I’d been bemoaning the lack of bird species I’d seen around the ranch, but the last couple of days make me think the birds may believe the cooler weather of autumn is coming. I’m glad for their beliefs, which encourage me to hope that the prospect of a cool front in a few days may come to pass.
Bees hope it cools off, too.
Yesterday, My glimmer was that a female painted bunting flew right up to where I was standing and listening for birds. She proceeded to tweet a few times, which confirmed what she was, since the female buntings all look pretty similar. She came back today and I got to watch her hopping around for a good while, but she never said anything. Brown of course, I knew who she was!
Today’s glimmer was very large and graceful in the air. I’d reviewed my past photos for a blog earlier this week and realized that a year ago we had storks and a roseate spoonbill in our pond, I was sad to have seen no storks this year. But, lo and behold, I looked up and got to enjoy watching three storks fly by. I guess our pond doesn’t look good enough for a visit this year, but maybe they will come back. No photos. I was using my eyes to enjoy them.
Last year’s storks.
I was also really pleased by the number of birds that were around this morning between 8 and 8:30 am, when I went out to listen with Merlin Bird ID. Here’s what was hanging round the ranch:
Crow
Cardinal
European Starling
Dickcissel (surprised it’s still here)
House Sparrow
Downy Woodpecker
Upland Sandpiper
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Loggerhead Shrike (my fave)
Killdeer
Baltimore Oriole
Carolina wren
House finch
Yellow warbler (migrating)
Great egret
I had visual confirmation of the yellow warblers – they sure are yellow. And I also saw a female hummingbird going after our red salvia, a turkey vulture or two, and the Baltimore Oriole, though you’d never know what it was from my photo.
Today was my first horse lesson since July. I was not sad to miss trying to learn while getting heatstroke. What a relief it was to have a break in the weather —two days with highs less than 100. Plus there were lovely clouds (Tarrin says it’s my job to bring them) and a nice breeze.
There was NO breeze at sunrise, so I sweated during horse and hay work.
I could concentrate on learning and so could the horses. Apache showed how hard he studied since I got back from Myrtle Beach and did his skills pretty well. I’m just so proud of him.
My good man, glad to be home.
Drew has some work to do to get back his leg strength and re-learn to focus, but it shouldn’t take long. He’s still just the sweetest little boundary pusher.
I’m really not interested in sunset photography, Mom.
A bonus of getting home at sunset was seeing the beautiful full moon rise. It’s also a blue moon and I think a super moon? Anyway, I enjoyed watching it rise as the sky turned beautiful colors in every direction.
There’s a blue moon on the rise.
I couldn’t decide what parts of the sky were prettier. Judging from the impatient nickers I heard, the horses and Fiona weren’t as enthralled as I was. They did get their food!
This was shiny and glowed. Find the moon!Brilliant. This one’s a wide angle. Nice end to the day
It was a good day all around for me. I even got to have a work meeting with a Facebook friend, which was fun. We were tickled pink. I’m glad for these bright spots. The more glimmers the better!
In this autumn season of my life,* I’m finding it necessary to let go of many things, from long-held beliefs to long-admired people. No doubt you, too, have found this to be a struggle. Sometimes you just have to let go of the metaphorical rope and see where you end up.
I have been there, and have the T-shirt.
This can work literally, as well. Today when we got back to the ranch, the weather was a little better than when we left town. I felt empowered to ride Apache in the afternoon rather than my usual morning rides on days when it’s over 105°.
I even groomed him completely rather than a quick removal of saddle-area dirt. That’s good, because all the horses appear to have rolled in the dirt after our .004” of rain yesterday. He was orange. Then I saddled up and headed out for a wee ride. I didn’t plan to trot much, since our ground is so hard.
They are resting up, I guess, having escaped after we left. Drew is STILL rolling.
After warming up (our muscles—at 95° we were already warm) I swung into the saddle, only to realize I’d forgotten his bridle. Fine. I “let go of the reins” and we rode around doing circles, figure eights, side passes (sorta), and backing in the round pen. Then we went outside and walked around the pen in both directions, finally heading back to the tack room, where the bridle was waiting.
I ended the ride on the high note of riding with no reins. We were both pleased with ourselves, I think.
Let’s pause to enjoy May-July on the temperature blanket.
If only letting go in other areas could be as easy…wait, that wasn’t easy! We’ve worked years to get here and needed lots of help. Aha! That applies to all areas of life!
And just like how I didn’t know how well the ride would go until I tried, I’m going to have to keep trying to let go of the reins and let go of patterns and people who are holding me back from the peaceful and productive life I want to enjoy from now on.
I hope my roots are as sturdy as this oak’s
I’ll keep practicing and rely on wise mentors as I get better at surrounding myself with strength and love while letting go of anything that makes me anxious, sad, or powerless.
* In my optimistic view, spring is birth to 30 years, summer 31-60, autumn 61-90, and winter begins at 90. Why not?
It was a good Sunday of camping at McKinney Falls State Park, near Austin, Texas. The motorhome kept us at no more than 81° when it was 109° outside, so we’re proud of it. I did indeed get up early to hike, and I enjoyed it a lot. I had plenty of Gatorade and some snacks, so I didn’t get stressed at all.
There’s a new trail at this park, so of course I took it. It was so peaceful. I did get to see a young skunk (too fast to photograph) and a cute little woodpecker.
Red bellied woodpecker. Yep.
I wish I hadn’t turned the wrong way at the end of the new trail and headed back to where I started, but I ended up seeing lots of beauty anyway.
Any lion holes
I just kept going when I got back to our campsite and hiked over to the lower falls. I’ve always loved that place. On my way I passed the extra pleasant picnic spots. Many are very secluded and shady. I’ll have to eat there sometime.
Cozy spot
The waterfalls on Onion Creek are a Texas treasure, and they’re different every time you visit. This year there was just a trickle going into the swimming hole.
Can you see the tiny fall?
I’ve seen these falls even drier than this, in 2011, and also flowing like crazy in rainy times. When this creek floods, it FLOODS.
Views of Onion Creek between the upper and lower falls.
I like it when you can walk around the limestone formations and see little pools full of fish and marvel at the power of water. Some of this area looks like a moonscape or another planet.
I was relieved to see some actual flowers blooming and fruiting as well as actual insects. I feel hope that things will turn around soon.
Carpenter bee Button bushDelta arrowhead Trailing fuzzy beanPrimrose willow BroomweedPapago Chinese tallow Flowers and fruits
And that turnaround may happen sooner rather than later. A front May have brought the ranch some rain this evening, and down here genuine clouds appeared and it was pleasant enough to sit outside at our campsite. It felt like normal camping!
We were almost alone today. Tree next door PeaceClouds!
I’m looking forward to getting home and being able to work more with Drew and Apache without overheating each other. But this time in nature, even with heat, is so healing and calming. I’m glad Lee and I decided to trace before we become unable to do so.
While I’m pretty sure I’ll go somewhere greener to camp next August, I’ve been trying to find the positive aspects of visiting McKinney Falls in a drought with a heat dome on top of it.
I assure you, it’s hot. Good thing water drips off this RV!
For one thing, it’s very quiet. I only saw one campsite playing loud music on my early walk (and they are serious—they have an outdoor lighted disco ball). I’ve only seen three people walking dogs, and only two groups have f children, all moving slowly. I assume they all went to the swimming area.
Ahh, quiet. And trees.
I just walked around all the campsites this morning, to determine where to park next time we come, in the spring! Some are very large and shady. I took pictures.
Look! A log cabin camper.
I also looked to see how the plants were doing. I found a couple of areas that must be near the creeks, because they looked better. Mostly all understory plants are shriveled up.
Not a plant. This is at our campsite. Struggling yuccaGrapeTurk’s capBeautiful 7-leaf creeperDedicated stonecropPrickly pear looks fineSeed headDried up wildflowers Pretty grassThis stuff looks healthy. Christmas cholla is dry but still extra annoying.
What a surprise it was to see a rain lily! It did rain 5 minutes on Thursday here!
It has spunk.
Trees look better, except the cedar elms and hackberry trees. They are dumping leaves to conserve their internal water supply, as I learned in a Master Naturalist class.
Look at the cool texture on this large persimmon tree’s bark. Tree with bonus buddyFun oaks. Sad oak leaves Leaning treeGuess which is a cedar elm?Sad mulberry Just a beautiful live oak
There were a lot of birds this morning, which cheered me up. This afternoon, though, even the incessant cardinal chatter has died down. I heard typical birds for this area, though I was surprised to find a summer tanager still hanging around. Otherwise here’s what was around (including seen and heard): blue-gray gnatcatcher, blue Jay, cardinal, Carolina chickadee, Carolin wren, crow, dickcissel, goldfinch, house finch, Phoebe, red-winged blackbird, titmouse, turkey vulture, warbling vireo, and the white-eyed vireo. Not bad for summer.
Carolina wren, the only bird I photographed
The best part of today was that my friend Susan, who lives near San Antonio, came up yesterday to camp with us. She was trying out her very cute little Casita camper before taking it on a longer trip. I don’t think I’d seen her since 2016, though we’ve Zoomed since then.
It’s so cute!
She had enough RV adventures for more than one trip, but got through it! First, the water line broke at her campsite, quite spectacularly. It took a lot of effort, Shop vacs, and extension cords to get things shut off. The park police officer said he missed the day they taught water line maintenance in his training. The park ranger said she missed hers, too. I felt bad for them. It was so hot.
Water heading down the road. Under those leaves is water It really moved.
Because they had to turn her water off, Susan just stayed one night. We did get to enjoy a nice chat this morning about horses and mental health, etc.
Hot but happy reunion
Sadly, on her way home, the hitch fell off! Luckily the chains held and she safely got off the highway. After getting some help, she made it home and should have time to get repairs done before her next trip. Whew!
She will drive like this guy, just in case. Ha ha.
We relaxed in the heat of the day. I may try to walk a little around sunset. I’ll get up early again to do the hike and bike trail in the morning. I will take water!
I was very excited to find this feather. I pretty quickly realized it’s from a parrot, probably a park visitor. No native bird has giant blue and yellow feathers!
Oh! And good health news! I am feeling less throat pain, so I may be back to happy thyroid time. Yay!
I thought if I skipped July and didn’t camp until late August, it might be pretty. Well, I’m in one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been (in other years and other seasons), and it’s depressingly hot, crunchy, and dead.
Campsite view.
The good news is that there are empty sites, and it’s pretty quiet with hardly anyone outside.
And the antenna gets network TV
The bad news is all the trees are super stressed, all the small plants are dried up and not blooming, I haven’t seen any butterflies or other insects, and I’ve heard two birds.
This cedar elm looks better than many, which are all brown.
Plus the bedroom won’t slide out for some reason, so I don’t get to try out the office setup I’d planned, which involves an Indian tall ottoman and a “chair pillow.” Hoping we figure it out and can try again next time. I can sleep just fine (especially since I took painkillers for my throat).
Pillow.
I’ll have more blistering hot camping tales tomorrow. I’ll get up early to walk a little.
Many of you enjoyed looking for glimmers after yesterday’s blog post. I loved hearing about them. Today I discovered the opposite of a glimmer, which I decided is a glower (rhymes with “power”). It’s a sudden, intense feeling of pain or negativity that quickly passes.
My glimmer today was finding this little grasshopper sitting beside me on my chair. I had a buddy.
I experienced a glower when I stepped into the swimming pool after my sweaty horse time. I trod directly onto a non-dead honeybee on the step. Sudden, intense pain occurred on my second toe. I got the stinger out quickly, thanks to my tweezer-like fingernails. Then I stayed in the water a while. I don’t think I got much venom in me. By the time my swim was over, my toe was fine. So I had a glower.
Insert imaginary bee here
I’m a poor photojournalist, though, because I decided to wait to get a picture of the bee, who was at least spared drowning and got to express her rage. By the time I got to the phone, the blustery winds had sent her off.
Yeah, winds. A mere 60 miles to the south of us, a tropical storm brought a bit of rain. We once again got clouds and wind. Sigh.
Boo hoo.
I experienced Freundenfreude (opposite of schadenfreude) with my happiness for my friends’ in Travis and Williamson Counties’ good fortune. Good for them. We will stay crunchy, however.
I gave the horses different food bowls. Maybe the one in the middle there won’t take these out into the pasture.
The wind was helpful, though. I was able to ride Apache briefly and we both lived. Whew. I am semi confident that we will get back to our regular schedule soon. I sure hope so.
The tack room quarterly cleaning is also complete. No fainting occurred.
I’ve been reading a lot about “glimmers” these days, which are little moments of joy or comfort that occur in daily life. I love this concept, because I realized quickly that I live for these moments of fleeting happiness. Today I had a few of these, as well as some larger pleasures. And I want to share some daily glimmers I’ve noticed.
Glimmers of Surprise
One glimmer today came when I finished cleaning the tack room and was chatting with my son (a larger pleasure) and I looked in the window to see a sparkling dragonfly. It pleased me so much! (It’s outside now.)
A little jewel of a blue dasher.
I was also filled with joy by another dragonfly today. I was listening for birds to write about in a Master Naturalist blog, when a little fellow I’d never seen before distracted me by repeatedly landing on the barbed wire as if to say, “take my picture.” I did so, then enjoyed the interesting way these checkered setwings hold themselves. I’m still smiling at how cute this guy was. A great pair of glimmers.
Perky poser
Large Pleasures
My larger pleasure today came when the horses were scheduled to have their hooves trimmed. I was not looking forward to it at all, given the weather lately and the fact that it was scheduled for the hottest part of the day.
But, the weather deities smiled on me and Terry the farrier. First, the horses were already in their pens, so I didn’t have to chase them, and then, as we began to work on Dusty, a lovely breeze sparked up and some genuine clouds passed over. In the shade, it wasn’t bad at all.
It’s cooler in the shade.
Then the horse calmness deities smiled and caused all four horses to have their most pleasant moods, which meant that the trimming went very quickly with few mishaps. Even Mabel’s feet are looking better, perhaps because I’ve been feeding her good food?
The only little mishap came when it was Drew’s turn. He’d been snoozing while the other four were getting worked on, and seemed to really want to continue his nap. In fact, he started snoozing with his leg in the air getting rounded off, and slipped off, hitting his head on my arm. I was surprised to see I have a bruise and abrasion! Poor little guy didn’t mean it, of course.
Ow. You can’t tell but it’s raised and turning purple now.
The clouds continued to please me greatly after I finished feeding the horses and cleaning up a lot of mouse poop in the tack room. I got in the pool and was able to float comfortably as long as I wanted to, because there were high clouds that filtered the sun nicely. (Now don’t get more wrong; it was still 105 today.)
Actual clouds in the sky.
Daily Glimmers
It’s nice to have things in your day that you appreciate. I’ve been trying to notice times of the day that give me regular glimmers. One is thanks to the heat. I love the feeling of rolling off my pool float back into the pool. The sensation of hot skin hitting the cool water is just delightful.
The other time of the day that gives me a glimmer every single time is the moment after I put away my reading material, turn off my light, and lie down on my fluffy pillow. The soft pillow combined with the cozy blanket and the lovely darkness makes me smile a little as I close my eyes every night.
Geez. It’s crispy here. And it’s unbearably hot for people, animals, and plants. The horses got new hay today, which sure made them happy.
It made MY morning!
The horses and I are trying our best to get some exercise other than running up to greet me (only Droodles and Apache do that). We have been walking around over pieces of wood, trotting a little, and getting minimally groomed. I go out early and late as possible to see them, since I’m still reacting poorly to the heat.
We’re hot, too.
We had our first summer casualty, too. Some kind of predator must have gotten at the chickens when they were cooling off at the horse troughs, and it got my matriarch, Bertie Lee. She was my oldest hen. The only clue I found was a large feather that looks unlike any hawk or owl I have seen. Ugh. There were only feathers left.
Yuck
I’m glad I made a point of saying bye to her before I left. I sure am glad everyone else is okay. There were some yellow feathers, but Blondie seems fine.
I like the shade. I lay eggs here, too.
I will get more hens when/if it cools off. I’m getting doubtful about that. The hens look so sad every day when it’s so hot, but they have access to the coolest spots possible and lots of fresh water.
We want nice new sisters.
September is coming. I’d say we have three to four more weeks before the weather breaks, but it can come sooner and I won’t complain.
I tried to make things feel cooler with blue nails and stars.
More intellectual content will come soon. All my smart thoughts have drained through sweat.
I made it home yesterday, but for some reason the travel completely wore me out. I guess travel is stressful, since my right eye wept all day, while the left eye had a tic. The plane travel was fine, other than the fact that the Charlotte airport was dirtier and dingier than I remembered. Of course, the flight from there to Austin was delayed, so I got to stay there and look at food on the floor and seats quite a while. By the time we boarded, I thought I’d fall asleep standing up.
None of this was heavy except the backpack, which was a carryon. It tried to kill me.
Lee was late exactly the amount my plane was late, which meant for an easy pickup, and I did try to converse with him though I was feeling distinctly zombie-like. By the time I got home I was dizzy and nauseated. What the heck? I’m much better today, with no eye issues and only a bit of fuzzy-headedness. Maybe I have 9-11 PTSD or something (for those of you who don’t know, I was on a plane headed to O’Hare when the events occurred, leading to some traumatic times).
I love you.
I came home to a lot of love, though. Goldie glued herself to me the second I got into bed and didn’t move for a couple of hours. Today she’s been constantly checking on me, and also trying to inform me that she can’t sit on “her” couch because someone put an immense television on it.
Immense television
So I got up and moved the immense and very heavy television. It’s the old one from our house in Round Rock, and apparently giant televisions were much heavier then. Glodie is much happier now and I can type (she kept nosing the keyboard away!).
Happier dog.
Of course all the dogs were glad to see me, as were the chickens. Some horses seemed more glad than others. Apache was ecstatic, and glued himself to me much like Goldie did. He looks good, other than two sores on his shoulder. The good news is his grass allergy issues are gone, thanks to the Zyrtec, and the rest of him looks wonderful.
Is that a sea serpent in the pond?
Drew was more interested in the water trough I refilled than in me, but after he drank he came and rubbed his wet face on me. He looked really clean, and I wondered why. Here is why:
I gots me a pool
Apparently, while I was gone, he figured out that the front pond is swimmable. The edges aren’t as quicksand-esque as they were when the water was higher, so he’s taken to swimming around and having a blast. Kathleen said the first time she heard the splashing, she thought we had a gator. Nope, just a sea serpent/horse hybrid.
I look like. Gator from here, right?
It doesn’t appear that anyone else has joined Droodles in the horse swimming pool, but I sure was happy to watch him cruising around and having a great time.
Drew in Heaven
There’s really no grass, so I need to get more hay out to them this afternoon. The heat is still miserable, and it hasn’t rained. The high was “only” 99 on Tuesday, but it’s still hard on everyone here. I will be getting out early to work with horses starting in the morning.
Fiona is not impressed
It was nice to get back to my office to work, though my house looks like hoarders have moved in. The rest of the furniture from my old house got brought in while we were gone and we’re still working out where to put everything. Much of the stuff is in our newest shipping container, and I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to the guys who moved everything out of our old church, up and down those stairs.
Yes, we no longer own a church, which I’m not too sad about, because now Cameron gets a new church. I’m told the minister is really nice, so I’m happy for them. It looks like it’s time for our real estate business to find a new investment.
How about investing in more donkeys?
Thanks for reading, and hi to all you new readers! I do have a book report to write, which I hope to get done tomorrow. It takes thought, and I’m too tired to think right now.
The Hermits' Rest 