Today after the usual leisurely preparations, we drove down to the Rockport area to camp at Goode Island State Park. I now wish I’d booked it longer, since it will rain tomorrow and be pretty cold Sunday. Nonetheless, I bet we can find ways to see birds and use the cameras! Something other than sparrows! Yes!
Like blurry Pelicans! Only bird I saw before it got dark.
It’s a nice drive here, and I love all the small towns and large oak trees we see. There were birds. Here are “a few” vultures on a tower. The next tower over had zero vultures.
Entering Rockport
We are getting good at setting up the motorhome quickly, which is good, because we lost a half hour of light when the staff at the truck stop we visited to fuel up repeatedly got our ZIP Code wrong or programmed to pay for the wrong pump. I’d stayed inside and went to lie down on the bed and ended up having a nice nap.
But we made it.
The water and electricity are on the “wrong” side at this campsite, but we managed to pull the hose and power cord over with room to spare. And with no trees, Lee had no trouble hooking up the satellite receiver. I only had a few minutes to look around, but I’m pretty excited about all the water surrounding us. There’s a lot of wading and swimming bird habitat!
You can see we’re in the last site before the end of the island. The green light is, I think, a pier. I will know more tomorrow!View from the road. The habitat next to us. Eee, I’m excited.
Right now, though, the wind is so strong that it feels like we are in a boat. This is a heavy vehicle, but we are rocking. The waves are really attacking the bulkheads, too. By morning the tide will be lower and maybe it will be calmer. We will see!
Just a quick hello from my fancy new phone to say I’m about to crash. I had many errands to do today, since I am not allowed to work this week. All but grocery shopping occurred but everything took longer than expected thanks to a nice rainy day.
I could fit in my birding station to watch the rain until it got windy.
First I indulged myself and went to Michael’s, the craft store. I try to go as seldom as possible but I needed a few things, like spray sealant for my silly painted rocks, more paint, and embroidery scissors, because I lost my RV pair. I had a good time looking at odd Christmas ornaments and such.
After the rain were cool clouds.
Next got my phone, which is an iPhone 17 Air. It’s very light. I still liked my other phone but it had some issues, so here I am with this golden one. This camera is a little better, too—not as good as the Pro, but I’m pleased. The new phone also came in very fast. I’d ordered it Friday evening and it arrived today. I let the young man at the store put the front cover on. I always screw that up.
Then I headed off for my mammogram. I’m a good person who occasionally does hard things. The new machines don’t hurt as much but I forgot that I have an allergic reaction to either their disinfectant or the machine, so I got an unpleasant boob rash. The technician gave me antihistamines. I was fine.
I quickly went home to set the new phone up, but it refused to comply when asked to download from the cloud. Since I got partially started, I had to spend HOURS unable to text, get calls, or check Facebook. Argh.
Sunset calmed me down, even though I was on my horse.
Nonetheless all is well. I made it to Apache’s lesson though he was filthy with mud and still damp from the rain. I just took out his burs and loaded him up. It’s good we went, since I was dying to see Tarrin’s new arena cover. It’s great, and didn’t scare Apache at all!
Riding in the arena.
Ooh, the other thing I did today was iron on my bird patches I got at the Master Naturalist conference. My Scissortail on my jeans is perfect. You can see the heron on a denim shirt in the horse photo.
It’s gorgeous.
Whew. Not working is tiring.
(I’m glad Tarrin took pictures for me today, or I’d have very little to share!)
Two meanings to this: one is I’m still stumped as to why my mental health tanked so hard—I couldn’t even be trying myself to go to my riding lesson today. I was too woozy to feel safe riding even good old Apache.
That meant I got to be home for sunset and the welcome rain that followed.
The second way I’m stumped is good, though. I now have a very large stump in my birding area!
Deceased elm tree.
This tree was a hazard on a main road and had to be removed. Lucky for me, the tree’s pieces were destined for our burn pile, and I had mentioned how cool it would be to use a large slice as a bird feeding platform.
This was the first piece I saw. Nowhere near as big as the one I got.
I was working on the porch this morning so I could also watch birds, when I heard the unmistakeable sound of our ancient backhoe approaching. It was beating the stump!
The regular tractor couldn’t carry this!
I have to give them credit, they got me the best stump ever. It’s huge! And when it gets trimmed it will have two heights of at least somewhat level surface that the dogs can’t get to. And since it’s inside our fence, curious cows won’t be able to mess with any feeding or watering stuff I put up there.
The plan is to anchor the birdbath on there, too, so it won’t fall over.
I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet. I usually don’t feed birds, since we have plenty for them to eat here, even in winter, but it might be fun to get some photos.
Trying to show me compared to the stump.
It’s fun to think about, anyway. I am looking forward to tomorrow, when I can sit in my birding station on dry pillows (because I put them in the storage bin!) and look at the stump. You know, when I read that sentence it occurs to me that it sounds dull as heck. Oh well.
A dull photo of doves roosting before the storm.
I will prove I’m more boring than you’d imagine by telling you the evening’s excitement was when Lee realized the rain on our dumpster made the lights in the house reflect off it. We thought it was mysterious lights in the empty field across the road.
It looked less like a dumpster and more like spooky lights in person.
I also heard a turkey in the woods. Now that was exciting. Connie didn’t gobble back at it, though.
Oh, you’d suspect I found metaphorical heaven here on the ranch in the beautiful sunset light.
Front pond at sunset with no clouds.
That is a nice thought! It was a beautiful day, and my sunset walk was pretty darned heavenly.
Same view. Other side of pond.
However, the Heaven I found was not for me. It was for Lucky here.
Hi, I’m Lucky.
You see, I went to feed the chickens and noticed the feed bag was rather well chewed. So, I picked up the bag. I was not surprised to see that there were little creatures in my sealed food bin. At least four tiny mice running around on a layer of chicken feed. That could be Heaven for tiny rodents!
I had trouble getting mouse photos. I was kind of grossed out.
That’s when I saw that the mice weren’t alone. Lucky was in there with them. Now, being in a safe warm box full of tasty morsels is any rat snake’s idea of heaven! Lucky is young, but climbed well enough to get in!
At least four mice here.
Well. Yuck. So, I took out all the food the mice hadn’t gotten to yet. One big bag I took out and emptied onto the ground. That’s where Lucky was hiding. That’s when I picked her up and took her over by the hay bales and let her go (former caregiver for a rat snake, so I have the skills).
Thanks, Suna.
I was able to go back to my violated storage container and create an exit for the mice. If they are still there tomorrow I’ll eject them when I clean and disinfect my storage box. I sure hope it hasn’t developed a hole in it. I’m pretty sure all these creatures got in when I had the lid up.
I’m outa here. Thanks for the hay and food!
Anyway, this was all kinda icky. Heck, I was a suburban band mom not all that long ago. I’m not always the tough rancher gal I’d like to be. That’s why I went on that sunset walk. I needed to breathe fresh air.
Ah, a beautiful clasping coneflower that thinks it’s spring.
I did discover multiple spring flowers starting to grow. I assume the next freeze will slow them down, but right now it’s spring-like.
Go back to sleep, little paintbrush!
Ah, before I forget, I got my “furniture” set up in the birding station. Two low stools are a table and footrest. They were a pain to put together because the legs are slanted, so I had to smoosh them together to get the bottoms to fit into the tops. I just about didn’t have the arm strength. But I prevailed.
See what I mean?
I also got another weatherproof storage box that was easier to put together because it was cheap plastic. I will not store mouse food in it, just my binoculars and cushion in case of rain. It also can serve as visitor seating. So far, the only visitor has been Harvey.
I need to figure out what to do with the leftover wood. I’m not sure if there’s a plan to use it.
Notice that the inside walls are also finished. This is one classy outdoor folly. My friend Tandy says it looks like the stand where Lucy in Charlie Brown comics used to dispense her mental health advice.
I need a sign that says, “The birder is in” perhaps.
Sorta like Lucy. And I AM crabby.
Thinking of all of you, especially those dealing with health challenges.
I’m glad that last time the aurora borealis came to Texas I got to see it and get good photos. It was here last night, but I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I missed it.
I went out tonight more than once and was quite charmed by the glow to the north, but I think it’s the village of Ben Arnold.
The stars are pretty, though.
It was a beautiful evening, though, and much warmer than earlier this week. I love that it’s dark enough out here to see the Milky Way in photos.
Phone photo.
Thank goodness we have these chances to remind ourselves what an amazing setting we’re privileged to live in.
Yes, even crow poison is amazing, blossoming all winter.
Yeah, the weather here can go from 35° to over 80°F in one day, which is also impressive. our plants and animals must adapt!
Connie has neck feathers again after her awkward molting period Clint also looks much less scruffy. Doves are always chill. It’s starting to look autumnal. Time for the leaves to dump!
I wasn’t going to mention this, but it’s another impressive nature thing, to me. The past few days, hawks have been all over our property. Nearly every time I come outside, I disturb a Red-shouldered Hawk or a Northern Harrier. There’s no secret as to why: the rodent population is really high. I see all kinds of mice and rats everywhere I go lately. They hang around the chicken coop just waiting for the birds to go to bed so they can eat their food. Grr.
Ha! No mouse or rat photos, so here’s something I colored.
So, please, hawks, eat up. And thanks, dogs, for doing your part on rat patrol. I’m disappointed at how few the horses get, though. They should get busy going after mice instead of finding cockleburs.
One more mandala. Thanks to Lee for scanning them.
When I got home from Blanco, my “birding station” was just about finished, other than some painting.
The good news is that the siding is close to the right color before painting.
It has a cute little metal roof and gets lovely morning sun this time of year, which is good because it’s been close to freezing the last couple of nights. The siding keeps the cold wind off my legs while the sun warms my top half.
My chair is in there. I ordered a little stool and side table for my coffee, notebook, and binoculars.
Next I need to measure the openings so I can order bamboo blinds to block the sun in summer and when sunset is trying to blast my eyes.
Inside ceiling.
So far it hasn’t disturbed the wildlife. This beautiful moth visited yesterday.
Lunate zale moth
I also enjoyed visits from a Viceroy and Bewick’s Wren.
We approve of the little shed
Today’s visitor was larger. She was very curious about what the heck I was doing.
Hello?
I’m looking forward to enjoying the winter sparrows and wrens from my station, especially once it’s a little warmer. Harris’s Sparrows arrived today, so the gang’s all here!
November in the part of the world where I live is our prettiest autumn month. If the leaves on the deciduous trees are going to change colors before they fall off, now’s the time for them to do it. Sometimes a freeze comes, turns them all mushy brown, and that’s it for leaves.
Cypress trees are still green
We are back at Llano State Park, because that’s where our friend Jennifer chose for the fall campout for our former UU church. Those of us who moved to Cameron still tag along (that’s us, Martha, and Mike). I still know a few campers, and I enjoy meeting some new people. Usually. Today I could only take small doses.
This is one beautiful, clear river, and it’s not crowded this time of year.
Yes, it’s a great time to camp in Texas. Last night was lovely sleeping with the windows open, and it wasn’t too hot today. It looks like an early (for us) freeze may be coming to knock all those leaves off, so Jennifer picked a good weekend.
Willow leaves are yellow.
Today I got a little stressed due to lots of work stuff and worrying about all the motorhome issues. Work ended up ok, and Lee managed to find a guy to come figure out why our air conditioning and chassis power weren’t working. That’s good, because getting in and out of Seneca takes a lot of upper body strength when the stairs won’t come down.
All the church people thought the repair truck was an ambulance!
The guy did a very good job, and Lee is planning to drive Seneca back around here to his repair place to get the numerous other issues we have fixed. That will make me feel better.
Also making me feel better was getting my tree art hung in the wall. We got rid of an ugly clock.
I did a bit of walking, as you can see from the photos. It was such a beautiful day that it was hard to stay all worried. There were some birds, and I got to see many of them. At least one Carolina Wren was VERY friendly.
White-winged Do eMaybe a PhoebeThe friendly wrenBirds and leaves
I’ll go visit the bird blind tomorrow. And I’ll try to be more outgoing. I did stop and talk to people, but wasn’t up for group activities. We just went to dinner at the same place we ate last time. I believe they make the best charro beans I ever ate. Texas Cannon Brewing.
No photos of dinner but here’s a very long picnic table built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
I’m looking forward to another day on the river. The water is very clear. I could see fish and watched a young turtle swimming around. I hope you enjoy some of my sights from today.
Pumpkins for the squirrelsThe limestone all the Hill Country sits on
Yes, there was fun to be had on this chilly, blustery day. Did I say chilly? Well, the high didn’t get above 70°F, which is welcome. However, the wind made it feel colder, prompting a friend to ask if it was too soon to ask for summer back. Um, yes, I’m afraid it is. Tomorrow will be fairly cold, so I’m hoping the wind will die down.
It ruffled my feathers.
As for fun today, discovering the horses in the driveway again wasn’t part of it. I had to brave the gales to go shut the main gate, all the while wondering how in the HECK the gate got open, since I strongly remember fastening it. No photos. They looked just like last time.
Yep. They looked just like this.
Verifiable fun occurred during my birding time, when I plopped my chair on my unfinished birding station and watched a parade of geese, ducks, and cranes fly over, followed by a cat creeping to the pond and making the Kingfisher and Great Blue Heron upset. (Kingfisher seems to have moved in for a while).
The cat, fleeing when Carlton barked. Kingfisher and friends. Even though it’s blurry, you can ID this guy!Cardinal doesn’t want to be a cat meal. Grr feral cats.
Plus, I finally saw some migrating Monarchs. None of my better flowers are blooming, so I’m not seeing as many as Austin friends are. I hope the wind didn’t mess them up.
That’s the only one that stopped!
I also had fun at work, because I like both projects I’m working on, one writing and one helping folks. I enjoy the conversation.
The real fun, though, came when I opened the huge collection of acrylic markers I just bought. A whole new world of things I can doodle on has opened up, along with the possibility of ruining many things. So far I put flowers on a pair of glasses that needed some rejuvenation. They look better than I feared, thought not “fine art.”
This tones down the silver in the frames. Or at least that’s my claim So many colors
I sat there wondering if I could decorate my ugly plastic headband. Yes, I could. It ended up looking nice with my blue hair.
Just plopped on colorsLooks good on. I used a hair masque and wow my hair is shiny.
I also put identification in a subtle silver on my new binoculars and their bag, hoping not to have these wander away.
The decorations were fun to do. I just have to resist the urge not to decorate every object in my home. I’ll try to just decorate rocks or something. Many people paint rocks.
Dogs would prefer to remain unpainted.
My final fun was crocheting away while watching Elspeth so far this season. I will next watch Matlock. I like shows with quirky older protagonists. I feel okay not boycotting CBS, since Colbert was on Elspeth. So there.
Speaking of crochet, I finally have my temperature blanket through September. I look forward to months with more green and yellow…maybe even blue?
More thoughts on why I’m encouraged will be shared tomorrow. Ooh, passive voice! Reminds me to go finish reading The Language Puzzle, my current book.
You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for?
Everyone will wake up one day and realize we can all live together in peace if we spend as much energy trying to work things out as we now do on trying to divide each other.
Everyone has what they need to be healthy, contribute to society, and love who they love.
The non-human life in earth can thrive and heal the planet.
That will do.
It’s not hopeless. Lilies came back after the rain. Just south of here, migrating monarchs are everywhere. Sandhill Cranes are reaching their wintering grounds. A cold front is coming.
Nah. I have no need to go to the moon. I like it where it is and me where I am. All the lunar romance, metaphor, and legend falls away when you view the moon as a large cratered hunk of rock. I do think it’s amazing that our moon is the exact right size to create eclipses, though. That is one thing that makes me wonder if there’s an intelligent designer of the universe. Maybe the only thing…
…meanwhile, back in my little spot on Gaia, Mother Nature has taken on a benevolent aspect, at least for a time, and graced us with rain not just one, but two nights in a row! Yesterday’s total was over two inches, and tonight it’s rained hard for quite a while. There was a little water in the creek today. I look forward to seeing how our tanks look tomorrow.
I think the water looked higher.
But during the day, it was pleasant, which enabled me to get my eyes examined right in Cameron, Texas (what a luxury), which included interesting conversations on current events where I just listened. I rewarded myself with a visit to the bakery for a nice sticky bun. Mmm.
No photo of a bun, but here’s a Great Egret in a tree.
I’d thought my next task, getting Apache ready for a lesson, would be quick and easy. I was mistaken. I now have all dark gray horses, the exact color of our dirt. Apache had really been getting into his mud spa treatment and was concentrating particularly on his mane. He was encrusted. I regret not photographing it, but was pressed for time.
He looked like me, only bigger and more horse shaped.
I did my best in the limited time I had to wash him off, but it was not successful. At least he was clean enough to put a saddle on and did well even with the distractions of gunshots and frolicking foals. He’s sure come a long way.
I’m sure he will enjoy the mud these clouds have created.
That’s about all I have to write about today, because rather than contemplating wasting my money going to visit a cratered rock, I spent the rest of the day contemplating the value of life, the importance of friendship, and how we need to enjoy every moment we have on this planet, even when things are more than a little wonky.
I enjoyed the moment I saw this Nuptial Scorpionfly today!
Please know that if you’re my friend, you matter to me very much. And even if I don’t know you, I wish you a good life.
The Hermits' Rest 