemed intent on going in the house, and deposit it on the other side of the dog fence, pointing the way it was headed.
My guess is that the rain got the usually sedate pond turtles in the mood to switch ponds. This one was heading towards the back pond, but the house blocked the most direct path. I hope my visitor made it to the destination and is now enjoying new insects and such behind the house. I hope to see it sunning itself on the tree limbs in the middle of the pond soon!
Goodnight, pink moon.
I hope your weather is the kind you need right now!
My throat is still annoying and my nose is runny but I didn’t feel too awful today. I was able to go for a pretty good walk this morning and found some new wildflowers have popped up.
Roadside gaura (Oenothera suffulta) Cutleaf evening primrose (Oenothera laciniata)These are both in the primrose family
I also enjoyed lots of butterflies, even though our fields that are usually covered with a variety of flowers are heavy on the false dandelions.
Pipevine swallowtail Checkered whitePhaon crescentSad field
I enjoyed spotting interesting things on the roadside other than trash that I picked up. There were some bursts of color and hidden beauty.
The horses are searching for green grass, bless their hearts. It’s way early for the soil to start cracking, but it is.
But HA! The skeet shooters didn’t stop the bluebonnets from blooming when they mowed the field. Yay!
Most of the day I relaxed and crocheted (a whole row of the wool blanket!) while chatting with Kathleen. We told stories, watched weird television shows, and spent time talking to the horses. Both our husbands were off working (Lee is in a writing groove upstairs and hasn’t been coming down much), so we filled the afternoon with conversation. It was a pleasant and stress-free interval of hanging out and recuperating! The big thrill was getting into her car and visiting the latest KCC Construction project and enjoying a Dairy Queen treat. That’s the best we could do for excitement, but it was good enough and kept our spirits up.
I’m sure these ladies were jealous of our fun.
My hope is that I’ve built enough strength to get my paid and volunteer work done next week and Kathleen has enough strength for all her doctor visits. It may be a challenging week.
Still feeling sick, but I was able to take care of animals and sit in the sun a bit. Kathleen and I took a slow walk this afternoon to just get out of the house. I didn’t get to go to marches with my friends, which I really regret. But my energy is awfully low.
This pretty Texas star was a surprise on my walk by the front pond today.
Right now I don’t want to drive anywhere, anyway, thanks to wars and such. Grumble.
Grumpy is a good word for me, because I’ve not been taking NyQuil or anything, so my snoring and loud breathing issues keep waking me up all night. I must have sounded awful last night, but I didn’t bother Lee with his earbuds on.
Tonight I have Chloraseptic for my throat and will sleep with my head raised. I’ve had enough of this irritating minor illness.
Wild berry! That’s exciting.
I need to do some writing and other things that require an alert mental state, so wish me the best! And I know there are many friends out there dealing with MUCH more serious concerns. They have my thoughts, and they help me remember to focus on what’s good in life, which there is plenty of.
Look at all the pollen on this bee!
For example, the chickens are back to laying in their usual nest box! Woo hoo! Plus I found a new plant!
This plant with cool seed pods is wild tantan (Desmanthus acuminatus), the second sighting on iNat in our county!
I broke my blogging streak yesterday, but I just didn’t have the brain power to do it. My brain was too feeble to put together even my usual simple sentences. I’m still dealing with this virus today, but I have more energy, so I’m gonna say I’m on the mend. (Yes, I know there’s a new COVID strain, and yes, I will get the booster because I’m at risk due to my advanced age.)
This is my picture from yesterday when I felt sickly.
It’s story time, nature observation time, life update time, or whatever. First, I’m cheered every time I go outside these days, because some of my favorite sounds are back, Barn Swallows and White-eyed Vireos. I’ll be tired of them eventually, but right now, those songs convince me it’s spring.
White eyes! Photo by Brad Imhoff. These guys hide in trees, so I rarely see them.
I’m looking forward to seeing hummingbirds soon, because our red yucca are starting to bloom. These are good signs when all the grass is brown and crunchy.
This stuff is nice and green, but the Bermuda grass beside it should be green, too.
Second is another tale of rural living. Yesterday I didn’t feed the horses their supplements, and neither did Kathleen due to recovering from her recent issue. Today I felt up to it, and marched into the tack room (which smells good because it’s the WOMEN’S room and we can turn on the Scentsy diffuser. I digress.
Scentsy thing is beside the lamp.
It came time to give Dusty his two scoops of bran powder, and when I reached into the bin, the bran moved. I guess the lid on this bin needs to be very securely attached. Yep. A mouse. One of the little ones. I tried to scoop it out and that’s when the whole dang bin began to move. More than one mouse. They started to try to fling themselves out, as they do. I did not want them in the tack room!
I did NOT take pictures today, so here’s the henhouse mouse.
So I bravely dragged the bin outside, grateful that the bran stuff isn’t very heavy. I did my best to encourage exiting by angling the bin downward, but of course the rodents tried to climb up or bury themselves in the bran. My goal was for zero mice to crawl up my arms. I succeeded! In the end, SIX mice scampered away. I hope something eats them.
Maybe they went over to chicken world where there is corn.
How did six of them get in the bin? There’s not any mouse poop around since Kathleen cleaned the room. Maybe they were in there when the bran was put in? Mystery. Even AI can’t solve that one. I do assure you, though, that I put the lid back on very tightly.
Lids must stay secure or critters will get in. Stock photo.
Later, Kathleen helpfully offered up the theory that if they’d kept eating the bran they’d have gotten all swollen and died. Eww. Now that’s in my head.
Boom! Note mouse has 3 tails. Quality AI.
So, to change the subject, I want to share how happy I am with a work development. Today I was meeting with a colleague on my new project and we got to talking about our previous lives. And talking. And laughing. And blathering away in geeky grad student language about our original fields of study, linguistics and folklore. At some point we were practically giddy about how much we have in common. And some of it is pretty niche far left cultural stuff that you usually don’t get to talk to random coworkers about.
I didn’t mention crafts to her, but hey, five rows of my blanket!
Then she told me the other woman running the project I’ve been brought in on is secretly a cultural anthropologist. I’d never have guessed.
I’m quite thrilled to have gotten to know someone just as weird as me who speaks the same quasi-intellectual language I used to speak. Sometimes I do miss aspects of my earlier years, and learning is one of them. My new friend and I both admitted we could stay in grad school the rest of our lives. I’d just keep getting Master’s degrees to go with all my interests!
I guess today was not all bad. It was quite interesting and satisfying. Hope yours was, too.
There’s a lot on my mind this evening, so I’ll be brief. Today I enjoyed talking to my friends online, finding interesting flowers, noting the return of the Black-chinned Hummingbirds, just letting go and reveling in the flying horsehair while grooming Apache and Dusty, and some relaxing crochet. I have washed off the dirt and hair.
White version of blue-eyed grass“Blue” versionBuckeye on dewberry blossom Many stem evax (Diaperia verna) a type of rabbit tobacco One of my cultivated portulaca flowersFrom the same basketRed oak tree is not dead!
I did not enjoy finding out Star Fleet Academy was canceled, worrying about sick people, conversations that made me paranoid, nor finding out how expensive my car’s maintenance is.
But, hope springs eternal, and the wheel of the year keeps turning.
Every so often you get to enjoy a whole day where there’s peace, beauty, fun, humor, and a little accomplishment thrown in. Today was such a day. Why was it so good?
Walking! I didn’t walk all that far today, but I enjoyed it. On my first walk I noticed all the grass and such is already crunchy and brown thanks to scant rain and that freeze a week ago. But there were white evening primroses, which are even more delicate than their normal pink friends.
These are just pale versions of pink evening primroses, not a different species. Normal. Ladybugs have been chomping.
Later in the afternoon I went out again with Kathleen, since walking is helping her recuperation. I showed her how big the puffball mushroom in the front field has gotten, and we found a thick patch of verbena next to the rye crop across the road. Apache would sure love that field.
That’s big!Can’t wait until it explodes!I love the textureVerbena patchNice to see green!The last trees are budding out
Calves! There are many cow-calf pairs in the field behind us right now. The babies are getting more adventurous and frisky, which is always entertaining. I love the brave and curious ones who try to get the dogs to play. This one with the white spot had a lot of fun with Penney and let me talk to her a while.
Crafts! We watched some television this afternoon and evening, which gave me time to work on my patchwork blanket. I got through all but one square on the fourth row. It looks pretty cute. I have some ideas for it once I join all the squares.
Click to see the whole photos.
Funny things! I have two funny things to share. First happened yesterday. I went to the birding hut to re-start Merlin after it had been running a while. I wanted to write down the new species in my notebook but I couldn’t open it. That was odd. I finally peeled the pages apart, and I really perturbed a bold jumping spider who had managed to build a web nest in the book in just over an hour! I encouraged her to relocate.
But, I liked your booklet.
Second story was from today. When we went to feed the poultry, I once again found no eggs in the boxes. You could see someone had been sitting in them. But none were chosen for egg laying.
You may remember that last week Kathleen cleaned the henhouse. New pine shavings were put in the boxes and on the floor.
Before we went to the horses, I got a notion and had Kathleen wait while I checked something. Sure enough, there were four eggs in the old nest boxes we still have up for when we get new hens. I guess Cindy and Cathy don’t like the pine shavings. I’ll have to get them some straw. No photo because (gasp!) I left my phone in the house!
We prefer the little nest boxes, with no nesting material.
I’m only writing to keep a blogging streak going. I was so boring yesterday that only 36 people visited the site. It’s a good reason I just like to hear myself talk, or read my writing, or something. And I’m only going to get more and more boring if I keep working so many hours.
I’ll still try to take a few nice photos when I can get outside.
To put a positive spin on things, if I’m being boring, it means I’m not letting outside events upset me, I’m enjoying my family/pets, and my dull hobbies are satisfying me.
This could be a painting.
So if you got this far, feel free to suggest something interesting to write about, or I’ll do the wise thing and not blog until I have something blog worthy.
This could be a painting, too. So many greens.
PS: don’t watch Lost in Space (new version) if you’re one of those people who expect their science fiction to be at least somewhat plausible.
The Hermits' Rest 