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.
Where to start? The day started out good and kept getting better. Look at this sunrise!
Hello to the day
And I was happy to see yesterday’s new calf and mama cow looked much perkier this morning and nursing was going well. I think they’re fine.
Thank you for your concern, humans.
I also felt better today, after a slow start. Maybe my head is healing. I’m at least able to do complicated tasks at work.
This strong singer helped wake me up.
After work came the best part of the day, very healing and gratifying. Jackie came to do bodywork on Apache, and I decided to see if she could maybe help out Drew, too. He’d been pretty good recently.
After grooming my sweaty Paint boy, I brought Drew out and proceeded to groom him. He was fine. So, as we waited for Jackie, I got to work on his tail, which, sigh, was full of burs, thanks to the horses grazing in the only spot that still has them (I couldn’t even see them when I called them in to eat; I just heard thundering hooves until they came around the pond). With no trouble at all, I got that tail all smooth and shiny.
See? Nice.
After Jackie arrived and started working on Apache, who she says is doing very well, I bravely approached his mane, sprayed detangler, and started brushing. There weren’t too many burs, but they came out with no issues. THEN he let me get burs out of his forelock! And asked to have his head rubbed!! What the heck?
I’m all groomed.
That was the start of a wonderful afternoon with Droodles. Perhaps the Adequin (or however you spell it) really kicked in and he feels better. But we had a nice bit of exercise in which he walked, trotted, and cantered pretty calmly, followed by some hand grazing and bonding. I could stroke him, rub his head, let him nuzzle my hand…no scary biting or kicking! Wow!
Zzzz. This is relaxing.
And he did a good job with the bodywork. When he wanted to say he was uncomfortable, he did, but Jackie could calm him right back down so he could stretch or whatever she asked him for.
This is Drew all relaxed getting worked on.
Afterwards, she showed me how she used calming breaths and distraction, while keeping herself safe. My mind was blown. I can do that! And it’s more how I’d like to work with him. This information was invaluable and encouraging.
Stretching exercise. She let him move around until he was able to bend. That must have felt nice.
We also had a great talk about how long it takes to create a great partnership and a great horse. Her story of Jambo, her horse who just retired, has inspired me. Maybe I can keep going slowly with Drew, work on the ground some more, make sure his pain is managed, and we can go forward.
Look at us all happy. He is not biting me.
I just have to get both horses to the vet to get assessed. Now that I feel less head pain, I will get to work. And maybe I can go back to enjoying both horses. It was SO nice to have a good day with Drew.
I had fun, too.
And one final good part of the day: IT RAINED. I think it was enough to measure, and will know more tomorrow. It was so exciting that Kathleen and I ran out to check for raindrops in the pool. We hope more substantial rain comes tomorrow, since it’s badly needed.
I miss rain. There was a trace while I was out of town, but otherwise no rain since early September. Today the weather toyed with me.
Look at those clouds
Some nice clouds rolled in early this morning. It got very quiet and the air felt encouraging. It was oddly warm. The birds and I were hopeful.
C’mon, rain
Alas, the beautiful dark clouds drifted away. Sigh.
So encouraging.
On the positive side, it was a great day for birds. I declared it to be the start of Ornithological Winter, because a White-throated Sparrow appeared (more than one, actually). Combined with Chipping Sparrows, Pipits, and passing Sandhill Cranes, I’m confident the season has changed, bird-wise. It will cool off and rain soon!
It looks vaguely autumnal.
I’m admittedly tired of having my head feel weird every time I try to do anything more strenuous than walk. Horse grooming and exercising got me worried the cut would re-open, so lucky horses are just getting Bur removal. Yes, as hard as we tried to eliminate them, horses can still find burs.
I’ve been enjoying watching these pretty katydids fly around this week.
Ugh. I’m just not feeling 100% so I’ll write more when I’m more myself.
Ah. Today we got beautiful rain, over 2” but I won’t measure until the morning. It was another great day to read on the porch!
So cozy and dry
I was sorry to miss my horse lesson but we’ve rescheduled for tomorrow. Let’s hope tomorrow’s rain is not between 10-1 or at least not heavy. I can ride in light rain. The horses spent the day blissfully cool. Once it wasn’t raining hard, they were out enjoying the “low” temperatures.
I didn’t take horse pictures, so here’s another porch view.
I, too, appreciated having a day without drips of sweat in my eyes and sopping wet bras. I did try not wearing a bra, but the sweat running down to my wisdom belly was also unpleasant. I’m not gonna sit inside all day like a delicate creature, though. Knowing it will be more pleasant in a few weeks gives me hope.
Morning rain.
The other thing I liked about this respite from blazing hot sun is that sunsets are so pretty with clouds in the sky. I enjoyed today’s sunset by the pool while I watched nighthawks eliminating excess insects.
Spit the nighthawk.
I guess the best part about staying inside most of the day was that I got a lot of comforting reading done (Braiding Sweetgrass), got my August birds added up, crocheted almost all of the August section of the temperature blanket, and got my journal ready for September. What that really means is that I played with all my toys: books, colorful pens, paper, washi stickers, and oh yes, yarn! My indoor toys sometimes get neglected when I’m outside all the time.
Looking north at sunset. The bright light is just a reflection of the sun.
Today was lots of fun in the bird department, as lots of songbirds decided to let me see them. At last I truly believe that Orchard Orioles and Yelliwthroats live in my trees. There was also a Kestrel around all day.
So, I was in a meeting with no agenda (open office hours) with my three fellow Subject Matter Experts, and we were collaborating on various issues when one of us mentioned going for nature walks. That got me and another woman all excited about this ghost plant (Monotropa uniflora) she had seen earlier in the week, and we got into fruits we can forage in Oregon and Texas.
About ten minutes into our rapturous discussion of things we see in the woods, our more urban counterpart told us that she gave in and we’d converted her into looking more closely wherever she walks. I think we felt like we’d accomplished much more that just solving work issues today.
Nature brings us all together!
I guess that’s enough cheerful talk for the day, but I must interject that, even though rain was close again today, none fell, so Apache and I had a nice practice session and great time on the trail. I think he’s used to it now!
I woke up this morning struggling with some of my “areas for improvement,” and I wasn’t feeling well at all. I’m grateful that I e trained myself to find the good around me, and after adding up all that fine energy, I ended the day with a smile on my face.
This heron caught something tasty in the middle of this pasture. That’s a good little thing.
I struggled a bit with what I was working on this morning, thinking it just wouldn’t do. But I went to lunch with my friends and ended up enjoying two new people, and chatting with them about their lives helped me out of a downward spiral. Another good little thing!
It was slightly cooler, so I enjoyed my morning bird walk without becoming soaked. Small win!
I went to a meeting after lunch and was able to brainstorm solutions to a problem and then got help on what I was working on. Just a little feedback and collaboration and I felt more confident. The collaboration and support we give each other in this job is gratifying!
The soapberry trees are blooming now and they smell great. Another small thing.
I sent my draft document to the person who’d requested it, and he liked it! I got quite happy about then. Plus I heard that (after much effort by me and my nurse-practitioner) my thyroid medication was approved by my health insurance, and I managed to figure out why I couldn’t enter my expenses from my trip and got that done! Win win win!
Green Heron preening. It was joined by ibises flying overhead today! Wow!
And to top off the list of small but good things, Vicki came over and we rode horses together. The weather was unbelievable for August, very pleasant with light cloud cover. Only the horses got all sweaty.
Ready to ride
Apache was in good form and practiced all his tasks very well. The best part for me was that because we went to the round pen so Vicki could ride Drew with some boundaries, Apache and I had lots of time to practice our walk-trot transitions. At some point I realized we were having a great time together. Drew was a challenge, but Vicki handled him very well. She is far more confident than I am on him.
I’m just in need of exercise. Yeah.
I could have ridden for hours in that lovely weather, but we ended at a successful point. I even practiced getting correct bends with Apache on the way back.
I’m kind of smart.
Oh, one more Apache story. Today I figured out why he was refusing to jump over the cavalettis. After he refused three times again today, I went over there and found a large Yellowjacket nest. He was trying to tell me! There was also a nest on the mounting block, and I eliminated both nests. Moral: listen to your horse.
I’m glad I paid attention today! Those were so many fine little things.
The Hermits' Rest 