Today was perfect. I got all my work done, procured Lee a birthday gift and a camping themed card, and enjoyed the horses. But I’m really tired. So, here are some photos from today. Tomorrow maybe there will be more.
Beautiful Day
Category: photos
Isn’t That a Loaded Question?
Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?
These days “patriot” doesn’t mean what I used to think it meant. So I’m not gonna declare myself either a patriot or a non-patriot. I am not of the opinion that the place I was born is better than any other place. Or worse. Every place has pluses and minuses.
Even the place I live, Texas, has its good points. (Let’s skip the bad points, I don’t have the energy…sorta like our power grid.)
That was my graceful transition into how much I enjoy the State Park system in Texas. Each one we visit is so different! I’m glad I had a chance to explore Ray Roberts State Park before the cold front came through and the camping area filled up. I got to see and hear all the wildlife before boats and screaming kids took over. Kids. So cute until the screech.
Anyway, work was challenging today, so a breakfast and lunch walk both helped, as did the post-work decompression (I sighed a lot at my laptop).
In the early walk I mostly listened to birds, happy to find them. There was even an Osprey. I heard fish jumping and annoyed a deer who was just trying to relieve herself.
I was proud of myself for seeing a bluebird in my binoculars before Merlin heard it! The biggest surprise was hearing wild turkeys twice. It was a relief from crows and geese.
The lunch walk took me down some fun little trails that eventually led to the equestrian area.
The equestrian camping area is really nice and well maintained by a group of dedicated people. The stalls are in great shape, have roofs, and even include gutters. I talked to a couple of women who love the trails.
After work it was still pretty nice outside so Lee walked on the concrete path with me for a while. Wow it would be great for cycling.
I did a pretty good job sticking to the path as I enjoyed the hills, watched woodpeckers at work, and checked out the iron-rich rocks in this part of the state. I love seeing how different it is just a few hours away from home.
Eventually I got to the huge recreation area where there is a beach, boat ramps, playgrounds, and parking galore. This place must hop when it’s warmer. I left there quickly and instead focused on this beautiful inlet near some primitive camping.
Eventually I headed back on dirt trails, even though I’d worn the walking shoes, not the hiking boots. I was rewarded with more cool rocks and more deer.
As the park filled up, Lee talked to people. I went inside and knitted. We enjoyed mindless television thanks to the new antenna that’s finally replaced the one the trees on Tarrin’s road ate. There were 80 channels! The local television commercials reminded me of what I don’t like about Texas (political ads). Tomorrow I get to relax, though I’ll go hike even in the cold!
Enjoy more photos!
A Dream Job That’s a Walk in the Woods
What’s your dream job?
My dream job has changed over the years. If money were no object, I’d teach knitting and crochet part time. I don’t want to be a famous knitting guru like some of my friends; I just want to bring the joy of a lifetime pastime to others. It’s so rewarding.
Nowadays, though, I am getting so much from my time out in nature that it would be a dream job to be a park interpreter. I could lead walks and hikes that show folks how ecosystems work, what plants and animals there are in different habitats, and how to identify what they see, hear, smell, and touch.
I could also teach hiking etiquette. Like, don’t bellow at the top of your lungs and sing rock songs so loud you scare all the woodland creatures for miles, which is what the only other hikers I saw today did. Ugh.
Anyway, we’re enjoying a very peaceful time at Cooper Lake State Park. We are the only people here who don’t work here. It’s glorious and peaceful, probably the quietest state park we’ve been at. Someone was shooting something somewhere nearby and it was SO loud with no other noise around.
It was really cold last night here in northeast Texas, down to 20°. We got in late, and the heater just couldn’t cope. It got down to 58° inside, but I slept so well. Quiet. Once the sun came out, the heater coped and tonight it’s fine.
Because it was sunny and there was no whipping gale wind, it actually wasn’t too bad outside, and I was able to go on a couple of nice walks around this huge lake and the hardwood forest around it.
The bird highlight for me was getting to see a golden-crowned kinglet close enough to see that little crown. Theirs are way easier to see than ruby crowned.
Woodland birds included lots of crows, blue jays, cardinals, robins, and woodpeckers. The most popular tiny bird was the yellow-rumped warbler, but there were plenty of titmice, wrens, chickadees, and sparrows. Two nuthatches also showed up. Lots of singing and flitting to enjoy. Who cares about the cold!
You could see all the wildflowers and grasses in their winter resting states. There were colorful leaves and berries if you looked carefully, though. I found it fun to try to figure out what the dried flowers and bare trees were. I’ll see how well I did when I put them in iNaturalist.
What didn’t I see? Insects. Not one butterfly showed up. No bees or flies. They’ll be back soon as it warms up again. The little insect-eating birds like phoebes and mockingbirds were busy with other food in the meantime.
I could do this observation stuff for a living with other people! However, wow, it’s nice to do it alone. Traveling without the annoyance of other humans sure is pleasant. I prefer this to cities.
To wrap it up, here are some fun pictures of tracks I found along the lakeshore. There are herons, ducks, little birds, raccoons, and a canine. I didn’t see deer tracks, but I did see deer, so of course they are here!
I Could Turn Left Rather Than Right
What could you do differently?
I think I already answered a version of this question so I’m going in a different direction with it. Ha ha. Direction. I mean, there’s a sh** ton I could do differently, and I’ve written about that enough.
Instead, let’s take a walk, but differently. Today I turned left rather than right when I left our driveway on my daily nature walk. Whoa.
I’d been wanting to walk the other way down our road past our property line for a while, because there are some empty fields and mottes of trees where I’ve heard interesting birds while I was busy doing horse control at Sara’s place.
So, off I went. First I had to enjoy the horses, who were lounging around after playing in the burs (mostly Drew). They’re so cute when they lie down. I do wish they then wouldn’t grind mud into their coats, but they ARE horses.
As for birds, I was glad I brought my binoculars, because I got to get a good look at our resident American Kestrel and see it fly with the sun shining through its feathers.
The sun was so bright today that things were hard to see, but I was rewarded by seeing sun dogs in the clouds on either side of it for a while. Perfect cloud placement.
I saw a lot of woodpeckers, vultures, hawks, and caracaras. I also noticed that all the doves I saw were Eurasian Collared Doves, not the Mourning Doves I see at my house right down the road. Binoculars helped with that.
I heard both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, which is cool, but I didn’t see anything new other than a White-breasted Nuthatch. I thought I’d see. One before, but I guess not.
I’m glad I took the walk in this direction, because I got to visit with Sara and look at her permaculture garden progress. Of course, for me the highlight was getting to visit with Jhayati, who is 8 months old now. She’s a beautiful filly and has such a striking face. I sure look forward to watching her grow.
After I saw her, I saw one more mockingbird then no more birds at all. Do they have clocks? They shut up at 11am.
Luckily there was still something interesting to see. I saw what looked like eggs on the ground where hay bales recently were. It was the eruption of the most cool mushroom we have here, the Lizard’s Claw Stinkhorn Lysurus cruciatus.
Interesting note: I posted photos of this on The Hermits’ Rest Facebook page, which is public, and suddenly weird replies from so-called people trying to promote psychedelic mushrooms popped up, repeatedly. Sigh. Lots to block. This mushroom just stinks. I didn’t see anything about it being psychedelic, but I’m now glad I didn’t lick it.
Penney says she’d lick it for me.
Fun on a Rainy Day
We were afraid we wouldn’t get to do much today because it was supposed to rain a lot. So I did my nails and relaxed this morning, but I really wanted to do something outdoors since I’m here in such a pretty part of Texas.
Lee opined that we could at least go for a ride so we traveled along the Devil’s Backbone and looked at lots of scenery and lovely ranches. E stopped for coffee in Wimberley, where of course I was not encouraged to get out and buy any art or boutique items. Hmph.
On our way back we really took back roads and hugged the lake. It stopped raining, so we got out and explored one of the boat ramps on Canyon Lake. All the ramps are closed however. The lake is only 60% full, thanks to the dry summer, so the docks end on rocks and shells of evil Mediterranean clams.
I had a great time finding new plants and familiar ones in their winter disguises.
Mostly though, I enjoyed the sounds of many water birds that were on the lake. There were gadwalls, coots, mallards and the wigeons, which make such cool sounds. I saw a kingfisher and a kestrel, too. We had a great time.
I found things blooming and growing amidst the grayness.
The ride home was fun. We found a whole area with houses made of shipping containers, which were very creative. There were many other fun houses along the lake ranging from old to new and small to huge. Plus there was a lot of wildlife. We saw a beautiful fox (no photos, but it had a gorgeous tail) and many lovely deer.
After enjoying football we are ready to head back to the animals tomorrow. I look forward to coming back to this area in the fall for the Master Naturalist annual meeting if not sooner.
Odd Bucket List Item
Today we’re in a condo in the Canyon Lake area, because we needed a break and have a horse sitter for a few days. Apache must have his diva needs met. Of course, I had deadlines and video calls to do, but we managed to get me out in nature.
I don’t have to work until January 2, so I’m ready to relax and catch up on things…after a couple of relaxing days. I think just maybe things might be settling down at home, which will help us all deal with whatever changes come next year. We can flow like a river.
I started my day walking around the extremely large condo complex and trying to find nature. There was a woods next door with sleeping deer! Well, I woke them up. And I enjoyed checking out the nice mini golf course with a view of Canyon Lake. It was a good reward for finishing my release notes.
Later we went over by the nearby dam that created Canyon Lake to enjoy the views and see what lives there. I saw some American wigeons swimming around, plus some mussels. There were even a few new plants, but I didn’t find the rare Canyon Lake madrone Lee always talks about.
Later we went to lunch at a very nice Italian restaurant. The food and service were both superb. I had fish with Alfredo pasta and veggies, and Lee said the chicken he ate was the best he ever had. It was served with beautiful homemade ravioli. And it wasn’t even very expensive!
After more meetings for me, we went to the nature trail on the other side of the dam, along the Guadalupe River. The trail is maintained by the local Master Naturalist chapter, the hosts for our next meeting. I wonder if this trail will be a field trip? They’ve made a nice guide with numbered markers to tell folks what they’re seeing. I’m impressed!
I tried to listen for birds, but the darn rapids made it hard (the rapids are wonderful, of course). Eventually chatty people, crying babies, leaf blowers, and small planes stopped long enough for me to hear many woodpeckers, wrens (including canyon wren!), and a kingfisher. Of course the normal songbirds were there, including an extra friendly Ruby-crowned kinglet and a very dedicated ladder-backed woodpecker.
It was fun to spot springs, ducks, ferns,cypress, and pecans. I love me a riparian area! This river really is one of Texas’s gems.
So, what was the odd bucket list item I referred to in the title? Well, I’d seen most of the places where Lee has lived, except for one, which was a rustic camp area near Canyon Lake. He drove me through the area and I got to see the driveway he had worked on. It appears that whoever owns it now is building a real house there. Now my bucket list is complete!
Early Anniversary Gift – WOW
I am completely bowled over by the wonderful gift Lee made me for our 15th wedding anniversary. It may be “only” 15 years, but we’re very pleased to have had such a great time in our late-life relationship.
I’d been seeing Lee messing around on his computer a lot lately and I was really wondering why he was putting so many photos of birds in his journal. It’s not that he doesn’t like birds, but he’s not crazy about them like I am.
I knew he’s been practicing book binding and has bound a couple of books he wrote and plans to bind recent journals. On top of that he’d asked me a few questions about my own journal. But I didn’t think anything of it until he spilled the beans that he was making me a journal for an anniversary gift!
There is a great deal of hand work involved in book binding. Lee decided to tell me what he was doing so he could hang out with me while he hand sewed all the signatures (units of a certain number of pages) together. Otherwise I wouldn’t have seen him last weekend. He sewed it with red thread, too. I like red.
I’d have been impressed just with a blank book, having watched how hard it is to press all the pages together, create the cover (with genuine book cloth), and affix the cover to the book (I think that’s the actual binding part—gee, I worked for a book publisher in my twenties and still don’t know all the terms).
But no, he made a bullet journal with dots on the pages, a pretty place to write headings, and lovely images on each page, which he cut with his scary killer paper cutter to go all the way to the edges.
And it has a cute title page. It’s really a labor of love, which I truly appreciate. It means SO much to me to get a handmade gift, especially one so carefully thought out. I’m going to use it as a bird journal, so it will be in use a long time.
What did I get him? I also gave him his gift early. It was a bunch of tasteful linen book cloth from a library supply company. I guess we were thinking along the same lines.
Lee got a really good new printer that will print in high quality on large paper, so now he’s working on book sleeves. I just want to print horse pictures, of course.
Daily Bird
I thought I was going to have to do the cranes again, because until late in the evening the only birds I’d heard or seen were dozens and dozens of them. The day had started out very windy and cold, so no one was flitting about.
But, as I was putting Apache’s saddle away and listening to cranes, I heard something else interesting. I started the Merlin app and finished what I was doing and let the horses out of their pens.
I was right! I was hearing owls. Multiple owls. Great horned owls! The only known predators of the barred owls who are usually here! Where did all these owls come from? I don’t have an answer, but this was my first time hearing them here. They make the “normal” hoo-hoo owl sound, among others.
To add to the wonder of the evening, all the black vultures started heading to their roosts for the night. There were 25 I counted. It was lucky that the wind had died down and there was no traffic noise from FM 485 for once. I could hear their wings beating. I love that sound.
Magical Forest and Firelight
Today’s camping adventure was that Mike and I ditched our spouses (with permission) to hike on one of the longer trails in Buescher State Park. This was the Pine Gulch Trail that goes for five miles. However, we took the Roosevelt cut-off, which made it just three miles. Since there was a lot of climbing up and down, that was plenty for us.
We had to drive to the trailhead, which was fine with me since it meant I could go down the beautiful park road again. We stopped at the official scenic overlook to enjoy the view of farms and the main highway to Houston below.
As we were about to leave, two fancy BMW motorcycles pulled up, and off came two delightful Polish men from Houston who were committed to getting off the road and looking at the scenery. Apparently the guy who usually leads their rides doesn’t like to stop. After they assured us they were real people and not AI (well they did look sorta funny in their fancy motorcycle outfits), we had a nice conversation, then took pictures of ourselves. They wanted to prove to their wives that they really went on a drive, not to a bar or something.
I love all the new people you meet camping! I also love all the new plants and flowers. The trail alternated between deep woods and pretty meadows that were made by fires. Even though it’s late in the year, it was quite colorful, with lots of bitterweed and palafox, with dayflower and poverty weed thrown in.
The woods smell so piney and woody. I kept stopping to breathe as well as take pictures of the beauty.
Of course, I found tiny flowers to marvel at, though I did manage to walk without stopping long enough to make my watch think I was hiking. Check out these beauties.
After we came home, I chatted with Lee and a guy he met, then waited until time for my football game, which we heroically figured out how to watch by logging in to our Direct TV account. We even used the outdoor television for the first time. I’d forgotten we had one.
The lure of another fire was greater than football, though, so the four of us left over from the church campout sat around it and told stories and gazed. I like the gazing.
It’s just so pleasant to ramble on and on together.
Lee took a couple of fun photos of me in firelight. One looks like I’m casting a spell.
In this one I’m warming my hands, but it looks to me like the spell I cast removed my legs.
Well, the time change and all that exercise have me pretty woozy, so that’s it for today.
Eye Witness to the Circle of Life
Today was a great camping day here at Buescher State Park. I’d like to start the highlights with some coolness that happened right at my campsite.
This is a Gulf fritillary butterfly in the straggler daisies behind our motorhome. I was knitting and enjoying the afternoon as various butterflies flitted by. This one seemed to have an agenda.
It flew over to a vine just beyond the edge of the woods. The butterfly spent a lot of time going from leaf to leaf. I actually hadn’t noticed the vine before, but looking at it I realized it resembled a passion vine. I hadn’t seen any here yet, and there it was, right in front of me.
As I was taking the photo above I noticed something. There were two caterpillars on the vine. I took pictures of them, too. Then I went to look up the plant and the insect.
Well. The plant was a yellow passionflower (Passiflora lutea). The caterpillars were Gulf fritillary babies. The butterfly had been laying eggs. Right there, the whole circle of life! Now I know the host flower for these guys.
As for the rest of the day, it started with chatting by the breakfasts of various fellow camping friends. Then I sort of led an interpretive hike down a wooded trail with seven other people. It was fun teaching the two kids some stuff as well as learning from all the campers.
We found some pretty flowers among the trees, including exuberant liatris, pink ruellia, and these darling tiny blue curls.
I enjoyed walking with folks who were as excited about little flowers as me, and a couple of the fellow campers were great observers. We even geeked out over fungi and molds.
It was a great time, but we ended up tired!
I did my nails a dark yet sparkly celestial color for the end of my beloved Daylight Savings Time, then hung out with various friends in the afternoon. It’s so good talking to people who know and accept you.
I made egg salad for the traditional Live Oak potluck meal. The eggs weren’t cooperative so it took a while, but it ended up tasty. Especially with homemade salsa on it.
For a small group we ended up with a perfect variety of foods. We just fit in the tent pad on one of our campsites. It was great to all be able to talk to each other. There was only one couple I hadn’t met yet, who were lots of fun and very interesting. What a good time.
On our way back to our site, Lee and I tried to take star pictures. Mine are only okay because I moved and messed up Jupiter. We also tried to get some of the lake.
What a great day!
Another Day, Another Bunch of Plants…Plus Friends!
Today at woodsy ole Buescher State Park was as good as it gets (other than having to grocery shop). I got a bunch of work done, enjoyed my meetings, and was able to take a long walk in the morning. My coworkers loved seeing this in their Zoom meeting.
I was able to find a bit of plant diversity by sticking to the edges of the lake, the dam, and fields. The woods are gorgeous but have mostly the same plants.
Around the lake there were lots of interesting plants and unusual (to me) flowers. There were so many fun shapes and growing habits.
I’m too tired to identify things. Sorry. Why am I tired? It’s a good kind of tired. I got to spend the late afternoon and evening with old friends. First, I got to hang out with my Cameron friends Mike and Martha at their big campsite. It has logs to sit on, so we sat on logs for a good long time.
Martha made a little altar out of chert rocks, sticks, and such. I added red rocks because they are so pretty. This was the compromise, because you’re not supposed to take things home from these parks.
After dinner, Mike and Lee tended a fire at our campsite, and slowly but surely other folks from our group wandered in. We had lots of laughs and told many good stories.
We were trying not to be too loud and not bother the folks who pulled in after dark and were setting up at the site next to us. Then, when they called my name, we realized it was more of us, the church minister and her husband. So we were fine. I was impressed they set up a new tent in the dark. We all had such relaxed fun. I know a lot of good story tellers! My cheeks hurt from laughing again!
There are still a couple more families to catch up with, but I think this will be a nice sized group of current and former Live Oak UU members.
Here are some other sights from today, including a drive on the scenic road to Bastrop State Park where we went through areas where pines are recovering from the 2011 fire. I hope you enjoy all the trees.
The Hermits' Rest 