Weather Report – Page 16 – The Hermits' Rest

Today Was a Proper Camping Day

After yesterday’s constant precipitation, today came as a very welcome change. It was nice and sunny, as well as pleasantly cool. I was ready to get in some exploration of Lake Whitney State Park!

The lake looks way better in the sunshine.

The first thing I did was head back to the Two Bridges Trail for a birdwatching walk. It was led by two fellow Master Naturalists who claimed to be amateurs but have lots of experience.

I think they thought I was weird, but they said I could share their picture with one of the oldest trees in the park.

We had a very good time, even if we didn’t see or hear too much exciting bird action. I learned much about the park and lake. The lake is only about a foot deep, for the most part!

There are vitex trees here, and no one knows how they got there!

The walk ended on a triumphant note when I heard a male painted bunting then actually spotted it. I got a great look with my binoculars and even got this blurry yet identifiable photo.

In the same clump of trees, a Nashville warbler appeared. I’d been hearing them, but this was my first sighting. We felt quite successful.

On the way back, I saw a guy walking down the road who had three cameras and binoculars. I stopped to tell him about the birds and he laughed. The other two had just told him, as well. I guess bird lovers stick together.

When I got back, I sat by the RV and hung out with Lee for a while. I heard an unusual bird, so I turned on Merlin. It was the summer tanagers! We quickly figured out they were close. Sure enough, we got to enjoy great views of both the male and female! He’s solid red and she’s pale yellow. Whew, that’s a lot of bird excitement for one morning.

After lunch I headed out again so I could check out the other trail. It’s called the Towash Forest Trail, but there’s not much forest. Towash is the town that’s now under the lake.

I must say the scenery left a lot to be desired. The first part interested me, because I could see old fences, and trees were all lined up as if they used to be along a fence. I think that part of the trail used to be the road leading to Towash.

Most of the trail went along the lake. There were small trees but lots of dewberries and grapevines. Of course, there were insects. There were disturbing numbers of caterpillars and butterflies, along with a new friend, the bird grasshopper. They were flying off in front of me, just like the butterflies were. I even saw a Gulf fritillary and a black swallowtail but they avoided my camera.

These were all over the evening primrose

Yes, there were birds. There weren’t too many, but I did enjoy finding a flock of coots, watching Scissortail catch a bug, and startling a spotted sandpiper. Again, there were lots of egrets.

Later, after some lovely rest, I couldn’t control my nature-loving self and I blazed through the trees behind our campsite to find the lake we can barely glimpse. It was worth it. This inlet is very natural and beautiful. I saw so many shore birds, ducks, and others!

Having just dozed off, I’m pretty sure I should stop typing. But it was a great day in nature. Ahh.

Damn Damp

Yep. It started raining last night and it’s still raining. It’s also pretty cold. I did not bring the correct clothing on this camping trip. Things have not gone as planned, so we were flexible. We went for a drive.

This reminded me of the Irish coast with the gray skies and bright yellow flowers (gorse).

We went to the other side of Lake Whitney and drove around a Corps of Engineers park, Walling Bend. It wasn’t fancy but was pretty in a disheveled way.

We saw a baptism going on, with mariachi music. Then we drove around a neighborhood looking for houses for sale. Ha ha. It may have been the scariest white supremacist neighborhood I ever drove through. I was glad to be wearing a reddish hat and that there’s a US flag, sorta, on the back of the Jeep. We were incognito.

I did get to go on a half hour walk, in which I managed to see a hummingbird and flock of cattle egrets. Lots more gulls were out. They’re used to being wet.

Most flowers looked pretty sad, but this wild onion looked great.

I guess the good news is that it’s really quiet at the campground! Everybody is inside avoiding all the lightning. Good news is that it should dry out tomorrow. I hope! I really want to hike some more.

Mushrooms like damp. I didn’t find any morels like many of my friends did today (on the east coast).

Other than that excitement, Lee cooked another meal on his George Foreman grill, which seems pretty handy, and we finished watching the show Wednesday, which we started yesterday. I’m glad they still make DVDs for us non-streamers. We enjoyed the show very much. The writing was great.

If it keeps raining, we’ll go back home. Of course, it rained there today, too. I’m dying to try the weird liquid meals Kathleen has to eat to perk up her liver. They’ll probably make me gag, too. Misery loves company, though.

Plus, another row of temperature blanket is fine, with much rain. You can see it’s warming up a bit.

Birds Come to Mind

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

Well, of course birds are the first thing that comes to mind, since I saw and heard at least 50 today. That’s not bad for a day in which I also worked a lot!

Vultures waited patiently for me to come out and play.

Lake Whitney State Park is a birder’s paradise right now. Well, probably all of Texas is during spring migration. I heard so many warblers that my head was ringing. And lots of painted buntings, who finally graced me with visual sightings. The summer tanagers are still hiding, but I have time.

My mousy buddies, the grackles, were also here.

I enjoyed a midday break by hiking the Two Bridges Trail, which wound through lovely wildflowers and woods with very old oaks (live oaks and post oaks I think). There were, in fact, two bridges.

I also finally got to see the lake, which is quite wild and natural looking. It’s probably prettier with blue skies, but we got clouds and nice cool weather.

The trees were beautiful, too. Here are just a few I saw around the park today.

The thing I saw most of, other than plants, were butterflies and caterpillars. I felt like royalty walking down the path as the butterflies scattered upon my approach. Make way for the Queen! Mostly it was orange sulphurs and red admirals. I have no idea what most of the caterpillars are, because I haven’t had time to ID them.

Before I share flowers, I want to show you the family of young armadillos I saw. They were having a grand time jumping around and pouncing on bugs. It was so fun to watch them.

What’s not fun is that I can’t share photos of wildlife I safely observe from a distance without people being compelled to inform me that they carry germs that cause diseases. I do know that. I don’t hug and kiss them, nor any deer that might have ticks, or potentially rabid skunks and raccoons.

Happy babies

Why were there four armadillo, you ask? Well, their females always give birth to four identical babies. Interesting!

Of course, I saw some flowers, including some new ones for me. That’s always fun. Here are a few.

I got all this done while feeling a bit under the weather! We just relaxed all evening and watched a television show, Wednesday, all evening. That may explain why I’m too tired to look up names for things!

Maybe I’ll Ride Again!

What’s the most fun way to exercise?

No surprises here! I find riding horses to be the most fun way to exercise. That’s followed by grooming and feeding horses. (I also like hiking.) Now, I’m not doing a lot of riding right now, since Apache’s feet are healing and Drew is still “off.”

Today, Droodles headed off to the fancy vet in Bryan, because Tarrin said she’s not seeing the results we need with just the rehab they’ve been doing at her facility. I completely agreed, because his health is my first priority, whether being ridden or not.

He went with friends, including Tarrin’s very large personal horses, and Vapor, who’s been in rehab, too.

I was very impressed with how the vet evaluated Drew. He would manipulate Drew’s hindquarters then see how he trotted. It became clear that his left stifle, which is equivalent to a knee in a horse, was the problem. Drew made that clear.

After all this, Drew was taken inside for X-rays. We had his head looked at, too, to be sure his kick didn’t damage him. The vet was pretty sure the issue wasn’t Drew’s back, but they wanted to be sure.

Bonus shot: you can see his more gray mane coming in.

The X-rays showed that his head is good, and best of all, so is his spine! I saw it myself. Nice spacing. But, there’s something called synovitis, swelling on his stifle, which is like arthritis. Well, that sounds painful!

So, he got injections in his spine and stifle (I am not sure what they are) that should make him feel better until the swelling is down, which should be soon. He has a medication for equine arthritis called Adequan. Once he’s on that and gets the inflammation cycle under control, he won’t need injections again until he’s old, we hope.

Regan takes care of drugged Drew. He’s very relaxed after his X-rays and meds.

Whew. I think this will do the trick. Droodles will stay at Tarrin’s so she can administer the first doses of Adequan (by the way, $$$). He can come home in two weeks! And we should be able to resume lessons and such. Back to my favorite form of exercise!

I just hope he feels a lot better. What happened to him is the result of being ridden extensively as a two-year-old, poor guy.

Other Stuff

I picked up my Costco glasses after the vet was done. I got one wild and one mild. I love the red ones, even if my family is iffy on them. The black ones look all sedate, but I just noticed that on the sides, there are holographic stars and logo. Ha!

I didn’t get home until late, because I had to do a work meeting in the car (I have no backup) and then ran into a bad storm. Another one is about to hit. We need the rain, even if it messes with my horse schedule.

I did get to go out and enjoy birds between storms. The sparrows entertained as usual.

Best of all, I looked up to see a flock of…birds…fly right over my head. They looked like sea or shore birds, so maybe they’re the sandpipers I keep hearing as they pass through. Hmm. A mystery.

Another mystery: what causes all the white flowers along our road? These should be purple.

Thanks for reading all my veterinarian details. As I often do, I blogged this so I won’t forget it.

Can I Eclipse the Eclipse?

I know that people not in the parts of North America who didn’t see a total solar eclipse today are sick of hearing how awesome the one today was. And I admit that, having seen the annular eclipse last October I was pretty blasé about it.

Who could be blasé about this? Photo by my friend Jeff Tveraas. He has a good camera.

But, awesome is the right word. I was in awe during totality and couldn’t decide what was more fascinating, the corona and visible flares or how dark it got. The solar pool lights came on and I could see stars. Now only the aurora borealis remains on my weather bucket list.

We had to watch from my house, because I now have to take tomorrow off work. I can’t lose two days of pay, since I’m a contractor. But I think we got longer totality at home than where I was going to go.

To commemorate the big event, I did a project where I tried to photograph every flower blooming today. I missed the ground cherries by the horse pens because the rain arrived just as I was trying to feed. Didn’t want to ruin the phone! But, for your pleasure, here they are. I’ll break them up by color. Let’s start with white.

On to yellow. There’s always lots of yellow.

Let’s see what we have that’s pink.

Is there anything orange? Red?

Since blue flowers mostly look purple to me, I’ll put those two together.

This may not outshine the eclipse, but 32 types is sure a lot of interesting flowers (and insects). Thanks for indulging me.

By the way, the birds were indeed quiet during the eclipse totality, and I heard my first dickcissel of the year today. Auspicious!

Avian Visitors

It was another pleasant spring day, the kind that makes you forget you live in the land of unbearable summers. Since my dear spouse isn’t big on doing anything involving leaving the premises before noon these days, I had the morning all to myself. After I fed the chickens, I looked over at the horse pens and saw a white bird land on the ground.

I wondered what a great egret would be doing over there rather than by a pond/tank. As I walked closer, I realized the bird wasn’t alone.

Once I saw how many there were, I realized it must be time for a cattle egret visit. They show up at least once a year. Upon closer inspection I could see the color on their heads, which confirmed who the visitors were.

Later I saw them with the cattle, but they’re gone now.

I’m still here, even though you didn’t share pictures of me earlier in the week. This is my adoration of the pretzel bag face.

Most of the day I spent reading, which is such a luxury, and going to Costco to order a couple more pairs of eyeglasses. I got one intellectual black pair, and one funky red pair. No more online glasses for me. They just don’t work out real well.

I’ve been enjoying this period of peace, calm, and equanimity. Living in the moment is easier on days like today.

Speaking My Truth

What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?

I often wish I were better at expressing myself, especially in the heat of the moment, when under stress, or when surprised by an unexpected turn of events. These are the situations in which I tend to do a particularly poor job of expressing what I want to say or reacting gracefully. I also, conversely, tend to get too lax with my words when I’m feeling very relaxed or comfortable. I can then make jokes that don’t go over well or say things I intend as friendly that I later find out were interpreted as rude or condescending. Yuck.

It’s easy to be misinterpreted and also easy to misinterpret others. That’s why I attempt to assume people have good intentions when something awkward comes out of their mouths, and ask for clarification.

This Texas vervain says let’s slightly change the subject.

Speaking of misinterpretation, I may have mentioned hearing weird sounds in the woods lately. First I heard some while camping, but then I started hearing eerie sounds like a sad animal calling out.

It was a spooky day in the woods, anyway.

The sounds were happening this morning, so I bravely decided to go find the source. As I got closer, I kept seeing icky worms, tent moth caterpillars, and slimy mushrooms. The wind was also howling and it was very cloudy.

The caterpillars are jumping around in there

Eventually I got to where I could tell where the sound was coming from. And from that spot, Merlin Bird ID finally piped in and said it heard a crow. Earlier, no ID was given for the sound, which had made me think it was an animal. I looked up and saw I was under a large tree. And in that tree was a very large nest. Aha.

I was hearing crow parenting sounds! Eek! I recognized the nest, because I used to see them in Chicago between O’Hare and Schaumburg, when I worked there. There was a large green belt with a huge rookery I loved to observe.

I won’t be quite so creeped out by the sounds from now on and will leave the crows alone to raise future corvids. You just never know what’s out there.

Though today was gusty, I got to see new blossoms in addition to the creepy stuff.

Found where the baby blue eyes are hiding!

Since it was my rest day, I had time to cook a nice meal for family and friends. It was a nice end to the day.

Tomorrow, dental fun. Just a cleaning, but my insurance is messed up. My fault, too.

Fine Weather for a Horse Show

What is your favorite type of weather?

I love a sunny day where you don’t need a jacket but don’t get all sweaty. Today was such a day, as the capricious Texas spring granted us a good one. (By the way, my second favorite weather is a cool mist, which is what I woke up to today).

Even the welding stuff looks good surrounded by mist-covered grass just after sunrise.

Since Sara and I aimed to leave for the first live horse show of the year for our Working Horse Central group, I was up before dawn trying to get Apache ready. He had, of course, slept in mud last night. So he was both wet and muddy.

I managed to get him back to mostly the correct colors and got lots more hair off him. I tried to bathe him a bit, but whoever coiled my hose up last time the grass was mowed created a tangle I cannot solve. I need to fix my horse bathing situation. I’m glad Apache was a good sport about it.

As you can see, he ended up looking white on his rump, miraculously.

The beautiful weather contributed to the most pleasant horse show experience I ever had. Each and every human and horse showed great improvement, to our collective delight. It was young Maizy’s first show, and she did way better than she expected on a borrowed horse. Good for her!

Love this picture with the horse totally unfazed by the rope. Believe me, my roping didn’t look that good.

Sara and Aragorn had their best show ever. He seems to feel much better on the same medication Apache is on, plus another. He was a cantering rockstar! And every other task he was asked to do went as well as he could possibly do. Hard work pays off! It was a joy to watch them and to see Sara’s smiles.

The experienced riders were so great to watch. I learn so much from them! I’m the least experienced, even though two participants were teens. That’s why I don’t compare myself to the others and just hope to improve!

I didn’t get any photos of Kate, who went before me, because I was always in my horse waiting for my turn, but she’s such a great horsewoman and the horse she rode was just gorgeous. She showed me how the things Apache and I did were supposed to look. Ahhh…

Of course we got to visit poor Drew in Reform School. Apache seemed glad to see him and called to him whenever I returned him to his stall.

As for our performance, both Apache and I were a lot calmer than we’d been before, which meant we did some things well. There were also mental lapses by me and Apache oopses as well. The best one was when we were supposed to walk straight down a corridor, stop in front of an obstacle, then back out. Well, the obstacle was a fake Christmas tree, and Apache tried to eat it and pulled it over. I just had to laugh! Of course he did it perfectly in the Agility phase, where form didn’t count.

The fatal moment. We got 3 out of 10 for the tree pulling.

Nonetheless, our trotting was better in all phases, and I exhibited improved handling. That’s what counts, improvement! I’m doing a pretty good job of not beating myself up for not doing better. That’s an improvement, too! See, I can learn.

He and I did pretty well on the last thing, Agility, which is timed. if I hadn’t gone through the gate the wrong way, it would have been spectacular. But we ended up winning that one (out of 2 people) because I let him trot as fast as he wanted to. My Goddess, that was bumpy. My helmet kept falling down, as did my glasses. But it impressed the judge (Tarrin). And I lived, albeit with a headache.

The best part was watching everyone on this beautiful day.

I’m a bit sore from the trotting, but it was worth it. The shoes are a little of work for everyone, but well worth it. I’m grateful for everyone who helped judge, score, set up, and tear down.

Now to collapse.

Extra Springy

Today was truly a spring day. The weather kept changing from intense fog to sun to cloudy to windy…warmer, cooler, you name it.

I felt much like the weather. I was extra productive, deeply tired (thanks to Goldie and all the other dogs sleeping in my bed during storms), energetic, and zonked. In between spurts of creativity I went out and enjoyed the flowers and butterflies for a while.

I managed to brave the very muddy pens to feed the horses and groom Apache, who thankfully was not all muddy or covered in burs. I have to try to get him clean by 8 am tomorrow. Wish me luck. He didn’t help when he stomped on his halter, which meant I had to wash that, too. Sigh. It’s not like I didn’t t have things to do!

The Master Naturalists had a nice, big booth at the Spring Festival in Cameron this afternoon and evening. I was on the second shift, which enabled me to get all my chores done before heading over to the Venue.

We met a good number of folks and did some excellent recruiting. Alan (left in the photo) is great at encouragement, and we got all sorts of people interested in our work. Cindy of Bird and Bee Farm talked a lot about turkeys, and I think she convinced a guy to get some for his big ranch. That would be cool.

The best part of the evening was finally introducing Lee to a couple of my Master Naturalist friends. I hope he liked them. The other part that made it a great time was just sitting around and talking to Chapter members outside of a meeting setting. They’re such an interesting group of people and so good to each other. We marveled at how fortunate we are to have found so many compatible folks in this sparsely populated county. In these times, that’s really great.

Yes, I enjoyed all aspects of today’s extra springy events. Life is pretty good in our little town.

Rainy Rain That Is Wet

I had a fun day of hiking and birding activities planned for today. However, it rained starting around 1:30.

We brought everything in on time. Well, Lee did.

Luckily I’d gone out earlier, when the skies were blue and the temperatures perfect. I enjoyed the short nature trail nearby, which had signs by all the different types of trees. They’d be more interesting with leaves, but the spring season seems about two weeks behind Milam County.

Trees. Some exemplars are no longer there due to bad weather up here.

I found a few fun things, such as my favorite spring beauties and some excellent fungi. One thing I found I’m still not certain what type of organism it is.

I headed over to the equestrian camping area, where there were zero equestrians, to meet up with the quite fun park interpreter and a volunteer. There was supposed to be a guided hike. However, there was advance notice of the thunderstorms coming, so it got cancelled.

I did enjoy talking to the two women about working at the park and met another camper. But, I briskly walked back (making my exercise goal). Rain didn’t start until I had Seneca the motorhome in sight, so I got every minute of outdoor time I could!

It turned out that the rain and lightning slowed down around 3, so I donned my rain boots and got out the golf umbrella for a walk around the camping loop. I am not used to sitting around for long periods!

I did, however, enjoy a nice long nap! How decadent. Otherwise Lee worked on a photo album and I wrote up all my Master Naturalist notes and knitted. Of course, I ran out of a color. Sigh. The next skein of lime green is sitting on my desk at home.

Never fear, I came as prepared for crafts as I did for rain, so there’s more yarn here. While watching a movie, I started a boring yet practical little bag to hold my phone when we’re on the road. The truck chassis has no helpful pockets or holders other than a cup holder, in which I tend to put cups, of all things.

It doesn’t look like much, but it’s bright.

I’m glad it should be drier tomorrow, because we only get three TV channels here and the cell signal probably isn’t good enough to stream. I’ll go on that hike tomorrow in the mud!