Marsupial sightings – The Hermits' Rest

Book Review: The Nature of Texas

A review of a field guide to the nature of Texas, suitable for beginning naturalists

Here’s a new book that some of you who live in Texas might want to order. It’s a field guide called The Nature of Texas: An Introduction to Familiar Plants, Animals and Outstanding Natural Attractions, by James Kavanagh and illustrated by Raymond Leung.

The cover of the book, The Nature of Texas — Any book with an armadillo on it is a book I like!

This isn’t one of those huge compendiums of every single living organism in the state; instead, it highlights plants and animals that an average person with an interest in the nature in Texas might run into. The descriptions are brief and in lay terms, and the illustrations are really lovely (good job, Raymond Leung).

It’s a bit too basic of a book for me to carry around, but I could easily imagine giving it to a teenager or older child who’s going camping and wants to know what they might find out there, or someone who just moved to Texas and wants a nice overview. It would be fun to put on the bedside table for your out-of-state visitors, or on the coffee table of your rental property.

an open page of a book, with information about fish — An example of the text and illustrations.

The back of the book has two handy features. One is a brief list of interesting places to go to see the natural wonders of Texas, with clear maps. The other is a series of checklists you can use to mark off wildlife and native plants that you see in your travels. That would be a fun family project (though I’d have to add a bunch of things, like more owls).

I do recommend The Nature of Texas, just for the beautiful illustrations alone. And the introductory essay, “But a Watch in the Night,” written by James Rettie in 1948 is a real treasure, too. It’s a great reminder of how little time humans have actually been present and messing around with our planet.

Fun and Weirdness

fungus — I’ve been reading a lot about these. I could make tea from them. I won’t, though.

You haven’t heard from me for a couple of reasons. One is that I’ve had so much fun stuff to do that it’s been hard finding time to write. I had lots of guests last weekend, and my company has been busy buying houses and commercial buildings. That’s all good.

The other is that it has been “one of those weeks” in which one weird thing after another keeps happening. I’ve been losing things, had a near-miss accident, have said some really odd and atypical things to others, and more.

The good news is that I’ve managed to get all my work done and am ready for a mini-vacation in Fredericksburg, so there should be some good nature stuff come out of that.

This is only a part of the big snakeskin we found. It was big in the middle, then got smaller. Interesting.

In the woods

Last weekend, Justin (nephew of the ranch neighbors) was here, and he and I had a great time tromping through our woods with the dogs (it was the first real tromp for the two newest ones). He is very much like me, in that he really notices things.

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Oh! Possum!

The old tree looks so innocent. Also, note lawn chairs. They are an important part of the story.

Today’s tale/tail is another one about uninvited guests. You may recall I mentioned seein a possum at our office. This latest sighting was originally reported by my friend Mandi, who is also our office manager in our real estate business. She’s renovating the Rattlesnake house across from the Hermits’ Rest, but right now she lives in a house next to our office on Travis in Cameron. This small-town site is just crawling with wildlife. Some of it is VERY scary, especially if you have a “way with words.” Mandi reports (via Facebook, edited to be PG):

Our office kitty, Shadow, recently had kittens. I am on one of my insomnia spells for whatever reason. I’m at the office working on some things, because I always think that if I do some work, I will get sleepy. Doesn’t actually help, but I digress.

Shadow came around about an hour ago hangry from them babies. So, I put some food out for her )I ‘ve been bringing it back in with me, because I know we have a opossum family living somewhere at the office).

Let me back up just a second and remind all, I’m not afraid of snakes. I’m not afraid of spiders. Only the dead mice freak me out.

But, if you hear a rustling in the leaves at 1:30 in the morning and look over expecting to see the office cat because you just called her, and see this instead…

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Random Observations, a Puppy, and a ‘Possum

dandelion — Face it: this thing is beautiful.

Observations

I guess I should note what I’ve been seeing and hearing lately. There have been some great song birds at both my houses. There is a Chuck Will’s Widow somewhere near our Austin house, and their call is so cool (they say their name, loudly). You never see the bird, but you sure hear them! Ours are in the greenbelt across the road.

There’s another bird out there I can’t identify. It’s like a louder bobwhite call, without the first note. Bobwites go bob-bob-WHITE! And this bird goes bob-WHITE bob-WHITE! It’s a night-time bird, too. I’ll have to ask one of my birder friends for help with this one.

At the ranch, the prickly pear cactus has started blooming, and some of those supposedly delicious dewberries are starting to ripen. Since Sean Wall keeps saying how good they are, I guess I’ll make a cobbler this year. We certainly have enough of them.

Most of what we see in the pastures and fields are many, many dandelions, along with all the pollinaors thereof. No way am I getting rid of these delicious and useful plants!

The bluebonnets are fading, but the Indian blankets are coming on strong, and some of the Mexican hats have started. Plus, my tomato plants are fruiting. That’s all fine!

The puppy

Yes, the Dogs of Hermits’ Rest have a new member. I adopted Carlton from the Cameron dog pound, which has to be the nicest dang dog pound on earth. Sandra, the dogcatcher, is a real animal lover and lavishes all the doggies in the pound with love and attention. She even works on training them.

Continue reading “Random Observations, a Puppy, and a ‘Possum”