Plant Sightings – The Hermits' Rest

Pollinators, trees, bagpipes and more

Lots of surprises and fun filled the last full day of the 2026 Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting. I was rested enough to get through the whole day, but not enough for after-session activities. Believe me, the day was full!

It was great to see Craig Hensley, who retired last year, come back to present a very interesting session on the best plants to attract pollinators and who those pollinators are likely to be. I learned so much about how beetles, bees, wasps, and of course butterflies/moths pollinate plants. He had nifty data, too. I know what I’ll be planting!

The next session I attended was on the Heritage Trees of McClennan County. It was led by an impressive young Mexican American man who is both an arborist and a firefighter. We learned about this program to save local trees, then went on a field trip just down the road to see a few of them.

We visited the St Francis Oak, near a historic church and learned that it’s in the middle of a future road. Hector explained options for saving or preserving its heritage. I took a few acorns.

On the way back to the convention center, I took pictures of every plant I could find for the Pollinator Bioblitz. Might as well kill two birds with one stone (though I am not a bird killer). There were no exciting discoveries along the urban sidewalks.

Lunch was good but they ran out of pasta and carrots. The servers were all very nice, though. Afterwards, I went to a session on who should care for wildlife. I got distracted because he used speech to text and it was really bad. He’s trying to be accommodating but I don’t think a hearing impaired person would have been able to figure out what the talk was about due to mistakes. Mike said it’s free software, so you get what you pay for.

I got no photos in that session, so here’s me with a lunch flower in my hair.

Onward to more learning. A session on techniques for nature photography, especially film, was really good. I learned lots of techniques to use in the future. The speaker has had a long and interesting career in television and film, including the television show for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Now he takes all our official photos, too.

Lee showing us how agile you need to be to get good nature shots.

I really didn’t care about his content too much, because I enjoyed the film clips he shared of ducks, cranes, deer, snakes (one drinking, so cool), and bats. His examples were so helpful!

Some of our group went over to the Hilton bar to relax before dinner and enjoyed listening to bagpipes and drums rehearsing down the hall. They were part of a group of firefighters and I think police from around the state that performs at funerals and other ceremonies. They were giving seminars to other groups or something.

We were delighted to be surprised by a performance by the group before dinner! They’d agreed to do it on the spur of the moment when asked by our leadership. It was so good. All the flourishes and pageantry made me quite emotional.

I managed to film a bit of them marching out. So much dedication it must take to learn all this, and how good of them to honor the fallen.

To continue the night on a high note, the food was good tonight and there was plenty. We even got a few group photos.

The best part of the evening was when they announced milestones for members. It was a true joy to see the reaction our Linda Jo got when it was announced she’d achieved 10,000 hours of volunteer service. I hope all the love made her very happy. Mike and Dr Rector escorted her back to her seat, which was so cute!

She photographed Lee, the official photographer

To see someone I admire so much get well deserved recognition was the highlight of the whole event for me!

To those of you who get the blog by mail, I apologize that some text was missing. I’m not sure how it happened, but the online version has been corrected.

Lake Waco and what would Sue Ann post?

I’d planned to blog last night but I fell asleep uploading observations to iNaturalist. It didn’t help that I’d barely slept the previous night (no idea why). But yesterday was pretty good.

I worked until 1, managing to do so while driving to Waco, which worked out great. I was headed to Lacy Point on Lake Waco for another Bioblitz. I’m on a roll with those things! This was the first activity for the 2026 Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting.

I hung out with a fellow Master Naturalist from College Station and did a nice 2-mile trail walk. There wasn’t a lot of variety of vegetation, but I ended up with 90 observations, so that was pretty good, plus all the pollinators counted for the other Bioblitz. Yes!

When I was done I chatted with my coworker next to this surprise. I sent it off to the coworker!

It’s a gar. I guess folk don’t eat them?

A good number of song birds were around, clumping around the trees for the most part. We enjoyed watching and hearing Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and multiple Ospreys.

When I was done I headed over to my friend Kathy’s house to see her family and her new Dalmatian (the previous one, Daisy passed away soon after our last visit). Sally came through Milam Touch of Love, and I’m so glad she got out of the Casa where she was being held. Whew.

She’s a lovely dog, still getting used to her home.

It was a nice evening talking and eating and telling stories. Her daughter was there, who I hadn’t seen since La Leche League days. Kathy’s husband is also doing well and fun to see.

I was telling Kathy what a good job she’s doing dealing with a bunch of challenges, how patient and kind she’s being. She laughed and said she wasn’t always that way. I responded that I feel the same, that it’s so hard not to show how upset I am in public forums (fora?). Kathy said I was her role model in moderation and that she often thinks, “What would Sue Ann post?” (WWSAP)

That was the highlight of my evening! Just to know someone notices how hard I try. She should know, since she was there when my outspokenness did me no good. Learning and growing is the best, and being noticed is a bonus.

Boy, did I sleep well last night, too!

Blitzing the biology

I’ve continued making observations for the 2026 Texas Pollinator Bioblitz this weekend. It’s like I went camping, only I stayed home, with all the walking, stalking and talking? No talking. I just took pictures but that does not rhyme.

I even climbed a hill, the only one around here.

After the incredibly windy day Friday, it was more pleasant to go look for pollinators and the plants they pollinate this weekend. But the wind had bashed a lot of the few plants that should still be blooming. For example, I’d really looked forward to getting pictures of Snow on the Mountain on my walk today, but I had a hard time finding any whose flowers hadn’t blown off.

Anyway, I’m doing okay finding things to contribute. Right now I (Sunasak) look like quite the little blitzer. However, the real hardcore participants include Texas Parks and Wildlife staff and people with good cameras who need to process their images. By the end, I’ll be more in the center.

Anyway, at least it’s gotten me out of the house. The only other stuff I’ve done is feed various animals. Spice messed up the water trough AGAIN and the rest of the horses have found the cockleburs. Apache feels it’s his duty to take over from Drew, so he requires daily work. I don’t think he minds the added attention!

The number of butterflies I’ve seen is larger than I expected. The Gulf Fritillary family is still busy laying eggs on passion vines, so they were easy to get good photos of.

There are many tiny Ceraunus Blue butterflies yesterday, but a good number of others, too.

Of course, butterflies aren’t the only pollinators. I found plenty of bees, wasps, and other insects (which may or may not be pollinators).

I did find a good number of plants, but not many great plant photos. This is not a good time of year for pretty plant images. It’s a good thing I know what a lot of plants look like when they’ve gone to seed!

I also have to report on birds, even if they aren’t part of the Bioblitz. On Friday, with all that wind, I only had 11 species, but it was a bit better yesterday with the arrival of much cooler weather and my little buddies the White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows. Today has been quite good, with over 40 species so far (I’m writing in the early evening). The best part is that I got some photos, including a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that Merlin didn’t register.

I’ll spare you the dog adventures this weekend. They were sort of unpleasant, but in the end, they’re all fine. I hope you are, too, or at least heading that way.

Blown away!

It’s not hot anymore! The weather today would have been quite pleasant, except that the cold front literally blew in. Like a leaf blower on steroids.

Merlin only heard 8 bird species. Luckily my eyes saw three more, but 11 is a real low!

The mountain was gradually moved back to where the backhoe is, so the area could be smoothed down.

And the guys working on the forms for the cement pads had to be careful so pieces of wood wouldn’t blow them around. All the dirt moving also left a film of dust everywhere.

Worst: the cattle ranchers had spread fertilizer yesterday. Everything smells like poop. I was looking all over the house to see which dog had pooped, sprayed Lysol all over the house, and was totally baffled until I finally remembered that tractor pulling something behind it yesterday. Dogs are forgiven, but some horse is in Trouble for messing up yet another water trough float. (Spice)

I did manage to get out and snap some pollinator photos for the bioblitz, though the plants were very wiggly. I was surprised at how many butterflies and dragonflies stayed still long enough, and the workers found me a cool rabid wolf spider with eggs (not a pollinator, but interesting).

The wind had started to die down when we went to eat some Mexican food this evening. That bodes well for a chilly tomorrow!

October Big Day

Today was the October Big Day for birders. Cornell Ornithology Lab was encouraging everyone to report all their bird sightings today on eBird or Merlin Bird ID. Of course, I was up for that, and because I had an upset tummy thing, I stayed close to home, making it a good day to observe.

Since its calving season, it was easy to spot Black Vultures, Turkey Vultures, and Crested Caracaras.

There was a mama cow glaring at this Caracara who was enjoying a placenta snack (hey, it’s Nature’s cleaning service).

And House Sparrows were east to find, since they dominate the stump feeder.

Mostly, I enjoyed listening to birds. Mockingbirds are back to singing long and complicated songs, as are Carolina Wrens. (Bewick’s Wrens are still just buzzing.)

This Mockingbird was singing away on a high branch.

My favorite sight came late in the afternoon, when I went on a walk. Eastern Bluebirds were all over the pastures singing and diving for insects. They were pretty blue streaks against the brown grass.

All in all, I recorded 40 species today. That’s about average for this time of year. Below is the list, as checked off in the book Lee went to a lot of trouble to make me, only to find he forgot October. He’s making another one, and I’ll transfer these to the new book.

The list is birds I have seen before in November. It works for October. I just write in new species, and he will add them for next year. He likes to make books!

Good news: I’m feeling better mentally since coming home from New Mexico. I even had energy today to do all the chores and not feel exhausted. That made all the animals happy, because I hung out and played with them.

We were a little offended that you didn’t count us in the Big Day count, but we appreciated the romaine lettuce

I need to lose my post-horse-lesson depression weight, so my goal is to get back to my daily walks and horse stuff. It’s now cool enough in mornings and around sunset to walk without suffering, so I’m taking advantage of it. Besides, I get to enjoy flowers and sunsets!

The only hiccup in the day was putting the red border around September in my temperature blanket only to realize I’d omitted a row of blank squares. Oops. I should be able to show it tomorrow, though.

PS: more good news. I confirmed today that all three goldfish are still alive and swimming. There are still lots of the other fish, too, so Alfred is forgiven.

Take me with you

If aliens arrived tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d ask them?

My friend and former housemate, Jeffrey Tveraas, wrote a song about encountering aliens that has always stayed with me. In the song, the narrator asks to go along with them: Take Me with You. (The song is quite catchy.) At this point in my life, I might take my chances and head on out into alien territory.

I figure, being eaten or enslaved by aliens would be preferable to watching my human rights erode. And they might be fun, who knows?

But, here I am at the Hermits’ Rest, wandering around looking for autumnal blossoms and hanging around with my dwindling collection of livestock buddies. I did find flowers!

And I enjoyed all the animals, too. Thanks to the hard work of the ranch family this year, the cocklebur problem in the horses’ manes and tails is manageable. The mowing got most of them. I was also happy to see the turkeys seem happy as they can be after the fox incident. My herbal treatment seems to have perked up their digestion, and all their lost feathers are growing back. Life goes on.

That’s all I can share for today. Keep our family in your thoughts and hug your loved ones!

Oh, and let me know if you meet any friendly aliens!

My philosophy in one phrase

What’s a personal mantra or philosophy you live by?

There’s no doubt that I’ve said this many times before, but the guiding belief that has stuck with me since I first heard it is the Golden Rule, which is found in so many spiritual traditions.

Treat others how you would like to be treated.

Sure, someone could argue against this, but I’m sticking with it. It’s served me well through many adventures.

Ah, Queen butterflies. The blue mist flowers also serve well.

Things were pretty good today, and work went fine.

I did notice that my toes were still a bit sore from all that hill climbing last week. I took off the nail polish from when I was in Florida and discovered why. I probably should have brought my hiking boots to New Mexico, even though space was limited in the car.

That’s bruising, in addition to other stuff.

Hiker’s toe, it’s called. It’s caused by repeatedly banging your toes into your shoes going downhill. All that ugliness will grow out. And I’m going to treat for fungus, too. But yuck, this is what I get for painting my toenails—I didn’t catch it soon enough.

I knew you were wondering about the other foot. Cutting the nail too short did not fix the problem.

As Kathleen was telling me today, things could be worse. So I’ll treat those feet and remember to bring my good boots next time I go hill walking. At least I CAN climb hills!

Speaking of dogs…

Fun times with black rocks

Ha ha. I must start with the fact that yesterday’s post about looking at houses has had WAY more views than anything I ever posted. Now, the number of visitors was normal, just everyone looked at all the house photos. I don’t blame any of you. I also love sneak peeks at houses.

Martha and Mike left this morning so they could take two days to get to Cameron. Lee stayed at the cabin to await real estate news. Anita and I took the opportunity to drive through the beautiful scenery between Ruidoso and Capitan, New Mexico on our way to see my favorite National Treasure, the Valley of Fire. I couldn’t take pictures from the car, since I had to drive, but we did stop at a viewing spot for some viewing and photography. it isn’t the most spectacular view, but I enjoyed looking at the scenery, and it was incredibly quiet in between the few passing cars.

After making sure I wouldn’t die from eating a barberry fruit, we continued on through Carrizozo to our amazing destination. I’ve written about the Malpais (badlands), which are an ancient lava flow, before, but I’m sure a refresher won’t hurt.

These “badlands” are a kind of rock formation where lava is right at the surface. The geological name for the area is the Carrizozo Volcanic Field. It’s the result of many years of flow from Little Black Peak, ten miles away. You can see this area from the air on some flights. If you see White Sands, look north. The following is from Wikipedia:

See how close it is to where the first atomic bomb was set off!

Okay, enough geology. The place is simply wonderful to see. There are many plants and animals adapted to the terrain. We saw a lizard, bees in a hole, and many birds. The Rock Wren was new to me and we heard it lots. The Green-tailed Towhee was also a new one.

As for plants, early autumn brings much color to the black landscape. There were yellows, pinks, and purples everywhere, along with cholla, sotol, and yuccas. These are a mere few.

I was able to stop looking through binoculars or the camera lens to enjoy the lava formations and mountains in the distance. It’s an impressive site. As Anita said so eloquently, “Nature, she crazy!” It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by awe as you look at the chutes, flows, caves, and crags. New Mexico has so many geological wonders!

We enjoyed talking to the park volunteer, who had been many fun places with the park service, and who also happened to be an expert on homosexuality/transexuals and the Bible. She’s one of those trans pioneers who educates others kindly and politely. That’s got to be so hard sometimes. you just never know who you’ll meet!

We were hungry, so ate in the diner in Carrizozo. It was American Mexican food, not even Tex Mex. Oh well, it was food!

The drive back was through different scenery, which is always fun. We briefly stopped in Ruidoso to get Anita a sweatshirt. I got one, too, and these cute Zuni dragonfly earrings that will match my bumblebee jasper pendant I got earlier. It will be fun to wear to the Master Naturalist meeting in a few weeks.

I guess we’re ready to go home. Lee has been assured that any real estate business he needs to do can be done electronically, so we can go home. Things have gone a bit haywire there, so I need to check on stuff! Kathleen has been handling stuff like a superhuman!

Real estate can be exhausting

Today it was darned chilly here in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. Thus, I only took one brisk walk.

As long as I got to see a mule deer, I was okay.

Most of the afternoon was taken up with riding around with Alison the real estate gal, fresh back from her honeymoon in Costa Rica. The cold weather surprised her, too! But she put together some houses to look at, and off we went (with Anita). Let’s go look at houses! You may or may not find it more interesting than plants and birds.

I did see another White-breasted Nuthatch at a property.

The first house we looked at was mainly because it was right nearby. We called in the red house, because it was sorta red. It wasn’t really what we wanted in location or use of space.

Then we went on to the green house, which I had high hopes for. This house has decks galore and borders on the National Forest.

This deck wraps around to the front. Note the two-car garage!

The house is listed as having 5 bedrooms and two baths, but the whole upstairs space is just a warren of little rooms that only sort of count as bedrooms. However, one of those rooms has a door leading to a deck all its own, looking into the woods. My office, for sure.

Random hallway space with daybed. They could sleep many grandchildren

The rest of the green house is very nice, though the kitchen is small and has extra-blue cabinets. The living/dining area and decks were great. It is on a secluded street, too, but close to town. This is a house we could do lots with.

The next house we called the old man house. It had my favorite interior, with such homey rooms and a cool enclosed porch with really good blinds. There were only two bedrooms, but a nice Jack-and-Jill bath.

What was wrong with it? Well, the laundry room was hilarious. I could not reach the washer to empty it. And while the yard was nicely landscaped, it was very sloped. Finally, there were so many stairs! Once inside, it was fine. But outside would get harder and harder as we aged.

After this one, we set out to see a house that only had 9 photos online. That’s always suspicious. This house was on a downslope, but not hard to get in. The neighborhood was pleasant. Its main feature was a wall of windows overlooking beautiful trees. If you could ignore the rest of the house and the fact than it overlooks a highway, the view could sell the place. However, the tree house had mirrored walls, a sad kitchen and some bizarre downstairs plumbing. Not quite right.

We had enough of Ruidoso and set our sights on Alto, the neighboring area with no infrastructure other than a post office and a fire station. It’s where the house I liked so much last time is located. We did visit that one again, just to remind ourselves of it. it’s still nice, but Lee is hesitant to buy a manufactured home.

We went to another house in Alto, in a different neighborhood. This has fairly nice houses and good-sized lots. The house we looked at is not fancy at all, but is really cool. Though it’s rough-hewn, Lee and I both liked it. I liked the space around it, with lots of wildflowers.

Inside, the rustic house is very rustic. It has fun light fixtures, lots of quirky shelving units, a beautiful main room and a weird but fun kitchen/dining. There’s also a huge deck. The bathrooms were “recently remodeled” and are quirky, to say the least. The main toilet faces a window. but the floors have radiant heat!

I didn’t get any photos of the cute sunroom in the front of the house. It’s very tempting to just sit there!

Picture from outside showing the view of the main toilet. Curtains are a must.

We may try to get this last house. I like how unpretentious and rustic it is. Lee and I both feel comfortable there. If we can’t get this one, we may try for the green one as our summer escape house. We will have to see.

We had a nice meal this evening in a good Mexican restaurant. My chiles rellenos were wonderful and everyone else’s looked great. It was just a bit chilly inside.

Never too much natural beauty, right?

Anyone other than me might have overloaded on nature today. I may have overdone walking, but not enjoying the sky, the trees, the water, and all the critters running around. It was great having the day off to explore the Ruidoso, New Mexico area on a pleasant autumn day!

Can’t beat a mountain lake for beauty! Grindstone Lake

Everyone has been relaxing in the mornings on this trip, but I wanted to GO while the weather was nice. I walked back to the National Forest trail near our cabin and was happy to learn the rain hadn’t made the trail impassable. It’s so peaceful in the mountain woods.

I thought I wouldn’t see any new plants, since I’d walked some of the path already. But no. There was one stretch of path that I found something new every few feet. it felt quite magical, like I was experiencing a gift.

Whole leaf paintbrush – ***Castilleja integra***

I had to rest when I got back from all that climbing. But soon enough Anita and Martha agreed to go with me to check out Grindstone Lake, a local reservoir, fishing, and swimming spot. It’s where it was so crowded last time that we couldn’t get in. Luckily, today was chilly for swimming, and the games of some kind that will be held at the lake aren’t until next week.

I have so many pretty pictures that it’s hard to choose from.

We had a blast wandering around looking at the plants, collecting rocks (not me), birding (me), and basking in the beauty. This made us very happy humans.

***Poecilanthrax californicus –*** a banded bee fly

Of course there were also flowers to see along Grindstone Lake. Here are just a few, I promise. I did leave some out.

We finally dragged ourselves away from the lake. Being me, I suggested we go to another lake, since we had time. This is Alto Lake, another reservoir, about 15 minutes away from Grindstone. It didn’t have such spectacular scenery, at least to the others, who didn’t like that there were houses on one side of the lake. It is also smaller but still popular with fans of fishing.

The reason I like this lake is that it’s teeming with birds. There were Coots and Mallards in the water, and so many tiny birds, goldfinches, bluebirds, and Bushtits, etc. The highlight for me was seeing and photographing a Townsend’s Warbler, one of my new lifers for this trip. It’s so beautiful!

After this, our legs were done, so we went to the store to get dinner stuff and sundries. I got myself some Old Fashioned in a bottle. After all that exercise, I was done for. I’m glad Martha made eggs and sausage that we could turn into dinner tacos (like breakfast ones, but at night).

I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring other than real estate stuff. That should be fun.