Travel Report – Page 18 – The Hermits' Rest

Birds and Babes

Today I’m starting off with the birds, because even though I had limited bird time today, I got a lot of fun sights and sounds in.

I think the cardinals are posing. They’re everywhere, flapping and chirping.

The most dramatic sight was watching the red-tailed hawk get chased off her perch by a crow (I say “her” because the hawk is very large). I got some good photos and turned a couple of the live ones into little movies.

The start

More pestering

Hawk is annoyed

The other birds, meanwhile were just all a-flutter. The Harris’s sparrows were really busy, but there were 8 other kinds in the mix. I also enjoyed a couple of wrens and house finch groups that weren’t at all shy. It was fun! But I had to leave.

Babes?

I left home to go to Plano to see baby Ruby, who is actually a two-year-old chatterbox now. I also went to see Pouri and Elmira/Ellie, my Persian “sister” and bonus daughter. I miss them a lot, because they’ve always welcomed me and treated me so kindly. It feels so great to feel unconditional love!

I’m not that tall. My shoes have hidden heels I think.

I really enjoyed the party, because Ellie and Jimmy have such nice friends and families and wow, all the children there were so happy and fun to watch. They just played like crazy and the parents were so good at soothing and redirecting when needed. I was impressed.

This little girl cooked and cooked on this excellent play kitchen that makes cooking noises.

The best thing was the bouncy house in the back yard. Those little ones were filled with joy and energy and had a blast. All but one were girls and no one screeched!

Proof I bounced.

The little boy is Ellie’s nephew and as cute as he can be. Watching him play with the toy ice cream shop and car wash was so much fun for me. He’s a little engineer or scientist in the making.

Ruby and the ice cream shop toy. It’s very clever.

I’d have felt jealous or sad since I don’t get to hang out with grandkids much, but Pouri let me pretend to be a grandmother, so I just sat and smiled at the cuteness.

I did end up passing in a few of the things I’d have given to my grandkids to Ellie and Jimmy, with all my love. I gave a Peter Rabbit cup and saucer my dear stepmom had given Declan with intentions to pass them to his children. He said it’s fine to pass them on. I also gave Ellie my three beautiful story books of different cultures that had been my mother’s as a child. They are now almost 100 years old. I think Ruby will enjoy the beautiful illustrations and the Japanese haiku.

There was crying involved in that exchange but mostly it was very satisfying to see the thoughtful and engaging gifts that the little ones had so much fun with. There was lots of food and role playing stuff, all things any preschool child would enjoy.

I also enjoyed the cake. Dang, the kids all took turns nicely, really loved singing English and Persian birthday songs, and were patient with problematic candles. Everyone just laughed, including when Ruby steadily picked individual sprinkles off the cake. She likes sprinkles a lot. This was such a low-stress event.

I came back to the same hotel I usually stay at, walked around by a creek, and enjoyed some quiet knitting time. I enjoyed my day being an honorary grandma and seeing my friends.

I got a reindeer party favor because there were extras. I made her a collar. It says Vixen. That was my childhood reindeer toy’s name. Ellie sent carrots home with each toy (technically a caribou).

Not a City Girl

What cities do you want to visit?

Today’s question made me pause. Yes, there are cities I’d like to see, especially old cities and ones with beautiful settings. But I’ve become more comfortable in the past few years admitting that urban life doesn’t fascinate me. I don’t like crowds, filth, and blatantly obvious dichotomies between wealth and poverty.

Yes, cities can be beautiful and have many cultural riches. But seeing all the homeless people, hungry children, violence, and addiction right next to the beauty is hard on me. Of course, hiding on my property doesn’t make that stuff go away, but it’s not right in front of me. Here I can find ways to help others as much as I can and not cry all the time or rant powerlessly about injustice.

Most people I know do what they can to help others. I wish some of the people who actually have the means to make a dent in inequality and the policies that encourage it would do so.

Where was I? Anyway, I’d like to visit cities where it’s safe to do so as a woman, but then I’d like to visit the countryside, forests, deserts, lakes, and wilderness around those cities. I want to see the ways people live, learn their crafts, observe the wildlife, and experience the planet. I want to return to where my ancestors walked in Europe and Scandinavia, then just keep heading east until I’m stopped. Then I’d go to Canada and stay there.

Or I can stay here and look for what blooms in the bleak midwinter. Henbit (*Lamium* *amplexicaule*).

I don’t have enough time left to see most of what I’d like to see, and my partner won’t fly. But I’ll figure out something.

If this was a garbled mess, forgive me. My head is all mushy and my neck is sore from what I don’t know.

Daily Bird

I’m voting for the red-tailed hawk today. I finally captured one in Merlin Bird ID today, which is weird, since normally they’re the most common hawk around here. They’re easy to ID by sight and sound (once you compare their call to the red-shouldered hawk).

All this year I’ve been seeing and hearing red-shouldered hawks, which are similar looking. I saw one high in a tree yesterday, then very close in our willows today. Too bad picking up the phone to take a picture made it fly off. Still, I got to watch it a long time, and it finally screeched for me.

Often there’s a hawk on practically every telephone pole this time of year, but not so much here this year. I haven’t been to Austin to check, but I’ll look in Dallas tomorrow.

What’s That Glow?

There’s a certain glow here at the ranch house, and it’s not a tree or a menorah. Nor is it the glow of my cheeks from hanging out in the woods listening to birds.

The glow is from the uranium in the gift from my spouse that was procured today. Yep.

There really wasn’t much going on here today, but since we’re going out of town Monday, we didn’t want to camp. So we went for a drive and ended up in scenic Waco, Texas, an hour north of us (though we wandered around to get there.

Now, it’s not like nothing happened. I did my nails. Reindeer Whisperer and a bow.

When we got to Waco we bypassed all tourist attractions, even the ones I like (mammoth remains, cute zoo, wetland park) and just explored different neighborhoods from poor to gentrifying to comfortable to fancy ones by the lake.

I guess it’s pretty sad that my first highlight of the trip was eating at Bush’s Chicken. It’s my favorite, crunchy on the outside and hit and juicy in the inside. Plus there’s fried okra.

After we ate, Lee decided he wanted to go to an antique store, so searched out the closest one. It was a good idea.

We went to an old neighborhood with lots of restored houses, where Show and Tell Antiques is located. (Link is to Facebook page.) This place is great fun for antique lovers and those interested in old houses in need of restoration.

I was too busy looking at stuff in every nook and cranny to take pictures but loved the old kitchen and bathrooms in the 1908 house built for a Doctor Pepper founder (another Waco claim to fame).

Check out that stove and floor in the kitchen!

This place is extra cool. Since I love glassware and china, I had a blast. I also enjoyed talking to family members, who shared lots of history and may have been making sure we didn’t shoplift.

I was amazed at this collection of very old needlework magazines, which I did not get, because, well, I already have a lot of this kind of thing.

I honestly wasn’t going to get anything until I saw two tiny purple hobnail glass containers, probably for matches or toothpicks. They are just perfect t for my window display of purple glass in my bathroom.

Then I went in a dark corner under the stairs. What did I see? Vaseline glass. Not fake. And by gosh there were things shaped like logs. Even the little legs on the items looked like tree stumps.

So, if you aren’t a collector of art glass, you might not know how cool this Vaseline glass (with bonus opalescence) is. It has uranium in it! I know a couple of collectors with many interesting pieces that I’ve enjoyed looking at, but I never had anything. This little set is so perfect for a nature lover…I glowed with love.

The log is a sugar bowl and the pump is a creamer, I learned. By the way, it’s safe to display.

Lee thinks I’m weird but got it for me as a Yule gift, a bit early. We didn’t get much bargaining, but I was ok with it. I’ve checked the prices online. You can pay more or less. But look, it glows in black light!

Now I feel extra justified in buying that black light flashlight!

I’m not sure where I’ll put the little keepsakes. I have them in my bedroom but they disappear against the yellow walls. I’ll put them I. My corner hutch, where I can see them from bed, perhaps. But this pleased me a lot. I always wanted some Vaseline glass, but never found exactly what I wanted. It was this. (The set is not particularly uncommon but not overly plentiful either—it was made by Northwood probably in the early twentieth century.)

As a bonus, I got to enjoy clouds and the sunset on the way home. So good. The sun also glows with scary rays, so it fits!

Daily Bird

It was rather quiet this morning when I went out, but I ended up with 38 birds heard, and some great viewing experiences. The two owls at the top of the post were impressive, but I also enjoyed watching the antics of a teeny red-eyed vireo. But the bird of the day is one I hadn’t heard here until today, the red-breasted nuthatch.

I didn’t see this one, but I heard it. I saw one in Buescher State Park, though, and it was cute as heck going up and down a tree. I’m fond of birds that climb like that, like the brown creeper.

I’ll remember today for so many reasons!

International Day of Peaceful Rationality

Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.

Today’s prompt made me think, especially in light of all my efforts at bringing peace into my soul the past few days. I’d love a holiday that encourages people to sit back and drop their antagonistic thoughts toward “the other” for a day and work together to create sensible, rational solutions to the issues that conspire to keep all of us from having the chance to live meaningful, productive lives.

I saw a belted kingfisher and a bunch of fish jumping today!

I predict my holiday could lead to arguments over the meaning of peace and the relevance of rationality. But I can dream, can’t I?

Some of us live in peace and safety, like this little buck. Most of us live in a world full of deer feeders fattening us up to feed someone else.

I’m cynical today. Sometimes the news makes you feel even less optimistic than others. And this is after hiding in the woods for a few days. I’m still in the woods, but it was a long work day. I’m happy my office setup works so well. It’s really freeing to be able to work anywhere you have bandwidth.

I’m ready to get home and take care of the animals myself. I hope Apache’s new meds arrived and will work out. I hope humans work things out, too, but I’m betting on the horse.

What’s your holiday?

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.

The gang, minus Joanna and Tom, cause she has to preach tomorrow.

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!

Rolling Off to Bastrop County Again

The weather should be glorious for the next few days, so we’ve decided to spend longer than usual out in the motorhome. That’s made possible by the fact that we also brought my car so Lee can attend a meeting back home and we both can explore this area a bit.

We barely fit both vehicles in, but we did it!

This shady woodland is in Buescher State Park, which is a weirdly shaped area full of trails and scenery. It connects to Bastrop State Park vía a scenic road that I hope to go down tomorrow.

I had fun because I arrived first and got to be the only person in the camping area for a while. It let me really hear the pileated woodpecker singing and pecking away. They are quite noisy birds!

I did a preliminary survey of the plants around the campground. Lots of yaupon and oak, but there are some famous Bastrop County pine trees and others. Not much is blooming after the light frost we had, but I was delighted to find a couple of interesting plants.

This shiny vine is lanceleaf greenbrier, which I’ve looked for often. (*Smilax smallii*)

After my walk, I helped my friend Jen get her trailer unhooked, because her site was too short to fit her camper and her car in without unhooking. We got it done in a fit of woman power and grit. When Lee arrived, I hooked the water up with no dripping, so I’m feeling like a mighty camper.

But I’m not sure if I should go in the restroom. Am I both a woman AND a lady?

Jen and I had nice times chatting and trying to plan a potluck location (none of the cute cabins were available). Then Lee and I spent time with my other favorite co-camper, Mike, with whom I intend to do some good hiking. I earned a lot about AI from him as a bonus.

I’ll enjoy working tomorrow with a view of trees (and no barking dogs to interrupt my recording of myself talking), then get in some exploring. in the meantime, back to knitting by the fake fireplace.

I Took a Break

Yes, I took a break from many things I do constantly, and it felt good! I skipped two days of blogging and knitting, and I am just fine, thank you.

I don’t particularly look fine with one dark lens and one light one!

While it wasn’t a voluntary break, it was blissful to have a lot of time to meditate, listen, and rest for the past few days. You see, I took a blogging break starting last Friday because the place we’ve been all weekend is like most Texas State Parks, and light on cellular connectivity. Once I fired up my hotspot, I was able to do things like upload images to iNaturalist slowly and post a few photos to Facebook.

The knitting issue was my own dang fault. I had forgotten to bring along the two shades of blue I needed for the cold front last week. Indeed, it got cool enough to require blue yarn. So, I had to stop. That’s not the end of the world, since I was almost caught up to the present in my squares. Blah blah blah, knitting talk.

Anyway, Lockhart State Park is a little jewel of a place built by the CCC and WPA, two government programs that provided employment in the Great Depression. Today it would be labeled handouts and frowned upon, no doubt.

There are only 20 camping sites, but the circle we are on has 50 amp electric and sewer hookup, so it’s snazzy. Our view is of a woods and the second hole of the only golf course remaining in a Texas State Park. I doubt they have to mow it very often, judging from the sizable herd of deer that shows up every night.

You may recall that our television antenna was knocked off poor Seneca’s roof. We have a new one but haven’t managed to get it up there, so this was also a television-free weekend, other than watching The World Is Not Enough with Pierce Brosnan last night on BlueRay.

Who needs TV? Plus we got the bedroom slide out! Yay!

So, what have I done? Mostly I walked. I have gone on all but one hiking trail here, madly taking photos of plants, bugs, and such for the 2023 Pollinator BioBlitz. I knew I’d do well on this one, because I had one free weekend at home to record observations, most of a week in South Texas, then this long weekend in Lockhart. At one point this weekend, I was #3 out of over 5,000 people in numbers of observations (this will change as people who use real cameras upload their photos, I’m sure).

There were a few plants that I really enjoyed seeing. New to me was the Texas Feathershank Schoenocaulon texanum. It a beautiful plant, especially when the sun shines through its blossoms. I wish it grew at our place!

Two other wonders are the Texas Kidneywood Eysenhardtia texana and the Bearded Swallow-wort Metastelma barbigerum, two plants with tiny white flowers that I learned more about on this trip. Lockhart is at the northern end of the area these are found in.

Kidneywood is used for dye, as it apparently glows underwater! It also has blossoms that smell intoxicatingly wonderful and are very attractive to pollinators. With its teeny little leaves, it’s a cool small tree to find.

The swallow-wort I saw in south Texas. Here, though, there were huge vines of them, just abuzz with bees and wasps. I think it may be related to milkvines, because the leaves look similar and the seed pods look just like climbing milkvine. Plus, look at those seeds. Sure looks like milkweed! The flowers are teeny-tiny, though, so if they have a cute little pearl in the center, I couldn’t see them.

I did finally find a blooming milkvine, after spotting many with no blossoms. I do love milkweeds.

The most common plants here are the ubiquitous straggler daisy, Texas Indian mallow, and Turk’s cap. There were some lovely vistas of Turk’s cap in the woods, even though you could tell a lot were lost in the drought.

Here are some other plants and insects I found:

My side quest was to see how many birds I could identify. I actually saw quite a few, with the most obliging one being this lovely black vulture, who just grunted at me a couple of times.

Mostly I heard birds on Merlin. There were a couple of obvious errors, but most I could confirm by seeing them. There was even a screech owl! In all, I identified 42 kinds of birds, thanks to the varied terrain here (water birds really like the lovely creek that flows through the park).

I also saw lots of deer in the woods, as well as on the golf course, and one happy armadillo. There was evidence of MANY armadillos here, along with coyotes and raccoons.

The most fun I had (fun is a weird thing for me) was going into the trails at sunset and finding a quiet spot. Then I’d just listen. Sadly, you could always hear traffic way in the background, along with airplanes and a really annoying bulldozer that messed up my listening this morning. But when it was quiet, you could hear the leaves falling off the cedar elm trees, cardinals flying (they are loud fliers), distant crows, and what I figure are deer walking around or armadillos digging.

Of course, in the mornings, it isn’t silent. The wrens, chickadees, blue jays, cardinals, and woodpeckers make quite a racket. And one hawk about burst my eardrums it was so close. Pretty cool.

Back to work, dogs, and horses tomorrow morning! I think I have enough Internet to get work done while Lee gets ready to leave! But we both will remember this quiet, restful respite.

I’m Punting Again (and a salt lake)

What have you been putting off doing? Why?

Ha ha, I thought to myself when I saw this prompt. It’s perfect! I’ve been putting off sharing some cool stuff I learned and saw at the Master Naturalist Annual Meeting. And I have to put things off again after taking 12 hours to get home today. I’m zonked.

Don’t get me wrong! It was because I was having a wonderful time that we took so long! Oh, yes, my smile muscles were hurting.

Because nature is beautiful, says the Couch’s kingbird.

We skipped the end of the conference to go to one of the places I’d learned about in one of my sessions, La Sal Del Rey (the king’s salt). It’s near Edinburgh or San Manuel Linn, Texas.

It’s really an amazing sight, so please visit the link above to read more. We saw animal tracks galore around the lake, and dozens of new birds and mating dragonflies around the nearby freshwater lagoons. Paradise.

My first javelina or ringed peccary. These are native. He was not bothered by us.

Everything sparkles in the sun there from the salt crystals. Awe inspiring. Because of deep exhaustion I’m not going to show you and name all the plants and other wildlife. Here are a few plants and birds, along with scenery of the lake, thorn scrub, and mesquite/prickly pear forest.

Blurry, but my first vermillion flycatcher

I’m so glad I got to finally see South Texas. It’s so different and interesting!

More details later.

Could I Have Had More Fun Today? Not Safely.

Whee. Did I have a good time today! Oh sure. It was time to go to the Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting. This year it’s in McAllen, Texas, way at the bottom of the state. I’ve never been here before, so it’s all new to me! But getting here was ALL the fun.

Rain lilies carpeted the roadside. None of us had ever seen so many.

I am very lucky that I was invited to go with the members of our chapter that I admire most, three natives of Milam County who know everything about the plants AND the people. I love listening to their stories.

We also found a new rain lily type. it’s not found in iNat.

I also love their sense of adventure. If the gals in the front seat saw an interesting plant or a roadkill, we stopped! Then we captured every possible image of the plants on the side of the road. It was so much fun! I found new-to-me plants.

This is a lance leaf blanket flower (*Gaillardia aestivalis*) which was new for me.

One highlight of the trip was the very nice bakery we visited in Schulenberg. I had a deer kolache and a pecan roll. We really enjoyed the story of a steer with three horns they had on the wall.

The next highlight came when we were investigating some plants south of Victoria. A car pulled up in front of ours and a woman jumped out and cried, “It’s Linda Jo Conn!” That’s right, one of our party can be recognized on the side of a road when going 75 mph. She has very white hair.

See, the hair is so lovely and easy to spot.

We had a great time identifying plants with the fellow Master Naturalists from the other car. They were really knowledgeable and nice. What a fun time!

The final highlight of the trip was, believe it or not, the rest area we stopped in. This was the most beautiful and interesting rest area I’ve ever seen. The architecture was sort of Spanish, but not overdone. It’s near Falfurrias on US 281.

The brickwork was fascinating, with patterns and rock accents.

The bathrooms had beautiful tile!

There were all kinds of birds there and many woodsy plants, because the whole place was in an oak grove. I had a blast on the little walking trail, where I found dozens of caterpillars and an ant bed. Whee!

Eventually we made our way to the edge of the US. There are lots of police and border patrol officers. There are lots of palm trees and a pretty tree with white flowers called anacahuita or Mexican olive (Cordia boissieri).

Two of our group went to a state park on the border to find moths. I’m not comfortable doing that. Plus I’m extra tired. So my other friend and I walked around a bit and I got a pair of shoes. I’d totally soaked mine traipsing around in ditches to photograph plants. They are drying now.

Tomorrow will also be fun!