daily life – Page 3 – The Hermits' Rest

A Shopping Spree? Me?

Where would you go on a shopping spree?

Finally there’s a blog prompt that I can answer and it comes right when I’m doing my best not to buy things…except peace symbol jewelry and shoes. Shoes are what triggers my pleasure receptors or something like that.

Look how cute this shoe is! And it has a little charm!

I guess I can’t forget my love of nail polish strips. Today’s shipment made me glaze over with pleasure at their beauty, especially the one with green highlights. Ooh.

The one on far right. It will look so great on!

That doesn’t answer the question of where I’d go on a shopping spree, though. I can only wear so many Skechers and ColorStreet (no, I’m not compensated).

I think I’d go to the Navajo Nation and buy some turquoise jewelry, rugs (in the styles I like best), and some churro wool I could weave or crochet with. I’d get some pottery and paintings by artists I admire or ones who are new to me. I would prefer to buy directly from the artist. Maybe my spree would include commissions just for me, but allowing the artists freedom to do whatever they want.

This is the closest I have to a real Navajo rug. I don’t know its maker, but the colors and pattern are right.

If I’m going to spend a lot of money, I’d like to contribute to a culture I admire and purchase handmade items. So, if anyone wants to send me on a spree, that’s what I’d do! I’ve certainly bought enough jewelry and from Native Americans and other people I know. It brings me joy to wear these things and see them in my home.

The necklace distracts you from my scowl.

There’s not much other news, because I worked both jobs today (all interesting) and the only other activity I did was go on a walk with Kathleen. We found some flowers and a scary branch that looked like an angry snake in the creek.

Keep sending out more rain vibes for here!

Rain Daze

It finally rained again, which we needed. It waited until I was finished having baked goods with Martha, and chatting with Vicki and others at the bakery. Vicki rode her new horse almost to our house this morning.

Before it cooled off and got all windy, Lee and I enjoyed the porch, where all the plants are back outside.

Martha and I then went to the yearly Master Gardener plant sale. Since half the Master Gardeners are also Master Naturalists, we saw lots of people we knew and had a fun time catching up and looking at the few plants that were left. I did find a fig tree to buy, and my friend Lynn took it home with her and will bring it over here when it isn’t raining. Future visitors!

I hope this is in my future. Photo from Pexels.

The rest of the day, we stayed inside and I got all sorts of tasks completed that were perfect for a rainy day. I wrote a presentation on beavers for the next Master Naturalist meeting, catalogued the birds seen here from February, filled out my timesheet (yay, money), and did my nails. Maybe dull, but necessary. And I indulged in an old television series on the history of the first 55 years of Star Trek (it’s 60 this year).

The animals made it through the rain, so we just relaxed after feeding them. I’ve got more relaxing ahead of me tomorrow, but maybe a bit more creativity.

Speaking of creativity, here are January and February of 2026. No orange yet!

Sometimes a lack of excitement is just fine. This rain daze was pleasant.

Sixty-eight Feels Great

I think I’ve gained five pounds tonight, but it was sure fun! In fact, I woke up with a good mood and it lasted all day, which is an atypical way for me to spend a birthday.

Usually I set expectations low for these yearly events. I’m awful at doing things for other people on their birthday, and don’t expect anything for mine. But today I knew I was getting this great meal and Lee had brought me all those plants yesterday, so I was happy as I could be.

Forgot to show the fancy ginger plant yesterday.

I had to do a webinar this morning, but I was prepared and it all went fine. I even edited the recording, uploaded it, and shared it before lunchtime. What a worker, huh? That efficiency enabled me to take a nice walk at lunchtime, where I had a great time photographing all the new wildflowers. They were another gift!

The rest of the work day featured writing and writing, then problem-solving with my peers. A good challenge makes the day go faster! See, I really was in an uncharacteristically good mood.

Cheerful double dianthus blossom. Cultivar.

It was indeed a pleasure to get to run out and play with the animals after work. After feeding and exercising horses, Kathleen and I walked Dusty and Apache around the horse trails (newly mowed). Both behaved very well and seemed to have as much fun as we did. It’s ice to see Dusty getting out.

Yep, fun day. It was made more fun by all the nice people who texted, called, posted on Facebook, and otherwise sent kind birthday greetings. It’s always a highlight to hear from people I’ve know from all my wild and crazy (and boring and bitchy) stages of my life. I just kept smiling and having great memories.

I feel like I’ve crawled out of a deep hole and glimpsed the sun. Sure, I may have to duck back down, but having fewer concerns weighing on my mind is a welcome respite.

Yellow flowers always bring a smile, even simple wood sorrel.

Whatever you were doing today, I hope it had moments that made you smile.

It’s Called Hump Day for a Reason

Wednesday doesn’t get a lot of love. Wednesday’s child is full of woe, you know (I was born on a Wednesday). And it’s hump day. Supposedly that’s because it’s halfway through the work week, but for me today, it was more like today was a giant hump I had to pull myself over.

I’m tired now, but I feel accomplished. I started my new job role and I think I know what I’m supposed to do, kind of. After that, it was meeting after meeting, which made it hard to get writing done. But much learning and teaching was done as I slogged up that giant hump.

Sliding down the Wednesday hump was more fun than expected. I had fun with the horses and even got Fiona sort of clean. It was obvious that we had a few rain sprinkles, because both Apache and Mabel had droplet marks on their coats. I wish I had a picture!

Nope, the only picture you get is an owl pellet or something. No, my consultants say it’s a mummified rat. Fun things found in the garage.

Lee had to go to Austin today and stopped by a nursery and got me some plants! That’s when I was certain I was over the Wednesday hump. Our porch and patio will look great with the new greenery.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I get a cake! And lasagna! Simple things make me happy.

Here’s February in the temperature blanket for 2026. Got through the month with no orange! (Today was orange—over 85°)

PS: I awoke this morning to good election news. That hadn’t happened in a long time! Good primary here.

Happy Homecoming

We were able to stay at our campsite until I was finished working for the day, which was very pleasant. I got a bit of walking in, but mostly worked, even on the drive home. You have to help users with questions!

My favorite bird photo of the day. The chickadees were everywhere and had a lot to say!

We had a couple of adventures on the way home. It appears that the motor home was low on all fluids, so the oil we’d added earlier was not sufficient. We also needed coolant and wiper fluid. We got those at a gas station where Lee also enjoyed a chat with a nice female trucker, who he was able to convince could tow a car like we do. She had such a sweet smile. Sometimes chance meetings can really make your day.

There was another fluid low, the DEF you have to add to diesel vehicles now. As Lee was valiantly trying to pull into the Milano Cefco gas station that dispenses it from pumps, I had to inform him it was closed for remodeling. Now I’ll get to pour some in manually. It’s interesting that they are remodeling the gas station, because it’s only a couple of years old. I guess the newer fancy gas station just down the road is big competition!

Fictional image of Lee handing me the stuff to pour.

As nice as the trip was, it was also good to get home. I was pleased to hear Kathleen’s stories about how she’s been working with the horses and what she accomplished in just a few days. She needs exercise, so she’s whipping them into shape.

She sent me this to show how shiny she got Drew.

She told me that Mabel hadn’t liked being in the round pen today and she jumped it to get to the other horses. I guess that’s proof she isn’t crippled. So Mabel got to spend some time hanging out in the pen by herself. She does look beautiful, though.

I got to work with her a little going back to the pasture, she has work ahead of her but Kathleen says she’s already making progress.

I guess the pen isn’t very high if you’re tall as her.

I also enjoyed my reunion with the turkeys. Darryl Junior was all puffed up and impressed with himself, showing all his glorious tail feathers to impress Connie. I’m glad he doesn’t realize how skimpy his tail feathers are. He will look better when new ones grow in.

Well, I’ve put off election results as long as I can, so I’d better check out the primary results. And I need to see how the war is coming along. As always, I hope the civilians just trying to live their lives can stay safe. I know people on both sides whose homes are shuddering when missiles land. I am so tired of bloodshed.

Survived! I’m an Hour Away from Home!

Note to self: stop blogging when you’re exhausted and have a headache. These stories would be a lot funnier if I were able to think straight.

Short version of my day: complex work events starting early, afternoon break photographing little birds, heading out in motor home, engine issues, successful trip to state park, manageable challenges. And we are here!

I’ll explain the work stuff later. I need to make some decisions. But I will say that “having” to go sit in the birding hut and watch the sparrows feeding made everything much better. All those studies saying nature is good for you aren’t wrong.

It was warm and sunny, so I sat in front of the hut (I will get blinds soon) very quietly. The White-crowned Sparrows weren’t at all bothered by my presence and hopped pretty close to me as they pounced on whatever they were eating. I was able to test out the capabilities of the iPhone 17 Pro camera, and I was not disappointed. At last, no more bird-shaped blobs.

Mostly I took pictures of a few females.

I also got the Great Blue Heron sunning and a House Sparrow thinking about nesting in a hollow fence post, plus an orange sulphur butterfly and a tiny spider .

Eventually we left to go camping for the first time in quite a while. It’s nice to have the family home to watch all those animals. Too bad we spewed oil all over the road. It seemed as if the dipstick wasn’t replaced right. Or we have a worse problem, but Lee got us going and we got to meet the nice man who owns the new Valero in Milano.

What’s she blathering about? I don’t know. Let’s go eat.

Yep. Now we’re back at Lake Somerville State Park in the equestrian camping area, in our favorite site. Being surrounded by trees and birds makes all the trouble worth it. This place is so quiet. I’m looking forward to hiking familiar trails and maybe seeing flowers. I just walked around the camping loop and enjoyed plenty of birds and wildlife.

I also enjoyed the scenery in the late afternoon. There are so many big trees out here in the post oak savanna.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I enjoyed walking around and taking them!

This apparently once held a beautiful moth.

Spring Friends

It’s starting to warm up again, and I think this time it’s for good. I’m starting to spot all my tiny flower friends in the fields, and they make for quite a perky carpet in the horse playground.

A new one for the ranch! Broadpod whitlow grass *Tomostima platycarpa*

Another friend showed up today, too! Now you can see how Tipper got its name. Look at the tiny tail tip! Kitty had been surveying its domain from atop the hay bales.

And before I keel over from my long workday, I’ll share Harvey, who was fixated on my empty dinner plate. He likes salmon.

A New Farm Worker?

Busy times and many surprises at the Hermits’ Rest today. I had 5 hours of meetings through early afternoon, so I took a break to relax and enjoy the animals. I didn’t relax, though.

Darryl certainly doesn’t seem relaxed, either.

First I took a big hunk of chickweed over to the poultry pals. They had a little plant party and tossed it all around. That was cute. Not so cute was seeing little moving shapes in the supposedly sealed storage bin for the chicken feed…again.

There’s no denying it. House mice are cute.

I went ahead and fed the birds, dreading having to remove more mice. I left the lid of the bin open to encourage a voluntary exit.

I went back to the bin and removed the four bags of feed. I was happy to see that there was now only one mouse left. The other had flung itself out. They literally flung themselves at the sides of the bin hoping to get high enough to escape. I tried to get the remaining mouse out with a feed scoop, then almost got it to run into a more cup-like scoop. Instead, as I leaned over to encourage it to enter the cup, it jumped on my shirt and ran up my arm! Cute as that was, I admit to flinging it off me. Last I saw it was climbing the screened enclosure to get away.

Soon as we’re finished eating we will look for mice.

I hope it didn’t go near the turkeys and chickens, because they are doing a great job keeping rodents out of their area.

Next, I thought I could go enjoy more peaceful time with the horses. I saw that either Terry had left the tack room door open yesterday or the wind had got it (it no longer latches). That made me a little more cautious as I entered. Good thing I was ready, because I apparently have a new helper in the tack room. Tipper, the black-and-white cat who’s been hanging around for over a month, was lounging in my pink chair.

I thought about it and decided the kitty is welcome there. It certainly will have enough to eat. Maybe at least one of my mouse/rat problems will be lessened. Thanks, new farm worker!

I did get my horse relaxation in, finally. Apache wanted me to rub between his ears and got so relaxed that he started yawning away. He kept it up for five minutes!

Then I looked over where Drew and Spice were hanging out and realized Spice was yawning, too. I guess it’s contagious in horses as well as humans!

We did a Year of the Horse tarot reading in my group tonight, and I got three cards with horses on them!

Under the Weather

And also the weather is annoying. The annual late February cold spell arrived right on time last night, which made for a chilly and windy day, even though it was nice and sunny. The birds were there, even a Roadrunner, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Roadrunner from the coast, but my photo!

I started feeling like my lymph nodes were swollen last night, and it’s still going on. I’ve taken it easy all day, just crocheting and watching more of the Great Courses series on the Middle Ages. I got past weapons of war and into cathedral construction, which made me happy. It’s fascinating how they put them together. Yes, my life has gotten that thrilling.

Boy do I know how those arches stay up now. Photo from Pexels.

Then, since we finished The Closer (great series, satisfying ending), Lee and I started a show with more modern cell phones, The Diplomat. Lee liked it perhaps too much and we got halfway through all the episodes today. I like the scenery, lots of lovely English interiors.

I finally have come up with a hypothesis for why my immune system is on overdrive. Carolyn and I did a lot of playing around with cedar pollen yesterday, making the male plants “smoke.” Even though they were Eastern Red Cedars, not Ashe Junipers, all that pollen may have inflamed me. Oh well, it was fun.

All that yellow on the green tree is pollen.

Note that the tree is Juniperus virginiana, which hints both that it might cause some allergies and that you could make gin out of the berries (on female trees).

Let’s hope I’m better tomorrow, since there’s stuff going on at work that I have to be ready for.

Pain in the Head

I have one of those headaches that nags you all day. Sleep is all that will fix it.

So, no chatty blog today. Tomorrow should be interesting and perhaps pain free.

Good night.