Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?
I have to admit that I haven’t made as many strides towards a sustainable lifestyle as many people I know and admire. But at the same time I’ve done more than many folks I know. I’m in the middle somewhere.
I took exactly one picture today. There’s a dragonfly in this image.
One thing I’ve done is to stop buying clothing and “shop” my own closet. I know the reason I like having clothing is that I didn’t have much growing up. Then there’s my love of colors and accessories. Still, I want to buy less and recycle more, so I’m giving things I don’t need to my son’s partner, who does reselling in some way young people do. It seems smart.
I’m also happy that we’re getting set up to harvest rainwater. Step 1 was pouring the pad to put the large tanks on.
The slab
I wish I were a better/more patient gardener and could grow more of our own food, but I’m not. My only success in growing food is thanks to the hens and Connie (the turkey). Of course, I give them organic chicken feed, etc., so the eggs probably cost more than at the store, but at least my chickens have a life with fresh air, snacks, comfy housing, and me, their human friend.
They have fun.
I do like to forage for native plants to eat, but as with gardening, I don’t do it consistently. I’m more engrossed by birds and horses.
And cute donkeys.
Hmm. I eat a lot of whole foods and organic products, especially the things Kathleen doesn’t like from her nutritionist. I eat anything, so I waste little food.
I don’t spray herbicides from the air, either, unlike the crop duster.
That’s not a spectacular list. Maybe writing this down will inspire me to make more of a sustainability effort. I hope you’re doing better than I am, but one thing’s certain, we can all do better.
This is an interesting point in my life. Having time for myself for three months was really pleasant, once I got used to being retired. But I’m just as glad to have gone back to work for a while, because it’s opened my eyes to a few things.
Life is all rainbows.
Granted, I haven’t been in the new organization a week yet, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how positive everyone is, how helpful they are to each other, and how they all like what they’re doing (mostly). People act interested in each other as people, even contract workers. And they’re generous with their time and expertise. I’m having a great time collaborating with others in roles similar to mine.
Cheerful as a yellow Kingbird on a wire.
The company has many goals and values that I agree with, like diversity and inclusion, carbon neutrality, and having fun (the larger team couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had playing kickball).
Gee, I hope the “new job glow” doesn’t wear out too quickly! It’s refreshing to not be looking over your shoulder for HR to escort you out of the building or to have no idea where your team is going or what’s next. I spent too many years in my previous two Austin tech cultures, both of which had an atmosphere of negativity that I was always trying to make the best of because I needed money. And all those mergers and acquisitions!
I often felt like I was going down rabbit holes.
That’s no longer an issue. I’m working now because I want to be helpful and I’m in a place that values transparency and honesty with customers and staff. I may be tired from drinking information from a fire hose right now, but I’m doing things I enjoy (other than mandatory compliance training). I feel useful, helpful, and appreciated. That’s motivating!
Porch before tile was installed. It’s just dry fit here.
And very soon I’ll have a porch I can work from. The floor is going down, though my son is tired of having to vacuum up dog hair before laying each tile. Dang dogs.
I’m worn out after six hours of meetings, wrangling with new computer peripherals, then a fun meeting later. I’m not used to so much sitting and headphone wearing. I’ve gotta get back in the groove of work!
Carlton says he’s had a hard day of barking anytime a vehicle approached.
I’ll just share a story of serendipity and coincidence from this morning. I’m capable of that. So, bright and early, my son and I drove in his darned nice 2001 work truck to our nearest real city, Temple. It has big box stores, so it’s a city.
We headed to Lowe’s to look for some tile to make a border around our screened porch floor, since the leftover travertine from the inside of the house didn’t quite cover it. The quest failed. The big box store had ZERO floor tile that wasn’t porcelain. What the heck? We wanted something natural.
We left there and made the convoluted u-turn required to get back to the pitiful Temple Mall, where there’s a fairly new Floor and Decor store. We figured with “floor” in the name, they’d have more variety. And they did! I’d forgotten how much I love looking at wall tile, but I steeled myself to only look at flooring.
We did, indeed, locate natural stone in a large size that my son could cut to the required size. As I was dwelling on the color of the stone, I turned my eyes to the left. Wow, what I saw looked familiar. It was the exact travertine in the exact shapes we already were using.
There it was.
What a coincidence! They had it.
But it was more than a coincidence. I realized that the stone was in the same spot in the store displayed exactly the same way it was in 2014, when our contractor and I picked the flooring. The store in Austin had the same layout!
Then we got the stuff to lay the tile and headed to checkout. The clerk asked if we had a phone number on file. I didn’t think so, but gave her Lee’s number. She said, yes, it was there all right, under Ruben Construction? I said sure, as we both laughed as we realized the last thing I’d bought there was that same tile!
The floor inside, 2015.
What a coincidence. That certainly made the morning fun.
I got home an hour before my Pacific Time work started, too. Not bad but it made for a long (but good) day.
And now I sleep! I’ll be more pithy tomorrow, perhaps.
Today I started what I hope will be my last full-time job ever (I did say that about my previous job that ended so oddly). Today was so encouraging that I keep wanting to tell someone, but I’ve already told my whole family, so it’s your turn, reader-folk. My new job started off splendidly.
I got to look at birds, too.
Even the civilized 11am start time made me happy. No more 7am meetings for me! Pacific Time is nice. I’ll occasionally have a rather late meeting, but I’ll probably work 9:30-5:30, which is very nice. I’ll be able to have morning time to do things that require concentration. Great.
I’m hoppy for Suna.
I met two coworkers today, and I enjoyed their positive attitudes, their eagerness to get my input, and their openness. The company seems to have a very open and honest culture. I’ll even know what products they’re making! I think we can get good things done and end up with productive and organized teams and projects. I’m stoked. (I love this initial part of any job where it’s all possibilities and few roadblocks.)
I’m aware stuff will come up.
The company culture is refreshing and positive. They will even let me participate in their Employee Resource Groups. I’ll enjoy making contributions in this new place for the next few months! Let’s see what tomorrow brings when I start going to meetings. And when my laptop arrives so I can use my new email address and access the SharePoint site. Whee!
Oh how I’ve missed a work laptop. photo from Pexels.
Other good news? Look at these precious babies! They’re growing! Soon we can shut the porch door!
Five cuties.
And my son made good progress laying out the floor on the screened porch using what was leftover from building our house. I’m glad we kept it safe all this time! We don’t have quite enough for the whole floor, so tomorrow we’re going to pick out a border tile. I hope we can find something that goes well with this natural stone that’s also on sale.
That’s NICE.
We’ll see. Being so optimistic feels good but weird!
I hope something positive happened to you today. We all need it.
You can blame this post on my friend Jennifer, who complained (in a funny way) today about how some kinds of clothing just don’t work for her. She mentioned how high-waisted pants don’t fit well on her body shape, and that she finds shirts with longer hems in back to be unflattering as well. She pointed out that mid-rise jeans actually hit her midriff, since she is short-waisted. (See below for her original)
AI made me these high-waisted example pants.
You can also blame my thinking about other people’s clothing hang-ups and preferences to watching the new show “Wear Whatever the F You Want” with Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, who now help people find a wardrobe that THEY like, not what the stylists want them to wear. I have found a few of the choices not to my taste, but then, I wasn’t the one wearing them!
I may not like it, but I don’t have to wear it. Photo by Genaro Servu00edn on Pexels.com
Our clothing reflects a lot about how we want the world to perceive us as well as about how we perceive ourselves. No wonder I hear so many proclamations among my friends about what they’d NEVER wear. My stepmother told me repeatedly how she didn’t like “shark hems” on tops (which I wore a lot of back when she was at her peak). My sister was adamantly against short sleeves that came to above the elbows on women “of a certain age” (for me they interfere with my ability to enjoy my flappy area in its wingiest).
Flappy fun time.
I have friends who never wear pants, others who never wear dresses, those who love leggings and those who hate them, and then there’s all the pants “rules” like letting your undies show above your pants, wearing skinny or wide legs, jeans or no jeans, rips or no rips, etc.
Love them or leave them! Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com
Of course, the sane voice inside our heads will tell us that people can wear whatever the f they want, and our issues with their choices are just that, our issues. That’s absolutely true! I was wondering, though, where did my own clothing prejudices come from? One answer is my mother. She was not fond of tattoos, liked long painted fingernails, and enjoyed wearing clothing that “matched.” The other main answer is the times I grew up in. I wanted to be a hippie when I grew up, so my love of tie dye, jeans, and long braids is pretty predictable. My dislike of polyester double-knit pant suits and (for the male-type folks) leisure suits derives from the same thing: I still wanted to be a hippie, and adults were trying to dress me like an old Florida retiree.
In a t-shirt and jeans, like most days.
I’m truly enjoying learning about other people’s fashion likes and dislikes because they tell so much about each of us. I loved reading Jennifer’s fashion rant, and would equally love to hear yours. What do you just love and what drives you to distraction when you see it or are forced to wear it? As an incentive, I’ll share some of my irrational fashion opinions, as long as you remember that I am very fond of many, many people who make choices different from mine. I enjoy the variety. So here you go:
I love to wear t-shirts and jeans, with comfy sneakers on my feet.
I like tie-dye a lot.
I am uncomfortable wearing dresses, but okay with tunics and leggings.
I am not fond of leggings with short tops.
Dress pants, especially polyester ones, make me feel like I’m pretending to be fancy.
Tucking your shirt into your pants, especially just the front, is ick for me. I know I have to do it for horse shows, with a belt that beautifully accentuates the belly I have hated since childhood, which is totally my own self-image issue and I acknowledge that.
I like loud prints and bright colors. Pastels make me look kind of ill.
I love turquoise jewelery.
The fact that one navy blue item of clothing never quite matches the color of other navy blue items annoys me.
I love hats, a lot.
I don’t like body conscious attire that shows every feature of one’s body. I’m glad other people are comfortable wearing it; I’m just not up for it. I like things that skim the body and are loose for ease of movement.
I don’t like crocs. I do like Birkenstocks. That makes me inconsistent.
The only piercings I’m comfortable with are pierced ears, which is better than my parents, who didn’t like that and made me wait until I was 18 to get my ears pierced. I sort of like a nose piercing in a nostril, but the ones in the septum bother me more than they should, and I have no idea why.
I don’t have tattoos and don’t like lots of the ones I see, especially random poorly drawn images. Some I find incredibly beautiful, just not for me.
I cannot stand thong underwear or underwire bras.
I don’t like clothing with hate speech or hateful insignia on them. I like peace signs, mandalas, and Sanskrit om characters, though. Hippie thing.
Apparel emblazoned with luxury brand logos isn’t my style. I do seem to be wearing a Carhart t-shirt, however.
There is a mosquito in my office, so I’m going to stop typing. I’d love to hear some of your clothing opinions.
So apparently “high-waisted” pants are the latest trend in womens’ clothing. That’s the last thing short women like me need. Ha. I’ve been wearing high-waisted pants since before they were popular — for like 5 decades. At not-quite-5′ tall anymore, I’ve always been what they call “short-waisted”. Meaning if I put on regular womens pants, the waist comes up to just under my bust. I used to roll down the waist band of pants a few times so the crotch wouldn’t hang down at my knees. Give me some “high-waisted” pants and they’d probably come up to my neck. For me, “mid-rise” pants, which supposedly come up to just below the belly button on non-short women, come up to just above my belly button. Just about right. And another thing. I hate those shirts with what they call a shirt-tail hem. Those things are about 2″ lower in the back and on someone short like me, those come down below my butt and look ridiculous. Ugh. I hate them. Rants over. For now.
I didn’t have too much to write about today, other than that horses are cute and I have a new favorite light fixture. So, let’s find out what my favorite thing about me might be.
But first, look at the fun Apache and Rylie (probably not spelled right) had today during warmups.
Okay, so, answer the question, Suna. And don’t say you like something except for this that or the other. No self put-downs allowed.
Oh, second, hey look at this light fixture. It looks like planets made of rock crystals.
I used to always say my favorite thing about myself were my feet. They were not too big or small, medium width, and had nice toes. Now they are more mature feet with mature person issues. So, nope, it’s not my feet.
Sorry, feet, you also always have fire ant bites.
All right. I’ll refrain from pointing out the obvious negatives for this, as instructed, and declare my favorite thing about myself is how I can empathize with others, care deeply about people who don’t care back, and always see our commonalities as humans. That boils down to one concept but I don’t have the right word for it.
Take a seat while I add unnecessary explanations, as I tend to do.
Note that I can now set boundaries, so my character feature is one I can now embrace without fear of hurting myself. I’m not going to run out and embrace the toxic people in my life, but I can try to understand them and care, from a distance.
They can’t hurt me, even though I may appear vulnerable, just like today’s maize calligrapher fly can’t sting me, even though it looks like a wasp.
Super Sensitive Suna, as I labeled myself on Facebook today, can take the occasional sadness and hurt that comes from all that caring, but it’s worth it. I just have to expect to have the occasional down periods. It’s a small price to pay to keep cherishing my favorite thing about myself.
I’m taking a break from Facebook, since the fallout on a post I thought was not too controversial turned out to incite strong partisan feelings among my friends. I respect their rights to debate, and find areas of agreement with each, but I’m so damned hypersensitive that I had to take a break. I also snoozed a few very nice people for a while. So, I’m no longer listening to the fallout until I’m up to it again. I do want to hear all views, but I also want to remain mentally stable.
But I can still blog and write on my Substack, which is where I rant. I’ve been trying to listen to birdsong my porch or birding slab, but I’m thwarted. There is an incessant throbbing sound echoing through the trees. It fills most of the spectrogram on Merlin Bird ID.
The faint rhythmic lines are a Cardinal.
It’s cicadas. I can hardly hear myself think for them. Once they start up around 9 am, they’re in all the trees every minute unless it rains. My best birding the past couple of days has been right after a storm, when birds have a feeding frenzy thanks to flying insects, and I guess the cicadas need to dry off.
Annoying. Photo from Pexels.
Only the loudest and closest birds pierce through the wall of cicada sound. I do get a lot of House Sparrow chirps. That’s because their nest is above me (to the right; I’m not putting chairs under their extra-decorative nests.
Mrs Sparrow, who alternates with Mr Sparrow in insect deliveries.
These mofos are everywhere. When not feeding, they’re sitting around pooping on our outdoor furniture, grills (which are covered), etc. They’re not native, so we could dispose of them, but nope. I just make sure they stay out of the new screened porch.
Grr.
Speaking of our lovely new porch, the Barn Swallow eggs haven’t even hatched yet, so who knows when we will be able to shut the door. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t quite so dang law abiding and could remove the nests.
Photo yesterday by Lee.
I do have a bit better luck with birds on my walks, where there are some areas a bit farther from the cicadas. Plus, there are always good old eyeballs for spotting birds! Yesterday I found a Mississippi Kite and today a Green Heron.
Blurry, but I could tell what it was from colors and call. This guy didn’t have to say anything. I know a Green Heron!
So, between traipsing through mud to tend to horses and listening to birds, my last free week before my consulting gig starts is full. I also keep crocheting, and now April and May are connected on my temperature blanket, and June is caught up. The nice KnitPicks lady said that if I do not get yarn by ten working days to call them rather than patiently waiting a month like I did. I am now warned.
April and May. Getting warmer.
I’ll leave you with bugs and flowers. Please send healing thoughts to everyone who’s affected by world events, and listen hard, even when it’s difficult to hear.
Maize calligrapher waspLighted furrow beeVelvet ant? Not sure.
Gee whiz. Last night 8.5” of rain fell at the Hermits’ Rest. That’s the second most since we’ve been keeping records (2011). It was wet this morning.
This filled overnight.
It’s rare for water to flow over our driveway, which is the dam that created the front pond. It did last night, though, and much of our road base washed away.
This is worse than it looks. The ruts are deep.
The pond got the highest I’ve ever seen it, but with the water flowing quickly through our big culvert, it quickly lowered once rain stopped.
At left you can see how high the water got. The little trees in the water show the normal “full” line.
I walked down the road to see how Walker’s Creek looked. I’m used to it being out of its banks, but it was way over the road and there was a large dead tree in the middle of the bridge. That’s some strong water.
Looking at the fence on the right you can see how much higher the water was!
I talked to the guys who put the sign out. They said they’d move the tree when the water receded, but we think the neighbor down the road did it.
The waterfall was loud!
I thought about all the birds and turtles and hoped they were okay. I knew the frogs were happy, because I could hear at least four kinds.
The creek is usually at the far tree line.
I’m always fascinated by how the water drains from the property next to ours down an arroyo, to be joined by runoff from the cultivated field across the road, which becomes our mighty stream that joins the creek eventually.
Arroyo leading into the front pond.
Our back pond also has runoff feeding into it. When it’s full, the water goes to the pond behind our woods, then helps flood the floodplain field. No wonder it looks like we live on a lake when it rains a lot. All this drainage will start after receiving two inches of rain. Eight inches creates huge masses of water heading along until it reaches the Little River, which is also joined by Big Elm and Little Elm Creek. I’m guessing all their water has made the Brazos River pretty impressive right now.
Here you can see Walker’s Creek, which goes by my house. Above it is Pond Creek, which is a different watershed. Our creek is joined by Terry Branch just before going into Big Elm Creek. The creek that joins Big Elm is Little Elm. Big Elm joins the Brazos quite a ways east of this map.
It was interesting that the talk at tonight’s Master Naturalist meeting was watersheds. How water flows is mysterious but it works! Soon the creeks will all be back to normal, and at some point, Walker’s Creek will go through another dry period. I hope not too soon.
Outflow from the pond. The new concrete did its job.
Ooh, in other excitement, I finally finished May on the temperature blanket. I sure was glad to receive new black yarn!
May. Mostly warm with just a few days over 95° (the wine color).
It’s a good thing there’s a prompt to answer today, because action around here was fairly limited. So, I’ll dwell on my favorite season and you can think about yours, and maybe even share it in the comments! Why not? I’ll share some pretty nature sights from today, in the unofficial season of late spring humidity.
They took the forms off our concrete slabs. Whee.
When I lived in Illinois, I could never choose between spring and autumn as my favorite seasons. Crabapple trees, spring bulbs, peonies, and lilacs made the world so beautiful up there. But in autumn there were the orange, red, and yellow deciduous trees that contrasted so beautifully with the dark tree trunks (or light, with birch trees). It was beautiful in Champaign-Urbana, all year round. That’s right. I liked winter as long as it was above 0°F and there wasn’t an ice storm.
Simple sunflower and resident crab spider.
Here in Texas, I only have one season I don’t enjoy, and that’s summer. At least my new job will force me to stay indoors during the worst of the heat. I always feel sad for the animals, especially the chickens, and the dying grass on ground with huge cracks in it from drought always looks apocalyptic. I don’t need more reminders of apocalypses. Plus there are the fewest birds here in summer.
Gaillardia and frog fruit.
It’s hard not to like spring in this area, with all the wildflowers, birds, and butterflies. I hope we still have them in the future. This year was pretty bad for all of them, thanks to an unusually dry winter. And sadly, spring always reminds me that summer will be here soon. Not to mention how many allergies spring brings (but I appreciate the plants’ need to reproduce).
Black swallowtail
At this point in my life, autumn is my favorite time of year, even though it often arrives late. I can take long walks, once it cools off, and more birds show up as they migrate south. I love the smell of fallen leaves, which also make it easier to see wildlife. The only problem with that time of year is that it’s so busy! There are conference and events and trips…
Clouded skipper.
Winter here is surprisingly great, though. It’s not that cold except for a few days each year, and there are so many entertaining birds to enjoy. Campgrounds are more empty, too. And I never sweat. I hate all that sweating in the other seasons. (I rarely sweated until menopause finally happened and I’m still not used to all that dripping.)
Mockingbird nest in the little tree we planted in the front yard. What a quality nest!
I’m not confident that I’ve answered the question. Let’s hope I’m much more with it tomorrow.
The people who tell you to get rest and drink a lot of fluids when you’re feeling sick know what they’re talking about. After a couple of days of a sore throat and congestion I gave in to the fact that not only Lee is under the weather. I caught the latest mystery virus.
We spent all day under the beautiful storm clouds.
Once I accepted the situation I decided to be kind to myself and rest today. Tarrin fit me in for my riding lesson later in the week, so I didn’t push myself to do all the prep work and riding that entails. My only scheduled activity was a Zoom meeting for Annual Meeting field trip planning, which was easy to do sitting down.
This Hackberry Emperor was on the porch, so I didn’t exert myself to photograph it.
It helped that it rained a while, so I just wrote stuff and drank hot beverages. That was most of the day.
I did spy on the Barn Swallow nest. Still just eggs. Wonder where a Guinea fowl feather came from?
Admittedly, I’m still not as good at loafing as I was when younger, so I did take two long walks to enjoy the pleasant weather after the rain.
These clouds have a lace edging.
I thought I was taking it easy, but I got 39 minutes of exercise and 10,000 or so steps in. Plus, I cooked dinner, an easy one, but still…
These views helped me forget feeling sick.
I’m not very good at resting. And I’m nowhere near as sick as Lee, who’s still having chills and congestion and all that. Thank you, immune system, for being so hardy! Combined with my somewhat restful day, I may already be feeling better.
I saw this while convalescing on the new porch watching the sparrows flying in and out.
All in all, it was a perfect day to watch clouds and a perfect evening to watch the Strawberry Moon. Days like this make living in the moment easier.
The Hermits' Rest 