Plant Sightings – The Hermits' Rest

Little joys for girls and boys

Today was pretty darned pleasant. I got some items on my to-do list done, and enjoyed a day of less bad news surrounding me. Woo hoo!

The knockout roses Lee bought that I thought were doomed are both blooming. One little joy!

I went with Lee and Chris to Lowe’s to pick up supplies for the pool house project behind our house. I remembered to ask them to get a new air conditioner for my she shed, which will certainly improve horse feeding this summer.

I also finally remembered to get an American flag to go by our front gate. I’d been intending to do it for quite some e, but I rarely go anywhere that would have one these days. I want to be clear that everyone on our property has hopes for a better future here, no matter the details of our beliefs.

When we got home I hurried to do barn chores, and the flag was up by the time I got finished! What a joy.

I met an interesting man who builds furniture mostly out of 2x4s at the checkout line at Lowe’s. I enjoyed looking at his creative ideas and techniques. He reminded me very much of the creative builders in my family!

After Lowe’s Lee and I went to the pet store and got some “rosy red minnows” to put in the horses’ water troughs. That’s another to-do item I kept forgetting to do. I didn’t remember to take any pictures before I put them in. Let’s hope enough of them survive to do mosquito and algae control.

Apache and Spice always are fascinated by fish. Let’s hope these hide under their cement blocks well.

We got canna lilies to plant near the pool, too. The variety name cracked me up. My mother’s first name was Canova. Close. No humans by that name are authorized in this property, but innocent sale bin plants are.

Plus, I gave my nails a rainbow manicure and finished May on the temperature blanket. April and May were fairly pleasant. June is rather red so far. Red is over 90°, wine is over 95° and hot pink is over 100°. I’m hoping for very little hot pink this summer.

I wish you little moments of joy and much peace. Thanks for reading.

Friend reunion, much delayed

My friend Kathy and I have lived about an hour away from each other for a good number of years. She drives by Cameron, I drive by Waco, and we never manage to coordinate visits. She was one of the La Leche League administrators when I moved to the Austin area and she lived in Longview, but we saw each other often at conferences and such until that connection went away.

Kathy at her very cute house. She has a beautiful back yard.

I sent her a Facebook message yesterday asking to get together today, but she missed it. She asked why I hadn’t called when she saw I was in Waco. I said I messaged her! Then we finally got on track and got together! Lee and I had a nice visit with Kathy and her husband, Matt. It’s weird meeting people you’ve heard about for 30+ years. But we all had a good conversation.

Kathy gave me a book written by a former member of the Homestead Heritage group I talked about yesterday. It’s one of those books sharing all the secrets. Kathy even met the author at her book club meeting. I’m all intrigued and may have to stop my current book to read that one.

We are a colorful duo! We both haven’t changed except hair color.

Anyway, as nice as it is to keep up online, in-person hugs are better. Way better.

Before heading off to the perfectly manicured golf course suburb where Kathy now lives (for good reasons), I dragged Lee to another Waco park. Brazos Park East is on a long stretch of the river across from some pretty limestone cliffs. It’s only semi manicured (I explored another disc golf course there, unless it’s part of the same course at Cameron Park, which I saw last year). The river is beautiful away from the city, though.

It looks wild, just a mile from the city.

I enjoyed some pretty lagoons full of turtles and, from all the shells I found, crawfish. I know what the beautiful Yellow-crowned Night Heron I saw was chowing down on!

I heard over 20 bird species over the traffic noise, which isn’t bad. A Red-eyed Vireo was the star of today’s birdsong show. I enjoyed it and all its friends. There were many dragonflies out, too.

A turtle that didn’t jump off as soon as I aimed the phone at it!

After the nature and human friend time, we headed home to the familiar animals and people.

Blue-fronted dancer, at my birding station

The break was really good for me, and I think I’ll have a much more centered approach to work next week!

I discovered a Connie egg is perfect for displaying new nails.

What else is in Waco?

We’ve been to Waco a number of times before, about once a year. It’s one of the closest cities to us and is in a pretty setting. We also go to Bryan/College Station sometimes and Temple, but Temple has no very interesting spots to visit, while the other two, having large universities, feature museums and a lot of Texas-y stuff. We avoid most of the yee-haw places and still find plenty to do.

You know you’re in Waco when you see this. Like they always show the Eiffel Tower in France, the Alico building symbolizes Waco. I don’t know much about it other than it survived a hurricane.

Before you delve into your travel advice, we know all about Dr Pepper, the Texas Rangers. those down-home Gaines people, and such. We didn’t go to any Baylor museums, since I figure I’ll go there at the October Master Naturalist annual meeting. It’s right here at this hotel.

Where did we go? First we went to the Lake Waco Wetlands, since I’d really enjoyed it there on a field trip a few years ago. Back then it was lush and green and filled with aquatic plants, insects, and birds. The lake was full.

My Master Naturalist group—this was my first field trip.

This year, it looked very different.

There was no boardwalk, the lake was dry, and typical prairie plants were growing everywhere. All the systems that used to filter the water were broken. I didn’t have the heart to photograph those. So, the visit was different. Nonetheless, we enjoyed walking around. I got many plant and bird observations, including an Indigo Bunting duet.

I pondered and hypothesized about what had happened to this place. I knew it was probably in the news. Yes, back at the hotel I read that flooding two years ago took out most of the infrastructure of this fascinating natural water filtering system. Please read this excellent report from last March about the plans to rebuild it so the equipment is less vulnerable. The article also gives the history of the wetland. Worth taking a break to read.

The second place we went also has an interesting story and is a ways outside of Waco. It’s Homestead Heritage, an intentional community that has been going for 50 years. Being near Waco, one’s first thought might be, “Run! It’s a cult!” And there are spiritual aspects and they do wear simple clothing. But really it’s a community where they create and teach old ways of doing things.

Each building is a renovated old one of a different style.

There is a cafe selling farm-to-table food, a cheese place, glass blowing, pottery, a forge (real!), leather work and so on. You can even take quick classes in most of the trades. (They also have longer classes.) I met a lovely birder/water colorist who’s doing a series on Texas birds. And I loved the handmade brooms. But my favorite part was the mill.

This mill is hundreds of years old and was moved to this location.

I could have watched it slowly create flour for hours, with all its wheels, belts, and pulleys. They grow the corn and wheat in the community. I got some grits after we enjoyed some delightful lemonade. Mine was watermelon mint, and I got to watch the young woman make it by hand. Lots of watermelon squishing. The lemonade concentrate was pre-made, by them.

The woodworking area was so organized and perfect. The woodwright was sharpening a set of chisels to give his apprentice so he’d stop using his. Ha! They have some really intense woodworking classes. I know my coworker would enjoy that part of the shop area. The hand tools were fascinating.

Of course I saved the best for last and had lots of fun at the knitting, spinning, and weaving shop. There were so many huge looms making complicated patterns of cloth. A spinner patiently showed a little girl how plying worked, much to the girl’s delight. I wish I had photos of the place, but I was too busy looking.

I really enjoyed this place. It reminded me of Silver Dollar City in Branson, but with just the craft parts. it wasn’t crowded, so you could really talk to the community members. They were friendly but not in a scary way. You get a good feeling from them. I later read they are pacifists. That kind of old-fashioned Christians. Hmm. Read more about Homestead Heritage for yourself on their site. I’m glad Kathleen mentioned finding this place.

After a nap, we ate a lot of sushi at a little restaurant across the street from the hotel. I enjoyed a boba tea, too.

I went for a walk by the river and observed many unhoused people enjoying the river view. There were also plenty of invasive plant species, bits of garbage, and endless loud motorcycles and farting tiny sporty cars. I’ll stop complaining about loud pickup trucks at home. This is worse. Still, the Brazos is beautiful. I also enjoyed walking around the convention center area.

All in all, we had a fine day in the Waco area! There’s lots to do beyond the obvious.

I don’t want it all

What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?

I’m no longer even thinking about having it all. I just want enough. I want my family safe, a supportive community, a comfortable home, and enough to eat. I guess having it all would be all the above plus access to healthy food, natural beauty, and animal companions. Yarn, too. And books.

Alfred is glad to be our animal companion.

I have these things. I’m very privileged. I want these things for everyone in the world. It’s attainable but not with the distribution of wealth around the world. What a frustrating situation. I’m glad there are people smarter than me trying to find ways to change our oligarchy. What I can do is help others when I can. My job makes that easier than it once was. I’m grateful.

Truly, it’s only really having it all if “all” is available to everyone, no exceptions. Even people we don’t like.

Humor break. Many of these mushrooms are coming up right now. From a distance it looks like a field of tampons.

I’m not up to writing much about today. The highlight was killing plants, so that tells you something. But before I eliminated the growth in the pool patio, I did my best to rescue as many portulaca plants from the racks between stones as possible. I think some will make it.

Geez. I care about my phone.

What personal belongings do you hold most dear?

Why do I hold my phone dear? It is my memory. It contains all my photos, all my communication with friends, access to my memories in the blog…and yes, I can get to all those things from my laptop. Yuck. I think I hold some bits and bytes or whatever cloud storage is made of. That’s really depressing. What else do I hold dear? Things made by my loved ones. My mom and stepmom’s art. Dad’s woodcraft stuff. Gifts they gave me. Things that tie me to them.

New thought: I’ve started letting myself write in incomplete sentences! They’ll soon be taking away my Grammar Police badge. My take is that the incomplete sentences are not as unpleasant as those two blogs I dictated and then was too woozy to properly review. Poor Sue had to endure proofreading that. I don’t pay her well enough for that! (I do not pay Sue; she’s just nice.)

Another part of the phone I love is the camera. I was at a Master Naturalist outing at my friend Carolyn’s place, which I’ve showed you before. I got some images I really liked there. I don’t need to show you all 125 species or 25 birds I recorded, but I want to share a few for those of you who always want more nature pictures.

Purple Pleatleaf (***Alophia drummondii)***

This one was new to me. It’s an evening primrose that grows five feet tall. Wow.

Four point evening primrose (***Oenothera rhombipetala)***

And here are a few more plants.

We also saw lots of animal life. There was more than I expected, especially the suspiciously friendly raccoon. But it’s harmless.

Other animal news? No one’s come looking for Benny. He’s still over here trying to hump Carlton.

Balancing Act

How do you balance work and home life?

I do know many people who have a large a hard time balancing their work and their home life. It’s really easy to check your email before or after your hours of work or just check to see what’s going on in the work chat. Or maybe, just maybe, you’ve got all sorts of ideas and you want to get them down before you forget them. I get it. Work just intrudes on us no matter how hard we try not to let it.

Mr. Bullfrog wants to know if you can tell I tried dictating this post. I sure can. Yuck.

The good news is I’m really lucky. I’m a contract worker and have been for most of my working life. That means I’m only supposed to work 40 hours a week, and I’m only going to get paid for 40 hours a week, and no one expects me to put in extra time just because, you know, I’m getting paid the big bucks. While it’s true I don’t get paid vacations or paid holidays, I do get to stop after eight hours a day. Plus, the way it is right now I am working in Pacific time that gives me time in the morning to enjoy birds or sit and enjoy coffee or hang out with the horses. And there’s still enough time in the evening to do my chores, walk around and see what’s happening, especially in the summer when there’s lots of daylight. So, yeah I work when I’m working and I don’t work when I’m not working. That seems to be the best way to balance your work and your life.

I’m glad I have both work and home life. Each is important.

I’ve been thinking about other balances today. Some friends of mine are going through some hard stuff. If you have a moment, think of my friend Anita, who has lost a long-term animal, Friend, and some other folks, I know who are having trouble with their families and have no option, but to just get through it. That’s hard to get past. Things will swing back into balance, though sometimes it takes quite a while.

And it’s hard to see past all the distractions to find the positives.

Not dwelling on what’s bad and not only thinking about the good things like some sort of Pollyanna person seems to be the best way to keep a balance. That’s why I like living in the moment and noticing the small things that happen. Out here at the ranch we are going to see life and death and everything in between, but it helps us remember that that’s all part of life and all to be treasured.

Like Gulf fritillaries. All are ephemeral treasures.

Here is a bonus funny story from the day. The UPS man came as he often does right before I was supposed to have a meeting. The dogs were barking and barking and barking. Once again, it wasn’t the UPS man that they were barking at oh no. There was a squirrel on the front porch. All I know is that I heard a yelp and Alfred was limping. The squirrel disappeared. UPS man hopefully pointed out. Hey there’s a squirrel on your front porch. I agreed.

I took all the packages and things inside and figured this squirrel was gone and really hoped it wasn’t hurt. Naturally my coworker felt the need to point out to me that squirrels don’t usually do weird things like run up on the front porch so maybe it was sick and giving my dogs rabies or whatever. Thanks Keaton.

My meeting with Keaton lasted about an hour so I went outside to see if I could find the squirrel. Kathleen also went outside a couple of to see if she could find the squirrel. She never noticed it but I spotted a little fuzzy tail, hiding behind a storage container on the porch. There was no way a dog could get to it. But it didn’t look like that squirrel was planning on going anywhere anytime soon, either. I checked on it two or three more times and one time I saw it a little foot sticking up and another time I saw a little nose. It was so cute.

Finally, when Lee was feeding the dogs, we locked the outside door so the dogs couldn’t get out and Kathleen and I managed to move the big container the squirrel was hiding behind. The minute that space was opened the squirrel took off like a rocket. It was not hurt. We were relieved. I’m also relieved that the vet comes on Wednesday and she’ll let me know if any of the dogs look like they’re developing rabies. Alfred is no longer limping and no one else seems any worse for wear. I did find it funny that none of the dogs were smelling the squirrel where it was hiding. Maybe squirrels have some sort of odor disguiser in them. I don’t know.

It was real windy today and last night but the new fig tree made it. I’m happy to say I’ve had a whole day with a fig tree. Every day with a fig tree is a good day, because my last fig tree died a horrible death when many many grasshoppers attacked it. This is not a grasshopper year, though, it’s a mud dauber year and mud daubers do not care anything for trees. Yay.

All right. You all have a good work life balance yourselves, and I will probably be back tomorrow.

PS: I texted my boss right after I finished writing this post. Not very good at doing what I say I do, am I?

We all make sacrifices

What sacrifices have you made in life?

I don’t think anyone I know hasn’t made sacrifices, mainly since I’m no longer hanging around with people who think of no one but themselves. I’m also fairly sure that many sacrifices have positive outcomes. For example, the sacrifice I made to stay home with my sons when they were young ended up leading to meeting so many lifelong friends and my career path. So maybe it wasn’t a sacrifice; it was a good decision.

Maybe I sacrificed a dream to send Drew away, but we are all calmer now.

That’s the thing. Most of the “sacrifices” I’ve made no longer bother me. I honestly don’t feel like dwelling on them. One thing is I wish I had been able to travel overseas when I was younger. But the money was needed for other important things, like college educations and helping out family members. And now that we might have the means to travel to other countries, Lee won’t fly.

If I’m home, I can see when new plants bloom. Violet Ruellia has started.

Not traveling as much lets us invest in our home, though. I’m looking forward to some of the improvements we’ve been discussing, like finishing the pool house and getting the water tanks working. Admittedly, getting more grass in the horse pastures means fewer spectacular wildflowers, but I can sacrifice some of them if we can get native grasses.

We have to save some for the butterflies, like this variegated fritillary.

Everything’s really okay. We can each sacrifice something for the good of us all, at least here. Finding acceptance of how things are has truly made my life happier.

We planted the fig tree in time for more rain. I just hope the wind doesn’t break it.

Purple Martin Mania

I’m still easily tired and low on energy, but I’m glad I was able to go to see the incredible Purple Mountain colony maintained by Mike McCormick and his family near Buckholts. Not only were the birds (a type of swallow) beautiful to watch, but I enjoyed finding plenty of plants, too.

Two stunning males taking a break from insect hunting.

This huge setup of houses and a “condo” is one of the largest in the US. It’s the result of a lifetime of work. We are lucky to be nearby and that our Master Naturalist group has been friends for years.

The setting couldn’t be more beautiful, in a hilly ranch with mixed fields and woods. There are plenty of ponds to attract insects and keep the birds hydrated.

Pond, cattle, and chickens share the land with martins.

It’s a lot of work maintaining all the nest sites, but it’s a labor of love for the whole family. They’ve been responsible for many Martin housing innovations that they share with others, too. There’s a devoted group of Martin lovers throughout North America who provide homes for these birds while the raise their babies each summer who share information.

Two females in the condo, taking a break from egg incubation.

I enjoyed learning new things about these birds, which surprised me since I’ve been educated often about them. For example, larger hawks ignore them, but Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned find martins tasty. Ah, nature.

The houses and condo unit. It holds lots of birds. There are up to 2,000 pairs in good years.

I couldn’t resist the other life around the property. There were plenty of hens and roosters, plus chicks. And there were beautiful white domestic doves fluttering around (as well as Mourning, White Winged, and Inca Doves). The shed area had Barn Swallows nesting in it, so we got to watch them zooming around, too. And a pretty brave rabbit.

After I got tired of being around people, I walked on the little nature trail they’ve built since I was last there. It has very nice bathrooms, too. I had lots of fun adding 75 or so observations for iNaturalist on the trail and in the fields, when I wasn’t distracted by how beautiful the views of the countryside were.

It is a privilege to see this place again and to learn even more about these migratory birds and the environment where they spend their spring and summer, after flying in from Brazil.

Book Report: Foraging Texas

I got this book at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. I’m sure glad I did, because I thoroughly it and learned how many things right outside the house are delicious. Foraging Texas: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods, in Texas (2021), by Eric M. Knight and Stacy M. Coplin, is the most fun and sensible foraging guide I ever read.

The authors, who apparently know my friend Linda Jo, strike a great balance e between caution and curiosity as they teach about edible plants. First, they insist you read the chapter on toxic plants, some of which I could go take you to right now (very healthy poison ivy vines). I do now know my water hemlock and friends, and simply won’t eat anything growing in the water, at all. Even the yummy ones might have pollutants in them. Sigh.

The authors focus on plants that are plentiful (many, if not most, non-native) so as not to encourage folks to contribute to a species going extinct. You’re heartily encouraged to eat annoying plants like bastard cabbage (they tell you to pull it up after you harvest the flowers, which proves to me that they have met Linda Jo). That woman hates bastard cabbage.

Bastard cabbage submitted by me to iNaturalist.

For each plant there’s a map of where to find it, a thorough botanical description (there’s an index of terms), comparison with any toxic lookalikes, how to harvest, and a recipe. Some recipes are like, just eat it. Other plants seem so hard to harvest that I wonder if it’s worth it. So many stickers and prickles to remove in your prickly pear fruit (tuna) or heart-leaf nettles. I’d say I’ll pass, but those fruit are so tasty.

Prickly pear with developing fruit at top. 2024.

Very few other plants are described as tasting delicious (dewberries are!). Most are okay.

I think the fun is mostly finding edible plants around you and knowing what’s a good hiking snack.

Found these today. You can eat flowers and roots, pink evening primrose.

Today I ate plantain seeds, because there are many in the pasture right now. I’m not going to go gather a bunch to share with the family. I could sneak chickweed in a salad, though. It’s tasty.

Bracted plantain. Much prettier than the kind I ate.

I will probably keep this reference book in the RV for reference when traveling. There are more comprehensive foraging books out there, but I like that this one covers the area where I live and is enjoyable to read. Now enjoy some pasture flowers.

Enjoy every dang moment

I say that because I wore my Lynda Barry shirt today, with Marlys saying “dang.”

It’s a comic for people my age and was very funny in the 20th century. Look up Lynda Barry.

But I’m here to tell you I’ve taken my own advice to enjoy every dang moment, and this had a very pleasant day with only a little remnant of The Sickness with No Name. I even got to talk to some friends today about its baffling nature. I’ve missed friends.

I’ve missed these, too. Meadow pinks. I’ll work on a better photo.

And Kathleen felt better enough to do stuff with horses and enjoy family chatting (the men call it BS-ing). We spent a lot of time dreaming up one of those gardens that catch runoff, because we will soon have giant rainwater harvesting barrels that need managing. It’s fun to dream of home improvements. I’ve always loved it.

I don’t know why, but the little depression near the driveway with frogs, crawfish and harmless water snakes doesn’t count as a decorative water feature.

The most fun part of the day was when I took a well-deserved walk at lunch. Though it was a cloudy day, the wildflowers on our roadside made it seem very bright!

Nature’s color palette is vibrant in May.

Because we started getting rain right after the poor bluebonnets and paintbrushes tried to bloom, the second wave of flowers is impressive.

I had a grand time looking at how huge the Engelmann daisies and Gaillardia are this year.

Many springs find those daisies all droopy and sad. Not this year.

Closer to my son’s house, I found the clasping coneflowers (Mexican hats, as they were called until recently) were much more robust than they’ve been in recent years. They make the roadside look like someone planned the arrangement of plants.

With a background of Dickcissels and orioles singing, I couldn’t help but feel thankful. This is why I live out here in rural America. The land and wildlife are always changing and endlessly interesting.

Grateful to be caretaker for this wild patch.

I am convinced I do better work when I can take these breaks. After lunch I churned out a big document and it met with approval. Then my boss took a framework I built and turned it into a project plan of great sophistication and utility. That was energizing to see! Living in the moment even makes work more rewarding, at least sometimes.

Yep, I’m proud of myself for plowing through the rough times. They make good days like today all the more treasured. And now, here’s the photo dump of today’s views.