Weather Report – Page 19 – The Hermits' Rest

Oh Goody, I’m Still Here, Even though I Skipped Christmas

I skipped yesterday because I just spent the day cooking and being with my current nuclear family. I’m proud I didn’t spend any money on gifts this year or on commercial aspects of American Xmas. I just didn’t want to be all consumerist like I used to be. I did give my son and his partner the thermal stitch hot pads I’d made, though. I hope to take Anita on a trip next year as a gift.

We can fly away, like this red-shouldered hawk.

I didn’t even buy any food for dinner. I cooked a giant pork loin that was in the freezer. Half of it will magically reappear at New Year’s. I made dressing with bread cubes leftover from Thanksgiving and served vegetables and cranberry sauce I already had in the pantry. So there! The meal was just fine, and the conversation, laughter, and low stress among our group was marvelous. Success.

I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day looking at birds, which I did a lot of today, too. I saw pairs of kingfishers and caracaras, which makes me hope they are nesting. And today I got to watch a flock of chickadees eating at the stand of trees near the creek bridge. They are so comical. I heard them make a song I’d never heard them make before, too.

A day off really goes fast if you spend much of it watching little peeping things, and before I knew it, the time for a horse lesson had come. Droodles got to go again, since Apache was on sick leave. He was much better today about bur removal and seemed in better spirits, like his old friendly self.

Not Drew, but fun chickadees.

Speaking of much better, when Sara pulled up with her trailer and Aragorn, all the horses got excited. I enjoyed watching Mabel and Dusty gallop up to the pens, calling out. But after they stopped, I still heard thundering hooves. It was Apache! There he was cantering at great speed to check things out. He didn’t look very lame at all! Maybe his abscess has burst. I’ll check first thing tomorrow, since it was too dark when I got home to look, but he was walking normally. Yay! I may have both my horses back available to ride!

We will be out stabbing our poles at that bull again in no time. (Setting sun lit up the trees.)

Drew’s lesson showed he’s feeling better, but a bit out of shape. There was some huffing and puffing in his part, which looked so endearing. I enjoyed watching Tarrin work with him and got to ride a bit myself, which I was glad for, since riding makes my back feel better. Aragorn is also making some great progress as well. I enjoy watching Sara’s lessons. We each benefit from what the other is learning.

Bonus enjoyment came when we got to watch the sun setting right as the full moon was rising. We all got to enjoy that!

It’s good to be back rambling along.

Nestivus, Parte Dos

Huh? Well. I just noticed that all my blog hits today come from the year we went to an old but comfy condo in Bandera where I enjoyed many deer, cats, and vultures. There, I discussed participating in the invented holiday Nestivus, which is just for introverts who need to recharge from holiday activities.

This entire Christmas season I’m engaging in Nestivus, which requires one to retreat to your refuge and veg, zone out, and nest in comfy clothing, with your furry friends. It’s a great idea, and I’m grateful to the blogger who invented it in 2019. Ah, back when people had fun I. Groups and needed to retreat.

Harvey was happy to Nestivus with Lee when we came home.

I guess someone linked to my old post, which is nice!

Anyway, maybe next year will find me more enthusiastic about decorations, presents, and all those modern Christmas things. Currently I’m advocating for peace on earth and good will to all.

I wish you all the chance to find small things of beauty around you. Isn’t this Texas nightshade berry bright?

It rained a lot at Canyon Lake and the Hermits’ Rest overnight. We came home to the usual results of over two inches of rain: a flooded creek.

I enjoyed listening to birds, checking out the creek and trying to feed filthy horses when we got home. All horses had rolled in mud and burs. Great. But the rain is appreciated and enough of a seasonal gift for me.

Now you know why they call it a flood plain.

Enjoy your Nestivus celebration, when you get the chance to have it, and in the meantime, enjoy family and celebration if that’s happening for you.

Art by Lian Meaney, used with permission.

Fun on a Rainy Day

We were afraid we wouldn’t get to do much today because it was supposed to rain a lot. So I did my nails and relaxed this morning, but I really wanted to do something outdoors since I’m here in such a pretty part of Texas.

Lee opined that we could at least go for a ride so we traveled along the Devil’s Backbone and looked at lots of scenery and lovely ranches. E stopped for coffee in Wimberley, where of course I was not encouraged to get out and buy any art or boutique items. Hmph.

On our way back we really took back roads and hugged the lake. It stopped raining, so we got out and explored one of the boat ramps on Canyon Lake. All the ramps are closed however. The lake is only 60% full, thanks to the dry summer, so the docks end on rocks and shells of evil Mediterranean clams.

I had a great time finding new plants and familiar ones in their winter disguises.

This is apparently *Pediomelum latestipulatum* or Texas Plains Indian Breadroot

Mostly though, I enjoyed the sounds of many water birds that were on the lake. There were gadwalls, coots, mallards and the wigeons, which make such cool sounds. I saw a kingfisher and a kestrel, too. We had a great time.

Gray lake with ghost trees. There used to be a town under the lake.

I found things blooming and growing amidst the grayness.

The ride home was fun. We found a whole area with houses made of shipping containers, which were very creative. There were many other fun houses along the lake ranging from old to new and small to huge. Plus there was a lot of wildlife. We saw a beautiful fox (no photos, but it had a gorgeous tail) and many lovely deer.

After enjoying football we are ready to head back to the animals tomorrow. I look forward to coming back to this area in the fall for the Master Naturalist annual meeting if not sooner.

We are at top left. Renovated room but not very comfy. Great staff, though!

Holiday Traditions Are Few This Year

Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

If they are referring to the winter holidays, like the Solstice or Christmas, then there’s only been one constant since my children were little, and that’s to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We used to eat them while opening gifts.

Something cheerful: Vlassic running at sunset.

For many, many reasons I’m not doing much for Christmas this year. It’s going to be a hard one for much of my family, and I’m not feeling very celebratory. I’m just going to go somewhere with Lee, if we can get someone to feed dogs and medicate Apache.

Speaking of horses, I caught Drew and Fiona being friendly today.

If not, I’ll stay home and eat cinnamon rolls then cook a meal for the same people I cooked Thanksgiving for. Maybe I’ll make pork loin and correct cranberry sauce. I think there will be small, handmade gifts for people.

You know, I think I just don’t want to do anything religious. I’m not happy with things being done in the name of religion these days, especially the ones stemming from Moses and his tribes. I’m disappointed in wars, book banning, misogyny, religious intolerance, and fundamentalism. All of it.

For the solstice, which at least predates Christmas, there will be candles and maybe a fire if the place we go has a fireplace. I’ll make decorations out of things from the woods and put intentions of peace into them.

It will be fine to skip materialism and shiny things for one year and concentrate on helping struggling loved ones however I can.

Daily Bird

We had some rain today, but it only rained hard briefly. It did quiet the birds down. The daily birds just have to be the European starlings.

As I went out to slog through the puddles to feed the horses, I heard sounds like tiny bells. It was a huge flock of starlings heading off to some field now that the sun was back out. It always amazes me how many there are.

I learned in a magazine that the flocks often contain the local grackles as well. Blackbirds like each other, I guess. I’m never going to love grackles, those resourceful parking lot scroungers with the incredibly annoying whistles, the great-tailed grackles. I’ll work on it.

Oh, Peeves, There Are So Many

Name your top three pet peeves.

Yet, more than once in my life I’ve been called elitist for mentioning some of my peeves. After all, educated folks who know and use standard English are looked at as suspiciously progressive or something.

I won’t put the Latin name for this common buckeye so I’ll seem less snooty.

I’m all for creative use of language, am well aware that language changes constantly. So I am fine with observing new language, even if I never call u bae.

And I don’t even know ow which checkered butterfly this is.

So my peeves are mostly language usage. Not New language, just wrong stuff. Other than number 3 below.

1. Please use the contraction “you’re” when you are shortening “you are.” It’s easy. The word “your” refers to something of yours. Like your ability to spell words even when you’re using autocorrect.

I hope this peevish list doesn’t make me look like one of these.

2. Speaking of apostrophes, (a word with no apostrophes in it, by the way), they aren’t like garnish on top of salads that you sprinkle wherever they look cute. You do not pluralize nouns by adding ‘s. Nope. If there’s more than one item, you add a plain letter “s” unless the word ends in an s or z sound. The. You add “es” with no apostrophe. Even people’s NAMES are pluralized that way! Lee and I are Kendalls and Brunses. Now if we own something? Stick an apostrophe in there! Ms. Kendall’s pet peeves are a great example.

3. Ooh, ooh! I have another one to add to my apoplectic elitist frenzy of prescriptivism! There is a recent trend to take perfectly innocent nouns and make them into some kind of cutesy verbs. Like:

What are you gifting this year? It’s the time of year to gift and gift some more!
What’s your favorite way to morning? Coffee, of course.
It’s time to football!

I think it started with things like weekending and breakfasting and has just kept spreading.

4. It’s versus its. At least this one’s harder. But in this one case, the apostrophe is only for smooshing two words together and not for possession. So I get it that it’s hard to get its nuances.

Enough of that. Today was a fine day with much sunshine, pleasant coolness, and many butterflies. As you can see, I got a few photos, but I saw many more, plus a caterpillar I can’t identify.

Daily Bird

Today, since it was sunny and not very windy, there were lots of birds to enjoy. I counted eight types of sparrows! But the bird I enjoyed the most was the hermit thrush. It’s hard to resist a bird who shares a name with your ranch.

Today’s thrush was skulking in the big brush pile that was created last year in the woods, and it was chupping up a storm. it even drowned out a very vocal wren. I saw it a couple of times, but like the pipits, it looks a lot like a little brown bird that’s hard to distinguish without binoculars. I’m glad I know what it sounds like.

I have to admit that once again I heard a cool “bird,” then sheepishly remembered we do have a few squirrels out here.

So Much to Be Happy About

It really was a great day today. I don’t think the weather could have been better, all the animals were happy, and people were nice, too. This was the kind of day I’d hoped to have when I was a kid thinking about when I grew up.

Plus I saw this Queen butterfly on a vitex bush at the local coffee shop.

All my meetings were pleasant today, with good conversation and productivity. I finished a tedious task so now I can look forward to more fun work next week. I even sort of enjoyed a lot of tedious copying and pasting to make a list of every tag ever used in my Master Naturalist blog. Dang.

Lunch break was at the coffee shop with Anita, where I had a great coffee and huge salad. We listened to Chris the owner’s spouse talk about music and our mutual love of Ruidoso, New Mexico. Then we got all our talking in. We get to hang out again tomorrow, because I’m going Thanksgiving shopping with her tomorrow (Lee won’t grocery shop on weekends). What a nice break!

Birds flying to their roost at sunset. Cries I think. Or vultures.

After finishing work I enjoyed working with the horses. Drew even let me get some burs off the front of his head! the key was doing it while he ate. Tomorrow I’ll work on it more. But being out with them in the perfect weather was just ideal.

All this, and there were still more burs on him.

Finally, I went to a “hat bar” thing that my friend Courtney held at her store. I enjoyed watching the young woman who decorated the hats and had fun designing one for myself. She put a pansy on it for me.

The snacks were unique. They featured a huge armadillo sculpted out of cream cheese and filled with ham dip. It was ultra realistic and took folks a while to get up the courage to break into it. Whoever made it is talented!

Most interesting dip sculpture I ever saw

Anyhow, the hat thing was fun, though I felt sort of old and in the wrong social group (it was mostly the fashionable young women of town). But there were a couple women over 50, plus two people I knew.

Courtney did some hat burning, too, and was really proud of her leopard spots. She has to be good at it, since half the items in the store are leopard print (note shoes on customer in photo).

I had lots of fun with my friend Jenecia, who was in my Master Naturalist class with me. I hardly ever see her when she isn’t working one of her many entrepreneurial ventures, so getting to just laugh and catch up was nice.

I had more fun helping her find materials for her hat than mine, and it came out so cute!

My hat had a theme of matching Drew’s tack, as if I’ll wear a hat when working with him. But it’s going to go with lots of my clothing.

And as if the day couldn’t end any better, I walked outside to see all the pretty lights in the town square. Every day Cameron gets a little better.

There. Just wanted to share a good, full day of friends and fun.

Daily Bird

Today’s bird is the belted kingfisher, because I got to enjoy our winter resident as it flew around the front pond today. It seems to make the rounds of the three tanks/ponds near our house, judging from when I hear it. I see it often, too. Kingfishers have such a distinctive shape that they’re easy to spot.

The only other kingfisher I’ve seen is the ringed kingfisher I saw at the National Butterfly Center, which is in the northernmost part of its range.

I like to watch these birds. I can remember the first time I saw one, which was on some river. It must have been in Illinois at the little park by a large creek. I saw it catch a fish! I’ve seen that a few times.

We’re lucky to have one here at the Hermits’ Rest. I think I annoy it by trying to take a photo of it, but it’s because I love it!

Saddles Are Expensive

Name the most expensive personal item you’ve ever purchased (not your home or car).

Since I have had a poor mental health day, I’ll just answer by telling you that horses are expensive to maintain. I’d say the three most expensive things I’ve ever bought that weren’t buildings or vehicles have been the three horse saddles I’ve bought.

That’s the most costly one. Cost 5X as much as the horse (before expensive training).

However, they are comfortable for the horses and beautiful, too. A lot of saving was involved for each. I can also lift them. That’s important for older riders.

The second costliest. This horse was “free.” Now his meds cost more than mine.

No riding today. It’s too muddy. So I walked the horses and pondered a bur removal campaign. At least Apache likes his medicine and asks for me to take burs out (sticks his head in the right position).

This splotchy cow resembles Apache with no burs.

Otherwise, today I heard seven kinds of sparrows and even photographed one, along with turkey vultures and great egrets.

The birds seem to like the damp, cool weather judging by how many were out this morning.

I’m just feeling really weird. Is it anxiety? Too much salty food? Dehydration? Medication side effect? Being an empath? I may get checked tomorrow in case it’s blood pressure or something. I’m not having an emergency, just feeling unbalanced.

It’s Easy to Guess My Favorite Subject in School

What was your favorite subject in school?

It rained and rained and I worked and worked today, so I didn’t have any “adventures” to write about. I was glad to see the blog prompt for today, since it fit in with my day’s activities.

Have you guessed my favorite subject in school? It’s pretty obvious, though after sixth grade there were really two.

Since I have the condition where I’m just driven to write (hypergraphia, self diagnosed), it’s no surprise that I loved English grammar and composition. I still do, though I’ve cut out all the convoluted sentences and polysyllabic vocabulary of my youth, at least in public.

I don’t have any photos from today, so consider these old collages as writing prompts.

There’s nothing I liked better than to be assigned to diagram me some sentences or write a nice, juicy composition. Term papers with lots o’ footnotes were also my idea of fun. In high school the only way I got a boyfriend was to find the guy who liked fancy sentences as much as I did (he’s an English/film studies professor now).

But I did have another passion, which, probably not coincidentally, involved arranging words in certain ways. It was my second love, choral music. I loved how chords worked, harmonies intertwined, and crescendos followed decrescendos. While writing was a solo activity, chorus involved working with others, blending and matching in tone.

I learned a lot about discipline, learning rules so you can later break them, cooperation, and vulnerability through these activities. Sharing your writing and performing in public are not easy until you get a lot of practice and learn to take feedback constructively. (My high school chorus teacher and grad school advisor are still alive and could tell you how much I had to learn in that area.) (Note that there’s still work to be done.)

Thanks for being an audience for my blog. It’s a nice break from job aids and meeting minutes, which I wrote all day today. I’m lucky to have a place to be a “real,” person, not an influencer or manufactured celebrity.

These SoulCollage cards can make you think.

Go out and read some other great blogs by real people! I love learning what I have in common with others, as well as our differences. I learn a lot, and you can, too.

We learn more if we look. Right now looking can be hard.

Work Hard. Get Rewarded.

It’s not often that your hard work gets tangibly rewarded. For my paying work, knowing I’ve done my best and that what I’ve done may help someone is enough. This week I’ve been quite satisfied to get a lot of that kind of work done.

Some hard work feels very unrewarding, but must be done. I’ve suffered through a lot of financial work this week, which may explain while I’m still having anxiety chest pains. But I’ve trimmed some expenses and added money to my 401K. That’s the direction where I want to go!

But tonight I did get a reward. Last week I attained 1,000 volunteer hours with Texas Master Naturalists, which was not easy while working full time and owning horses. My friend who also got the achievement took two fewer years than me! I’m proud of Eric, though. He does great work.

My reward was a gold dragonfly pin. I got bronze for 250 hours and silver for 500. It will be years before I get another one!

So many pins. The colored dragonfly is for initial certification. The enamel pins are for at least 40 volunteer hours and 8 training hours each year. The bottom pins we got for sticking with the program through COVID.

It was nice seeing a full house at tonight’s meeting, with three visitors, even. We enjoyed a great presentation on lichen, where I learned a LOT. I apparently knew very little about lichen. Did you know they are a symbiotic combo of a fungus and algae? And they have a fascinating structure. Now I want to buy a black light flashlight and go out and see which ones glow.

We are getting good rain again tonight. That’s so good for the ponds. It will probably knock those few autumnal orange leaves I found today down. It’s ok. I see birds better that way.

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.