Plant Sightings – Page 24 – The Hermits' Rest

Spring Beauty or Fairy Spud

What the heck?

I was delighted to discover that the woodland floor next to our house was covered in charming little flowers. I’d never seen them before, even though I walk in these woods each spring.

I had to look them up as soon as I went inside after my birding break. Their name was as lovely as their appearance: Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica). I happily read the excerpt of a longer article that appears in iNaturalist as had to giggle when I saw that one of their other common names is Fairy Spud. I had to learn more.

It turns out that the plants grow from tubers that were eaten by many indigenous people in the eastern US, you know, like potatoes! They were thought to cure convulsions and/or prevent conception. I assume the latter didn’t work well, since people ate it a lot. The whole plant is edible, but the Wikipedia article noted that the leaves are “not choice eating.”

Well, I learned something today! As a bonus I managed to see and hear a black-crowned night heron this morning. That’s a rare guest at our pond! So, it’s the Daily Bird.

Apache survived a hard workout at his lesson today, but in a great triumph, he trotted more than once correctly. He was NOT hollow, that dreaded word. I’m so proud of him. He also got his feet trimmed by Reagan, the new intern at Tarrin’s. He is growing hoof like crazy.

Apache was sweating away, since he hasn’t shed much yet. He will be very happy tomorrow, when it cools off a bit. So will I! Maybe I’ll cook up a batch of fairy spuds for dinner. Or not.

Spring Rushing In

Signs of spring start off slowly. A purple martin arrives, chicory blooms, the few bees that are around delight in the early dandelions and bur clover blossoms.

Then, one day, you realize that the spring rush is ON. Around here, that happens in the last week of February. Wow! In town there are redbuds, and plum trees blooming. Those really pretty orange-red bushes are blooming, and the highly scented narcissus are everywhere.

Since I didn’t get photos in town, here’s my noble Vlassic, who’s showing his age.

No trees bloom spectacularly here, but today is the day there’s a green sheen in the woods. Even the willows are leafing out. In a week or two they and the cedar elms will be blooming subtly and stuffing my sinuses. It’s ok. They’re cute.

I’ve been sharing the early flowers lately, but today I found the second wave is showing up. Very soon we will have Texas paintbrush all over the front field, and the little stick-like stems of cat’s-ear will wave around (sometimes I’ll catch them with their flowers open). I even found my first plantain blooming. The yard will be covered with them eventually.

Well, there will be fewer wildflowers this year, because Lee and his brother are itching to mow. I’ve conveyed my instructions as to the no-mow areas. They’ll have smooth expanses of green and I’ll have SOME of my “weed” buddies.

One more sign that spring is in full swing is that every day there are fewer and fewer sparrows. That bums me out, but I know the summer residents will be here soon to entertain me. And of course the house sparrows will never leave. Sigh.

It’s getting warmer, too, so I’m hoping Apache hurries up and sheds out. In the meantime, all the horses are getting curried (except Drew, who’s being good but not getting worked with).

I just wanted to share these happy thoughts of life around the Hermits’ Rest. We need to focus on that sometimes. The little good things.

Favorite Flower, Least Favorite Word

If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

I’m gonna make random readers learn about my encounter with a new favorite flower and some historical land before telling you what word I’d ban. I want to share happy things.

Anyone who’s known me a long time probably knows my favorite flower in the pansy. I love their colors and their happy faces. I had no clue that there are wild pansies in the US, since I only knew them from flats in the garden store. But there are!

Hello! I’m the American field pansy – *Viola rafinesquei*

There’s no info on it in iNaturalist, which surprised me. But it apparently grows all through the eastern US. Have you ever seen it?

I was quite entranced by these tiny mini-pansies, which I encountered in Southeastern Milam County today on a hike with friends and their sons along the old El Camino Real de Los Tejas trail, leading to the panoramic views at the top of a hill, where Native American settlements at the Ranchería Grande were located. It’s gorgeous, with 360° views of the area. (Fellow Master Naturalists own the property and with the help of volunteers will make it accessible to the public.)

I found another new plant, called smallflower fumewort (Corydalis micrantha). They were all over the field, too. It has a charming, yellow flower shaped like tubes. I never saw anything like it before!

We had three young boys with us who were very new to the concept of observing and preserving nature. One young man was very proud to have cut apart the snail shell I gave him. Another one really enjoyed hitting things with sticks to see the sounds they made. They took great glee at destroying any animal tracks they found, but we convinced them to leave the cool leaf cutter ants to their business. I think ant lions sounded scary so their holes were safe, too.

Spider wort didn’t scare anyone. I was pleased my friend found one blooming!

I hope the younger hikers learned some things, though, and it was fun listening to them and hearing how they think. I’ll have a lot more boys next week, as we take Cub Scouts along the trail. Here are some things the boys found interesting.

We adults had fun, probably more than the kids. I was happy to have a chance to hang out with my friend, her spouse, and my fellow Master Naturalist. Next week I’m on my own with no backup naturalist.

This photo shows a huge leaf cutter ant colony. Dozens of connected nests.

So, what word would I like to make go away? I find the word “libtard” especially offensive and disrespectful. It insults people with more progressive ideas by using “-tard” which is something people try not to use to refer to those who have mental disabilities. I guess the word helps me remember to do my best to avoid name calling and pejorative labels when talking about the new far, far right factions in the US.

Hurling insults is a time-honored tradition in politics, I know. That doesn’t make it any less distasteful.

I’m Not Bored Easily, But

What bores you?

It’s hard to answer this question, because I’ve cleverly chosen my hobbies and interests to ensure that I’ve always got something interesting to do. I can knit, write, identify wildlife, or imagine what’s going on with people in cities, towns and rural areas I go through. At a basic level, I’m easily amused.

Some things to tend to bore me, so I escape them. They include:

Meetings held just to have a meeting.
More than 15 minutes of any TV news network where they repeat the same headlines with tiny variations.
Being talked down to, in person, in articles, or in books. My mind travels elsewhere.
Driving through metropolitan areas with the same chain stores repeating over and over. I counted four Rooms to Go stores driving from Denton to Hillsboro on I35 last week. Zzz.
Housing developments where all houses look alike. Yes, I lived in one once.
Being repeatedly subjected to quotes from the Bible to inaccurately argue a point. I’m no longer invested in debating that.
All white kitchens in houses with only black, white or gray furnishings.

Hey, I came up with more things than I thought I would. The good news is that all the things that bore me can be easily avoided or mitigated. I can either begin taking pictures of weeds or start knitting.

Important weed note: avoid picking up wildflowers that are blooming to get a better look without checking whether they might be nettles. Ow.

What bores you?

Mrs Cardinal says she is NOT boring. She’s a good singer.

(What didn’t bore me today was a nice, normal ride on Apache. We did all our homework and had a good time. )

At Least I Have Flowers

I’m still feeling pretty bad about my Droodles. I just can’t figure it out (nor will I be able to; that’s why I’m getting help). This evening, I walked into the pasture to say hi to the horses, and Drew walked right up to me, like he usually does. But instead of standing there to be loved on, he snaked his head right at me, with ears pinned back, and snapped at me. Damn. I walked off to go pick up a food bowl and he followed me, nipping my shoulder. Whoa! That was just so weird.

Thank goodness everyone else was fine, or I’d think it’s what Avery (a blog friend) suggested, some kind of grass poisoning. But Apache’s still friendly and takes his meds like a pro, and Dusty is friendly as ever. Mabel is Mabel (I dreamed I found her walking down the street in a residential neighborhood last night, happy to see me, but not planning to follow me anywhere).

But hey, spring is coming, and I’m enjoying the tiny flowers coming up while I listen to the birds every day. I’m happy to say the barn swallows are coming back. I’ve missed them. Maybe they’ll chase off some of the house sparrows. Maybe?

I’m not sure why I am thrilled every year when the flowers start blooming and the bees and butterflies start to appear. It’s always like a miracle. I was especially pleased to find the violets at the house our family is renovating are in bloom. I hope we can transplant them somewhere.

So, I’m going to stop here, and maybe do another post about renovation progress tomorrow. I am just not myself today. My head is so fuzzy, and I’m so perplexed about my horse. I’m sure things will get better!

Birds, Woods, Gifts

Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.

Being out camping makes it easy to talk about two of the best gifts I’ve ever received, and share my famous/endless nature photos with y’all, too.

Maybe a beaver pond on Lake Ray Roberts.

I talked about this back when I got it, but I’ll repeat that my bird journal is a gift that means a lot to me. The amount of time my husband put into designing the format, finding hundreds of bird pictures, printing the book, then binding it himself was considerable! It’s not just a journal for writing down my sightings, but it’s also made just for me. I use it daily and am reminded of all the kindness deep within Lee’s hermit heart.

The other gift I’ve appreciated a lot is the opportunity to be out in nature so much since we got this motorhome. It’s helped keep me mentally and physically healthy. Lee drives me quite cheerfully and is fine when I go away for over three hours looking at plants and birds. He also kindly drives me to horse events, which are another element of my sanity.

I think we’re getting our money’s worth with this monster.

I may have overdone it today, since my stomach has been unhappy and hiking the entire equestrian trail probably didn’t help it. But I lived.

The trail passed an old homestead chimney.

The trail was worth it, with interesting sights I didn’t expect. The part of the park I was in today has much more varied microclimates, and there was evidence of a controlled burn not too long ago. I could also see that a lot of brush had been cut back, perhaps to create more prairie areas.

The fire may also help in another way. I was charmed to realize I’d walked into a pine forest. It’s apparently cut off from the piney woods, like lost pines near Austin. The fire may encourage more young pine trees. They are needed, because many of the pines I saw were quite old. They were just beautiful.

I managed to see and hear more birds today. Many were by water, including the pond shown at the top of this post. I heard a belted kingfisher go on and on, along with four woodpeckers and many small birds. At one point I saw a downy and red-bellied woodpecker on the same tree! Near there I flushed an owl, which was another fun surprise. All my sightings went into Merlin, because they are tallied as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count . I’m happy to participate in this!

I did run into a few folks on the trail, two sets with unleashed dogs, and three horse groups. I was able to warn two groups of a tree that was blocking the path. The third group was four Mexican-American men with authentic outfits, great hats, and excellent cowboy hats. Their horses were fancy as they were, too.

I politely didn’t photograph the riders, but this is the tree. It must have fallen recently, because the trails are well maintained.

It was a lot of fun, even with a stomach ache. I did take it easy the rest of the day. We watched The Big Year, which is still very funny, and I was impressed by how much more I understood about the bird content than I did when the movie came out. It’s funny even for non birders.

Here’s where I walked today. Yesterday I walked north to Quail Run.

Now to get ready to work in the morning then drive home. I’m glad I can work in the evening to make up for the drive time. Of course, it’s nice and warm here starting tomorrow. But it will be warm at home, so I can horse around.

I’m Tough, I Guess

I say that because even though it was cold with a biting wind, I hiked the whole Randy Bell Scenic Trail and added a walk through the second, and very beautiful, camping area here at the Isle du Bois Unit of the Ray Roberts State Park. That’s a long name. I got 6 miles and 16,000+ steps in.

It wasn’t a great bird day, probably because I didn’t go out until late morning. But I did get to enjoy watching a flock of dark-eyed juncos feasting on cedar berries. I used to see them a lot in Illinois.

Other than that, I was pleased to see more varied terrain today, with more prairie areas and evidence of controlled burns. All good.

The Quail Run campaign area is on a hill that makes a little peninsula on the lake. Most of the campsites only work for tents, but some would fit an RV. The settings are really scenic and would be great to look out from if there weren’t gale winds.

The woods were full of deer. Since there’s not much underbrush, they can’t hide too well, so I got to see them eating and napping. No more pooping, though.

I just wandered around and enjoyed the peace and quiet, then rested a bit and walked more with Lee. We were able to sit outside a while until the sun went behind clouds.

We ended the day watching those three Wizarding World movies from a few years ago. I’m woefully not up on Harry Potter stuff, for no deep reason. Anyway, more photos for those of you that like such things.

I wish you all a good Sunday.m, especially everyone at Tarrin’s clinic tomorrow. Maybe it will be warmer here.

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.

We crows are magnificent. We grace you with our caws.

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.

You pull your trailer right up to the stalls.

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 Day of Stuff I Like

It’s still all rainy, but I managed to do nothing but stuff I enjoy. There was no horse fun, just slogging through mud and arguing with Apache over his medicine. I had bird and plant fun, though. Whoopee, the bluebonnets are coming in strong.

I indulged my boring American self and watched football coverage most of the day. I especially enjoyed the segment on the history of football on CBS. It was interesting to see the women and people of color highlighted. Jayne Kennedy also is a role model of grace and cool hair.

While I watched all the coverage and the very close game, I finished the third row of this year’s temperature blanket. I like seeing a more normal winter range.

Today isn’t shown, but will get 4 rain chains, since it rained another inch. Luckily we just got lots of standing water, and the creek stayed within its banks.

It’s getting greener, but we can still get another freeze.

I needed to get some movement in today, so I wound some pretty yarn into cakes. It’s a soft merino 4-ply in a DK or sport weight. I’m glad it’s not sock yarn or I’d have had to double it. My friend Ray at Knitivity dyed it, and I just love the colors. Here’s what I made:

It’s mitered granny squares. They will look cool when there are more of them. Since the yarn is thin, the fabric will be light, yet warm. I think this will be a rectangular wrap, unless I have enough yarn for a lap blanket. Well wait and see.

I’ll still keep working on the two temperature blankets, but the 2023 one for my friend will finish sooner rather than later, and I can then crochet this.

As for the Big Game, I enjoyed it. I’m glad it was close so both teams can be proud of themselves. The commercials were good. As long as a couple make me laugh, I consider it a win, and I certainly laughed enough. The music was all good, and a nice variety. I like that Reba didn’t overdo the National anthem.

And Usher was such an athletic guy, all while singing. The roller skating, too! The guest performance singers were also enjoyable. I’m sure there were famous people I didn’t recognize, but I’m bad with pop music.

I knew eventually I’d stop being able to keep up! I feel like my dad saying all my music sounded alike to him. On the other hand, I’ve never really liked pop music, dance music, or the hip hop as much as folk and rock (and classical), so I’ll cut myself some slack. Maybe one day I’ll immerse myself into the last 20 years and learn what Beyoncé, Taylor, and all those folks sang.

Or not. They have plenty of fans.

I Do All the Things, Except

Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.

I do have a to-do list. It’s my bullet journal. I get pleasure from checking off things I’ve done. Here’s a confession. There’s one thing I rarely even put on my list, because I hate doing it.

Looking at clouds during sunset rarely gets omitted.

Yes, I hate hanging my clothes back up in my closet. I have always hated this, since childhood.

There’s no reason for me to dislike it. I have a huge closet with windows and a fancy light fixture. But it piles up. Maybe admitting this will inspire me to get I. There, grab a stack of velvet hangers, and file my clothes where they belong. I should have space after recent purges. Maybe. (No, I’m not posting a photo of my closet.)

I did get many items on my to-do list done today. I dutifully attended the Master Naturalist Board retreat and took notes. It’s always good to listen to the group’s ideas and get excited about possibilities for field trips and activities. Even though I wasn’t feeling well, I got through it. (Yeah, my health has me puzzled — my joints have started hurting in my hands, and my knees and back are unhappy with me for no reason I can figure out. Plus I suddenly have ringing in my ears, which has never bothered me before. Time for a checkup I guess.)

Linda Jo found an excellent insect during our break, during which she and I looked for flowers. Naturally.

After checking that item off, I took the horses over to Tarrin’s for an unscheduled visit. (Make that “we” since Lee drove.)

Apache was the easier horse to deal with. Tarrin and her hoof consultant picked out some boots for him to wear while his abscess heals. I’d say they cost more than any shoes I ever bought, except I have some really nice cowboy boots.

I was relieved that she got him to pick up both front feet to get cleaned and treated. He let her put the boots on, too. They will stay until Monday, when the farrier comes. It took him a while to adjust, but I think this will help him. Now he just needs to shed all that long hair. He’s so hot!

They will never be this clean again. They are also reflective!

Drew was acting less weird today, but I was very glad to get her to look at him. He just hasn’t been himself with all that snapping and kicking. Plus today he had blood on his legs. He’s been getting into something!

Quickly, Tarrin figured out his neck hurt. He had a huge knot in it. No wonder he didn’t like being groomed or having his mane brushed. She worked hard on this neck, and even Lee could see him relaxing.

She then had him stand on the special pads that are supposed to make him feel better. He kept pawing at them and sniffing them. We don’t know what that meant. But he seemed less tense and grouchy. I’m interested to see how he is tomorrow when I groom him and pay special attention to his neck.

I sure am glad I have such a good trainer who cares about my animals. The horses have certainly benefited! Me, too!

I’d give her real flowers if I could. It’s Field Madder (*Sherardia arvensis*) and is tiny.

There’s a lot to be thankful for, even if I don’t get all my chores done every day. Those clothes are waiting patiently.