The Hermits' Rest

Little Things Add Up

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.

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 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.

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.

Storms Aplenty

The morning was pleasant and fair.

Then it got very hot, over 100°F. Suddenly a small but mighty storm blew in. It really blew.

Here it comes, blowing that tree around.

Winds came up and I watched dust and bits of harvest debris flying around. The horses were in a tizzy. I flew around in the heavy winds until the lightning got close and I sensibly went onto the porch.

Luckily it was just a severe thunderstorm and not a tornado cell. Lee and I watched it blow through, with sideways rain and spectacular lightning. It turned out the people across the road were doing the same thing on their porch!

Cozy, since the rain was blowing away from the windows.

We only got .08” of rain, but that’s better than nothing.

Once the storm passed, the temperature went down 15° and it was lovely.

I went for a nice walk and enjoyed watching swallows and nighthawks catching bugs around sunset. A wonderful surprise was seeing a nighthawk sitting on an electric wire in front of our house. You rarely get to see a perched nightjar.

I ended up seeing or hearing 53 bird species today. Looks like some early migration is happening. We are getting some warblers and quite a few sandpipers. It’s good to have them to distract me from other sudden storms that blow in out of the blue!

This, too, will pass. Note overturned chair!

Tell the people you appreciate how much they mean to you.

Book Report: Where the Forest Meets the Stars

My friend Carolyn M recommended this book to me, because she said I had so much in common with the protagonist (and with the author). I’m glad she did, because the book is very sweet and took me down some literal memory lanes.

Where the Forest Meets the Stars (2019) is the first novel by Glendy Vanderah. She worked as an endangered bird specialist and apparently attended the same graduate school I did, in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. This also describes the book’s protagonist, Joanna. That’s where the memory lanes come in. I was taken back to my twenties when I, too, traveled up and down Interstate 57 and wandered Urbana’s “state” streets, admiring the gracefully aging Tudor-style homes of my professors.

Illinois, too, has sunflowers on the roadside, out of the reach of pre-emergent herbicides.

The novel isn’t entirely about driving through east-central Illinois and its endless miles of corn and soybeans, though. There’s a mysterious young girl who claims to be from another galaxy, Indigo Buntings, cancer survival, and (of course) a love interest.

No, this isn’t the greatest novel ever, but it’s an enjoyable read and the plot twists are fun. It was perfect for making a long plane flight feel short! And I have to say I ended up fond of all the characters, both major and minor.

I’m happy to share this book with someone local, but it would cost less to order a used copy than for me to mail it. You might find that the little girl from space provides a nice respite from whatever is burdening your mind, plus you’ll get a glimpse into the place I lived from 1980-1998.

Good night from the land of heat and humidity.

It’s Very Smooth around Here…the Bur Saga Continues

You may remember that for the past couple of years we’ve had a problem with cockleburs in the horse pasture. I spent hours and hours removing them from manes and tails, and had a horrible time with Drew, given his dislike of being touched on his head.

This year we Hermits’ Resters have decided to do our utmost to rid the pasture of these plants, which weren’t here before. Step One was me going around with loppers and getting rid of most of the plants around the horse pens. More came up, but I’ll get them this week.

You can see them by the gates. Made it hard to open gates.

Step Two got interrupted when a piece broke on our shredder (a mowing apparatus pulled behind a tractor—you may see them on roadsides and median strips. Part of the hill created when the pond got cleaned out hadn’t been de-burred when that happened.

However, yesterday Chris braved the heat and made the repair (welding in a Texas summer is brutal) and he was able to finish shredding as much of the “tricky” parts of the pasture.

That left Lee with the job of finishing the job and shredding the rest of the pasture. Goodbye to burs, dove weed and ragweed. The horses eat giant ragweed, but not the small kind.

This project takes a ranch family village to accomplish! The next step will come next month when broadleaf killer is applied. Carefully. I don’t want it on my wildflower areas.

What are they doing here? Grazing in the few areas the tractor couldn’t get to. Burs are still there. This calls for loppers.

Then a few weeks after that, seed and fertilizer will be applied to get the pasture back in shape. I’m hoping to get grasses that are more native, but the horses’ need to eat may mean some sacrifices. Luckily we still have all the yard and field in front of the house that still has good natives.

I’ve also been asked to do some horse moving, which will happen next week. Some lucky horses will have new grazing areas. Poor Apache and Fiona will stay in the area with worse grass, due to their metabolisms.

That’s good with me, since I like going over and hanging out with Apache multiple times a day. I think we both enjoy each other’s company. Today we hung out a lot, because I was so happy with how well he’s doing with his ground work and trail walks. It’s so much fun.

I know I post lots of pictures of him, but he’s such a fine equine friend.

I repaired his new breast collar (Vicki helped) so tomorrow I may try to put it on with his saddle to see how it looks.

Hmm, this was not my planned topic. Oh well, I hope you enjoy my horse pictures as much as I enjoy the idea of a bur-free winter.

Searching for Treasure and Scowling at Sheep

What did you do today? As you can guess from the title of this blog entry I did at least two things. Both were fun.

I also looked at some flowers. This is *Sida ciliaris or bracted fanpetals.*

First thing this morning, neighbor Vicki and I went to College Station to a fun Horseman’s Market Fay hosted by the Brazos Valley Driving and Riding Club. This is like a giant garage sale of horse stuff. I had no idea there were so many moldy saddles and bridles, not to mention very used halters, bits, and blankets. But I also saw some beautiful used tack and true treasures.

Each of us saw people we knew (yes, I know a couple horse people, too) and even found a woman who lives in Ben Arnold and knows where we live due to Vicki’s sheep and matching pony.

We did find treasures of our own. I got a baseball cap that says Cowboy Hat, a horse thermometer, a come-along string (green), a funny shirt, and a bunch of hoof picks with silver accents that I will donate to Tarrin for show prizes.

They list for $12 and I got them for $3.

The most fun thing I got was a really pretty leather breast collar with silver accents and black-and-white leather detail. I just loved how it was elegant but not gaudy. It will go with Apache’s saddle.

If you don’t know what this is, it is decorative and also keeps the saddle from slipping when climbing steep hills. If I’m able to replace one hook on it, I’ll show it to you on Apache.

I couldn’t find a good photo so I had to AI one.

After we had each found our horse equipment treasures, Vicki took me to see border collies doing herding trials. This was in a nice arena with air conditioning and lots of large bags of wool. I think she said they also grade wool there.

I met some of Vicki’s herding dog friends and had a great time watching the dogs staring at the sheep.

The reason we glared at the sheep is that they were pretty weird. They spent most of their lives so far eating grass under solar farms. It’s a good gig. Lots of shade.

The problem is that they didn’t know much about anything except eating grass. They didn’t realize they were supposed to be intimidated by dogs, so once they were let out, they just stared back at the gate they came out of, not paying attention to the dogs. Occasionally one would stomp its hooves.

Many of the dog/human pairs just gave up, but a few of them got those sheep going in the right circles, separated one from the group, and got them all into a pen. That was really impressive.

This dog watched intently from the stands.

I hope I get to go to more of these in the future. I’m very impressed by the hard work both the dogs and humans have to do to move the sheep!

Nothing exciting like that at home! Just moving slowly

I relaxed most of the rest of the day, which featured suffocating heat. You can get overheated so easily!

Yep, Everyone Is Interesting

It’s true, and the interesting stranger at the Portland Airport agrees. I had things to write about yesterday and plans to work on a blog on my way home. That didn’t happen, and it’s not a bad thing, because I was talking to interesting people, as I did the whole time I was in suburban Portland.

Look, kids, it’s Mount Hood! I did my sightseeing from the plane.

As many wise folks have pointed out before me, everyone has a story to tell. They also say it’s hard to feel animosity towards people when you can see what you have in common and know what they’ve been through. For example, one of my Uber drivers was forced to flee Peru, but he’s made a good life here. All the Uber drivers I had on my trip were interesting and taught me things, so I’m glad I had the chance to ride so often. I had some really fun times explaining that Texas isn’t all bad. One guy was shocked I managed to live in a small town and not be a Christian Fascist (or whatever they’re called these days).

This mountain had a smoke ring! My friend Alice thinks it’s Mount Jefferson.

The people I talked to at my workplace were also a fun bunch. Portland seems to be crawling with musicians! And many people had horses or once did. It was fun hanging out with young parents and learning how they do things today. Lots of creativity and/or multi-generational households to handle child care.

I had an oddly frank and open conversation about life with a random punk rocker disguised as a businessman in the airport, as I mentioned above. He was a bit scattered, in a good way, and we found we had much in common. That’s what brought me back to everyone being interesting if you talk to them. So I just continued being friendly and talked to a fellow worried about his large dog traveling in the cargo hold, and I made the flight attendant so happy by asking her about her beautiful silver bracelet she was wearing, which happened to be made by a Hawaiian artist. The flight attendant was beaming as she told me how much she loved it.

Sweet stories from random people keep me hoping we can pull our society back together. Humans are not all mean and hateful like the media so often says they are.

Enough of that. I did want to share that I got to see some Oregon plants and hear some birds yesterday by taking a lunch walk. I found an area where there’s a big effort being made to restore native plants, on property the company I consult for seems to own. The plants were surrounded by two things. One was the ever-present wild blackberries. I ate a lot, since there weren’t right on the roadside and covered with automotive residues.

The other thing I saw were rows of gnarled old trees, which look like they’d been cut down to stumps but we’re trying to come back, fighting through ivy and berries. I couldn’t tell what they were, but I figured they were something that was once harvested. When I finally got to upload photos to iNaturalist, it turned out they were hazelnut trees! Before Tualatin got industrialized, it must have grown nuts. Cool.

There was also a small forest remnant next to the offices, with a short path running through it. I enjoyed seeing the ferns, evergreens, and native maples (among others).

After seeing a California Jay, another new one on my list, I felt satisfied that I’d seen at least a little nature. Then my ride to the airport, a really nice man very much like me, took us through downtown to save time, so I got a bonus tour. Yay for avoiding the crowded interstate!

There, I’m caught up, back with my animals and humans, and ready for what’s next. After some sleep!

Are There Birds in Oregon?

I’m sure there are birds in this state, but I have not been able to put myself into places where birds are. Still, by wandering around the hotel this morning and searching for a neighborhood after work, I found a few, plus a new one, Vaux’s Swift.

Mostly I heard Lesser Goldfinches, Black-capped Chickadees, House Finches, and Crows. Not the plethora I’d hoped for, but I haven’t made it to any nature sights in Oregon and probably won’t since I leave tomorrow and it will be rainy. Oh well! I did see some plants!

This apple tree was bending down from its beautiful crop.

There are wild blackberries everywhere. I guess I’d never go hungry this time of year.

I did enjoy looking around at big trees and colorful flowers, though I’m in a noisy area both at work and where I’m staying. Good thing this wasn’t a sight/seeing trip!

The work part of the day was great, and there was a fun lunch with the people from the company I contract for. They gave us all nice, soft sweatshirts, too. The people part of this visit has been just great. It’s so empowering to work with people who feel like they’re working as a team to make interesting cutting-edge things.

I do need to go home and tell Drew to treat Vicki better, so I’m looking forward to getting on that plane tomorrow afternoon!

Citizens of Beaverton loved my shirt. I hesitate to wear it at home. Well, everyone has their opinions.

Hello from Oregon

I’ve been in the Portland, Oregon area since yesterday morning, here for work meetings at my fine new job. I’ve had a great time so far, and feel like I’ve contributed to some good work with this company.

I’ve had no issues getting my exercise in, because I’ve walked back and forth between buildings many times. Each meeting seems to be in a different building. It would be fun, except it’s as hot as Texas! It will cool off, maybe.

The rose city is Portland. I’m in Tualatin.

It’s pretty here but I don’t see myself having much time to see any nature. I’ll keep trying! The work setting is great, too. I’ve learned a lot about the amazing machines this company produces for the semiconductor industry, and I enjoyed seeing the research areas very much.

No interior photos due to secrets and stuff.

Mostly I’m really enjoying meeting my coworkers and the people we are helping. I’ve had a lot of fun chatting and laughing as well as getting lots done. Any hiccups have been worth it. Maybe I’ll get to come back someday.

I hope to be less tired and more coherent tomorrow! Maybe I’ll be able to describe my days better.

The tarot card of the day was the Child of Water (Page of Cups).

She reminds me of myself as a child, who ran along the beach in Sarasota, Florida. I found out a coworker now lives there today, so the card evokes my memories. The card just reminds me of myself, the little dreamer. Currently the very tired little dreamer in the Pacific Northwest.

Reacquainting with Music of My Past

In the last few months, Lee and I have been watching documentaries on musicians from our formative years. We have similar musical tastes, so it’s easy to choose. We’ve seen some “biopix” as well, like Freddy Mercury and Elton John. Of course we saw the Bob Dylan movie, which I e mentioned that I enjoyed. I prefer actual documentaries, though, with historical footage, music by the performers them, and insights from other musicians/friends/scholars.

The 2025 HBO two-part documentary on Billy Joel was meaningful to me in that it confirmed why I always liked him and his music. I like musicians who are willing to grow and change and who are true to themselves. I remember saying, “See, see, he really WAS funny, talented, and energetic!” when they played footage of when I saw him in my undergrad years. I remember we were pretty flabbergasted by his talent before he was super famous.

His honesty about himself as well as his admission of his mistakes made me unsurprised at how kindly his ex-wives and former associates talked about him.

He’s not someone you can put in a particular musical “box,” and is a real person, which the documentary makes clear. Listening to his music as an older person also let me see more nuances. I’m glad to have re-experienced it from a new perspective, both musically and emotionally.

Today we watched the 2020 HBO documentary on The Bee Gees. I was surprised at what I did not know about the Gibbs family and how hard the brothers worked on their songwriting and musicianship. I admit to having liked their early music but not paying all that much attention to it, because it seemed too “pop” to rock-n-roll Suna.

I also confess to actually liking the Saturday Night Fever music. It was good. I was simply tired of the thumpa-thumpa disco beats emanating from our gay roommate’s headphones 24/7 (it seemed, though Bobby really liked all music).

What impressed me most about the Gibbs brothers was that they were driven to write music even more than to perform it. There were songs I didn’t realize they’d written for others! Honestly, you can just watch this film for the soundtrack.

In the end, though, Barry Gibbs said he’d trade all the hits to have his brothers back. Yes, their close family (parents, wives, etc.) were also a hint about their character.

Both Joel and the Gibbs brothers come through as flawed, talented, and smart people. They are famous due to hard work. I like that.

Now I need to go find some more good music documentaries about artists who started when I was young. Some would be sooo long, if they hit all the highs and lows (the Who?). I will go look for more. I encourage you to find documentaries on musicians you enjoy. I guess you will end up depressed or impressed, considering the subject. But at least you’ll get to hear the music from a new perspective, which I do not get when I read biographies and just play music in my head as I remember it.

Anyway, tarot card of the day was 6 of wands. Ooh, fire. It means, in the Gaian deck, that I’m contributing to communal efforts with energy.

Welp, I sure hope to do this next week when I fly to Oregon to meet with coworkers in person. I have an early flight, so I’ll type to you later!

Human Bodies, So Frail

I’d avoided it all summer, but today I finally got overheated. I should have know there’d be an issue when I couldn’t even take sitting in my birding chair more than a half hour this morning. Ugh. At least I managed to see the pretty white rain lilies that appeared today.

Brazos rain lily *Zephyranthes chlorosolen*

Vicki and I had a horse lesson today, and of course we worked to stay hydrated as we groomed Drew and Apache. I got through my lesson and felt a bit tired but okay. I think what got to me was that Apache acted like he had to pee and so I just sat on him with the August sun bearing down on me and got too hot.

An earlier pee time when he made us wait.

By the time I was trying to unsaddle him I felt bad. I HATE getting all messed up by heat and having to make people stop and take care of me. I ate into Vicki’s lesson time, too. Human bodies can really let you down sometimes.

Trying to look perky after I cooled off.

Sorry to whine about my body not doing my bidding. It could be a LOT WORSE and I know that. But I really do try to not overheat, though that’s a challenge in August. That’s one reason Apache and I are trying to stay in shape but not overdo it. It’s a fine line.

The moon cheered me up again, as it will.

Still, I’m feeling my grief over losing our friend Gail settling down to a more reasonable level, but I remain saddened that someone I admire has gone into hospice. I know I’m at the stage in life when friends start to pass on, but it’s worth honoring them all and sharing stories.

While I try to regulate my thermostat, I’m glad I have flowers to enjoy.

I’ll continue with memories as I get through another travel period starting tomorrow.

The tarot card of the day is the 3 of Cups/Water.

I’m happy to see more fun otters from the Gaian Tarot. The card tells us to have fun with friends. I did that today, with both friends and family. I’m so relieved that I’ve been drawing happy cards except on sad days!