Yesterday I went to feed the horses but they would not come down to where we usually feed. They whinnied from the end of the narrow passage to their water trough.
We aren’t coming any closer, thanks.
I gathered their feed tubs and turned around to go get food. There I saw a very sad sight. A poor cow had died giving birth. Poor beautiful mama. I won’t share photos.
No wonder the horses would not come up. Even food didn’t convince them, so I took them their food.
Thanks for Indy, Human Mom.
Then I heard it’s harvest day for the sheep. Well, that’s their job and all, but sigh.
You really toughen up and remember life is hard when you live in the country.
Last night I went to the El Camino Real Master Naturalist meeting, as I do most every month. I wrote up a post for their blog with lots of details about what I learned, so here I want to share my deep enjoyment from listening to women who are passionate about birds and birding as they share their passions with others.
Three women from our group spoke about how they engage in bird watching, each with a different perspective and knowledge base. I sat there like a little kid, all enthralled at the details they shared. It was thought-provoking to look at how each of them engaged in their hobby. Here’s what I saw (just using first names here).
Ann tells us you really, really need a good bird book.
Ann has been birding for many years, and she does it for the same reasons I do: basically, she likes birds a lot. Her passion and enthusiasm for identifying new and unusual birds was very obvious, but she reminded me of my methods for birding. She said if she didn’t know what a bird was from quickly observing it, she’d often just move onto the next, in contrast to her birding friend who just HAD to identify every single bird she saw, in a scientific way. Of course, Ann knows pretty much all the birds you can see around here; she just doesn’t stress over what she doesn’t know.
Joyce shares the various ways we can upload our observations to help researchers.
Joyce also loves birds, and watches them in a very accurate and detailed way. She keeps good records of her feeder, counting them carefully, and only identifying the ones that come into her feeder watch zone. There is a great deal of discipline to her approach to observing birds, which goes along with her amazing attention to detail in other parts of her life. We need birders like Joyce, too, to provide accurate data for researchers. (Of course, she’s also having fun.)
Here, Ann is listening to Cindy tell us her suet recipe. Some samples are on the table.
Then, there’s Cindy, whose approach to birding is to figure out how she can practically help the most birds. She shared with us her recipe for making lots and lots of suet for little money, so that the woodpeckers and other birds that like to feed on trees and eat more than just seed can be satisfied. She’s not there just to watch or count or record she’s there to help the birds thrive.
(All the women also carefully feed and water their birds; I was just contrasting their main styles.)
Another birder style was described by Ann, who talked about a very intense young man who asked to come to her house, because he was on a mission to get three more birds on his Milam County list of 100, and she had some of them in her yard. As soon as he saw one, he went on to look for the next. No lollygagging, watching behavior, or anything. And he didn’t stick around to chat; nope, he had to go to Bell County to work on his count there. These are the kind of birders people often gently poke fun at, but hey, they aren’t hurting anyone, are they?
Bonus sinset from the meeting yesterday.
Like any other hobby, there are many ways to enjoy birding (don’t get me started on process versus product knitters). Do you like to watch birds? Do you feel like you need to know what they are? Do you just enjoy their antics? Do you use them to tell what season it is? Share!
Now, that is a yellow flower!
By the way, I was almost late to the meeting, because I had to take this photo of beautiful evening primroses along County Road 140 across from the cemetery.
I got a request for an update on the hawks at my workplace. You know I just love requests. Since the people in our office spend a LOT of of our break time looking at them, there’s no problem with coming up with a report! The raptor couple are the talk of the water cooler, which pleases me a lot. We have a lot of budding birders being developed!
Thinking about sitting on that ledge.
Here are some of the behaviors we’ve observed:
Eating small animals. They like to do that at the parking garage.
Working on the nest. Every so often, a special new stick comes over.
Dealing with windows. There’s a report that one of them went BOOM into a window earlier this week. Both birds seem okay, now.
Dealing with ledges. While I’ve seen one of them successfully land on the narrow ledges on our building, they also miss frequently, and flap around awkwardly to regroup.
Screeching. Lots of screeching.
Engaging in synchronixed flying. It’s just beautiful watching then swerve and curve then land delicately on the roof or nest.
Being friendly. They groom each other and snuggle up, both before and after what we call their “special time.” We expect some EGGS out of all this! (I do believe Mrs. Hawk is looking, um, plumper.)
Ever since I joined the neighborhood book club, I’ve been reading more books that other people might consider reading. (Usually, I read really dry nonfiction that mostly only I would care about.) But, today I will share the past couple of weeks’ worth of reading. It’s better than ranting about Facebook and the internet, but will get fewer hits, I wager.
Book Club Book
This month, we chose my favorite genre, the memoir, as our book. Becoming, by Michelle Obama, had everything in it I like in a memoir, including figuring out how she ended up where she is, stories about interesting mentors, and from what I can tell, honesty. I always like it when I find things in common with others, and there were a few times when good ole Miche said something like it was coming out of my own mouth. It’s worth reading, especially if you’re familiar with Chicago and can enjoy a trip down memory lane.
I have a Facebook friend (I’ll call her MR, since those are her initials) whose wisdom I admire very much. I’d like to share some of her thoughts and add my own. She recently posted:
As I scroll the feed and see endless perfection and happiness, I reflect on my childhood, youth, teens, to adulthood and reaffirm to myself how unrealistic and unhealthy social media can be if taken literally. This is molding our children[;] many false beliefs and visuals are creating a society stricken with major depression, high anxiety and extremely low self esteem.
Faccebook post, March 11, 2019
Come sit a while in my favorite chair, since I have a lot to say again today.
This friend has recently experienced the loss of a young adult child, and has shared her grief experience and thoughts about her son very openly and honestly. I really appreciate this, because I’ve learned a lot, and her perspective has helped me with my own young adult children and their issues (that’s right; my children have issues). She continues:
As I continue to walk through my life, experiencing the rolling hills, twists, turns and storms, I’m realizing and confirming it’s through my imperfections and dysfunction that helps define who I am.
MR, on Facebook
Any of you who know me personally will recognize that sentiment as something I’ve conveyed many times in one way or another. I firmly believe that if you never screw up, your path to wisdom and inner peace will be long and hard. We grow through our mistakes, learn to forgive and accept forgiveness through them, and gain a sense of community by sharing what we learn.
Sometimes an article floats by on Facebook that really makes me think. Yesterday, this article on the perks of aging that no one talks about did that. The article talks about a woman named Ashton Applewhite, who has been writing about aging and ageism for a while. She spends a lot of time blogging, writing books, and speaking about what is and isn’t ageist. I guess someone has to do this, especially in these times when it’s considered a good idea to point out every instance of every -ism that you come across and try to make whoever made the mistake feel very, very bad for their ignorance or innocence (I may have issues with this, but it’s off topic).
That’s right. 61. Not 16.
In between lots of ads, the article makes points that may be new to my youngr friends, but are obvious to me. For example, my favorite: when you get to a certain age, the amount of f***s you give about other people’s opinions of you diminishes greatly.
I got to sit on the front porch for a few minutes this morning. Finally. And I got excellent news!
Here’s where I saw the swallows. You can also see trees budding out. Ah.
A familiar chirp told me to look up. And oh happy day, there were barn swallows scoping out the area. I love watching them swooping around and eating bugs. I don’t mind the two nests they rebuild every year, either. It’s our thanks for their services.
The shrike WAS on that post.
As I was looking for a swallow to take a photo of (failed), I saw another familiar friend, our loggerhead shrike. These guys take care of larger bugs for us and leave them impaled on barbed wire fences. I wrote a lot about them when I went on a field trip looking for them at last year’s Master Naturalist conference.
I also love porch sitting.
One reason I love porch sitting is the easy bird watching. I’ve seen a red-tailed hawk, black buzzards, mockingbirds, and of course, the field sparrows, too. I hear crows. I sure wish my laptop battery wasn’t dead, so I could do my work outside.
Hello again, friends and readers. I’ve been asked to occaasionally blog about the goings-on at the Milam Community Theater group, which I’m very happy to do. My hope is that those of you in and around Milam County will come join us for a performance or volunteer to help out in some way.
A Sneak Peak
These ladies look like they mean business.
Last night, I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek into the MCT’s latest production, the Kitchen Witches, a darned funny play by Caroline Smith, starring Mona Butala and Martha Lee. They are joined by Jonathon Deal, who is also the director, and the trio make for some fun moments. (For more on the play and actors, visit their Playbill page, which has some good photos and information.)
Mandi pays attention to the action on stage so she can make the lights and sound seem effortless. She even has a cameo appearance in the play.
I was up in the balcony-level booth with my friend Mandi. the Queen of Sound and Lighting for the production. I’d never been upstair at the Lester and Beatrice Williams Event Center before, so I enjoyed tripping around on steps and checking out the equipment. They have a really good sound board, and some high-tech new speakers, which make a big difference in the sound.
Modernity.
Mandi was kind enough to give me a tour backstage, so I got to see the new wall system they have, and even to glimse into the glamorous dressing rooms the actors share. I was kidding about glamorous, but it is nice and clean.
Action!
Here’s the set from way up high. I love the floors.
The most fun was being the only actual audience member at the dress rehearsal. I was able to enjoy the experience and watch Mandi expertly bring in music and lights exactly when needed (mostly). I also was impressed at how the stage hands brought in and removed props quickly and efficiently (mostly).
The kitchen witches engaging in snappy comebacks, of which there are many in the play.
The set is really a good kitchen (it has a genuine kitchen island, from the kitchen in the building!), and the actors really are enjoying their parts. I’m always impressed by how they not only memorize lines, but come across as so authentic and genuine. And funny. Don’t forget that. I kept laughing, even though I was trying to be quiet.
Thanks to the team for letting me sit in.
Hey, do you want to see it, too?
Well, of course you want to see this play! As always, MCT productions are among the highlights of life in Cameron, and this is no exception. This post is probably going out a bit late for you to make the dinner theater opening night tonight, but you have plenty more opportunities this weekend and next weekend (performances are March 8-10 and 15-17). Check the website or Facebook page for exact times and prices.
Plays are at 408 S. Columbus Avenue, Cameron. There’s a sign pointing to the Williams Event Center from US 190, if you need help finding it. The turmoff is right near where the feed store used to be (that’s a country way of giving directions).
And you know, if you are reading this after March 2019, don’t despair! MCT always has something in the works. Upcoming productions include Peter Pan (youth play) and Driving Miss Daisy, among others.
So please attend a production, sponsor them if you can (our company is a sponsor!), or even try out and be a part of a production.
Now that I’ve slept, maybe I can share some of the depth and variety of the things I learned at the Bandera County Watersheds Riparian Training I attended on Wednesday, March 6. The event was held in Bandera (one of the most attractive small towns I ever saw and VERY consistent in its cowboy theme), and the weather improved enough that the outdoo parts were not unbearable. There were at least 30 participants, ranging from fellow Master Naturalists to water management professionals to interested landowners.
This young man was full of information. I’d love to hear him again.
Much of the day was spent indoors, however, as a team of water management experts from many different agencies shared their knowledge of managing the areas alongside rivers, creeks, and streams. These are called riparian areas, and they are a very important part of water management, but one that has been misunderstood a lot in the past.
Our scenic location.
Sadly, the beautifully manicured lawns and parkscapes we often see, where people walk up and down to admire the view, are not actually what our waterways need. The need a riparian buffer of plants that love water or theive near it and trees that are of various ages, so that when they die or fall into the water, there are future trees to replace them.
But I just thought it was redundant to label this occasional treat beverage as “sparkling flavored soda.” Isn’t all soda sparkling?
The Hermits' Rest 