autumn – The Hermits' Rest

Let’s Enjoy Late Autumn

My thoughts on deep subjects will have to wait until tomorrow. Work was quite interesting today but tired my brain out. I was also still a bit tired from being around people at the Master Naturalist holiday meeting. It was very pleasant, but I got peopled out.

Today was beautiful if you like fog. I certainly do. I run around taking pictures of spiderwebs and trees.

The weather forecast said it would be sunny and warmer, and it did get quite pleasant in the afternoon, but I could look directly at the sun.

It was very nice for doing animal chores and watching the birds. The light made autumn leaves especially bright to my eyes.

I even ate my evening meal out in the birding area. I was rewarded by visits from all the sparrows and two pairs of owls, Great Horned and Barred, trying to out-hoot each other. That shut the hawks and crows up! Sunset, a chill in the air, and an owl chorus make for an unforgettable late autumn respite!

No respite for Carlton, who really wanted to lick my bowl. That look didn’t work.

Autumn in Texas

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.

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.

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.

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.

Anything Good to Say Today?

Let’s see, autumnal equinox or Mabon occurred today. At least in the wheel of the year there is balance between dark and light twice a year, which is more than you can say about other forces at work in the world.

Um, and it’s New Year’s in the Hebrew calendar. I ate some honey and wished my many Jewish friends a good new year. We could all use one.

That’s what I’ve got for today…wait a sec, I did enjoy a very pleasant hike on the Lakeside Trail along Bob Sandlin Lake. I saw a Brown Thrasher and enjoyed many pretty views.

In honor of the season I tried to find a sampling of autumn leaves. There were a few. It’s still a while before Texas Autumn.

Back at home I was reminded that daily annoyances do not ever disappear (and are normal). I couldn’t get the tack room door to open all the way, so I called my son to the rescue, only to find out the door is a mess. He says maybe he can lower the steps. In the meantime, it’s hard to get the horse dishes through the opening.

I also nearly broke the freezer shelf that’s already partly broken. So much is broken that I can’t fix! My bathroom sink in the motorhome no longer works, my bedroom slide out is dead again, the generator won’t start, yadda yadda. Recreational vehicles are not very sturdy. Nor are houses. They all fall apart and you need to find people to fix them. As we get older, there’s more we can’t do ourselves. No wonder people move into those senior care places. They have maintenance staff.

Just whining. All will be well. I just realized this afternoon that I hit a limit on broken things not bothering me. I must do a reset or fix something!

I’ll think back on cool sights, like this blue-tipped dancer.

Obviously there was not all that much great today, but I treasure the good parts!

Home and Nature’s Glory

We made it home from Cleburne by going the back way. We saw towns we never heard of, and it was a lot less stressful than the Interstate.

I’ll miss the waterfowl. That’s a cormorant and a coot.

We were able to stay most of the day, so I got another nice hike around the lake. I disturbed many vultures, but they came back as soon as I left. Lots of flappy flappy wings going on.

The rest of the walk was filled with Robins rustling in the leaves. They were everywhere! Eventually I found the rest of the songbirds. I love the different titmice calling back and forth.

Most of my photos are of dried flowers and Shumard Red Oaks. But why not? They are beautiful.

The long weekend was very helpful for me. I made some decisions for the future that put me at ease at least a bit, and I look forward to being with friends and coworkers like normal.

Now, here are a few more photos, since I have bandwidth today.

What Could I Do Less Of?

What could you do less of?

Oh, probably blog. So here are photos, mostly of autumn. And Penney.

A State Park in December

December is a good month to travel around Texas, because it’s not blazingly hot and there are fewer bugs and things that sting. For our fun outing on our anniversary weekend, Lee and I went to Mother Neff State Park, which has the honor of being the first park in the state park system. It’s located near McGregor, Texas, which is also (in)famous these days for being the home of a SpaceX facility. From the Hermits’ Rest, we can feel when they test rockets. From our vacation rental, it feels like a volcano is erupting or something. All the things in the tiny house rattled and moved around. I’m glad I don’t live here.

As for the park, it was very pleasant, and we enjoyed this year’s uncharacteristically bright autumn colors as we did a walk through a prairie and visited a cave and some other trails near a creek. Sadly, much of the park is closed to the public due to bad flooding for the past 15 years. All the historic buildings and the original park headquarters can’t be used anymore. The good news is that there are really great brand-new RV camping facilities now and a gorgeous park headquarters, where they were having Christmas activities for kids and a Santa. They were also having a geocaching demonstration. Good job, park volunteers!

I’m glad I felt well enough to walk around and enjoy the sights and (a bit of) the woodsy smells in this pretty area. The flame sumac was particularly lovely, and there were also oaks and other colorful trees.

I didn’t see any fascinating birds, just the usual vultures, cardinals, and wrens (heard mostly). I did enjoy a harvester ant nest, which always makes me happy to see (that means the fire ants haven’t killed everything else off), and I found a nice big beetle.

Mostly, it was just good to get outdoors and enjoy a part of Texas I hadn’t spent much time in. The sounds of Fort Hood and SpaceX reminded me that I wasn’t far from manmade weirdness, but that’s all right.

I’m sure we’ll be back here again. The place we stayed was so quiet. There were just a couple of dogs and a donkey (which I enjoyed, of course) and no loud trucks or people. I got good ideas for the Red House, too.

But it’s time to go home and get ready for visitors at the ranch and see my horses and dogs. I hope you had a reasonable weekend. I only have a lingering runny nose to remind me of the endless viral nonsense I’ve been dealing with, so I can now look forward to fun and learning once again1

We Interrupt This Scenic Beauty…

…with a whine

The height of “fall color” has arrived, and I’m really enjoying looking at it.

But oh my goodness, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired! How long can a cold last, anyway? How much mucous can one nasal cavity hold? I guess I am going to find out, because I feel just awful, still.

I had 5 straight hours of meetings this morning, many of which required speaking and acting intelligent. That was no easy task. And before the weather gets bad again, I want to ride Apache and Drew. But I feel like crap.

I got to wondering if maybe this is more than a cold, so I took yet another COVID test, but it just mocked me.

I had been thinking COVID because I am tired and if I exercise a lot, it’s hard to breathe. But hey, a cold will do that, too. Or maybe the flu tests missed some kind of flu and I have that. All I know is I’m almost finished with antibiotics, which means I’ll probably get a sinus infection next. (Yes, I take probiotics.)

That brush pile may be ugly, but it houses a lot of white-crowned sparrows!

Anyway, that’s my whine. I am tired of being sick, even if I’m a Bad Ass, according to my coworker who sent a mug just like hers. That was a kind gesture, wasn’t it? And yes, I look like I feel. Crappy.

One more meeting and I can collapse.

Autumn of Life Is Here

When the fall color arrives here in the middle of Texas, it’s subtle, and you don’t see it coming. I love this season and take comfort in the quiet beauty of our cedar elms and oaks as they prepare to lose their leaves for the winter.

Today dawned sunny and crisp, but not cold. It was a welcome relief to see the sun for the first time in many days, and even more welcome was the sight of the new pond finally completely full and draining to the other side of the dam. After four cloudy, drizzly days, we had a large front move through overnight that brought enough rain to fill the drought-parched tanks for the first time since last spring. I guess the drought is over, at last.

The way this season has crept up reminds me of how I’ve been moving into the autumn of my life and not realizing it. I’ve been lucky to be very healthy since we came out to the Hermits’ Rest and have been growing stronger and more capable thanks to working with the horses and other animals.

But this illness that came up last week has been a very unsubtle reminder that I’m not a young person anymore. A cold that I’d usually just power through over a few days has made me weak and tired. I didn’t expect that at all. I keep trying to go out and get things done, only to feel worse and fall asleep for a few hours. I’m not bouncing back.

I am glad that it’s been so wet and muddy out, because it the weather had been good, I know I’d have been trying to force myself out to work with Drew, who needs me on him and working with him. But our working area is a little lake right now, and I am barely able to maneuver across the muck to get the food buckets for the poor horses. (They are not suffering; in fact, I think they are enjoying the pleasant temperatures and the abundant hay.)

And the horses have puddles to stomp in.

As I’m pulling myself out of the depression episode and feeling my mortality more than usual, it’s taking effort to not go into reflective mode and dwell on goals not achieved, mistakes made, and errors unaddressed. The sun’s helping me remind myself that I’m still able to learn new things, be kind to those who’ll accept kindness, and forgive others.

I should do more looking at reflections and less reflecting. This is the creek, with water at last.

While it’s true that I notice my memory failing and don’t know how much longer I’ll be a useful member of society, I do have confidence that no matter what, I’ll be able to enjoy each new autumn when it arrives. It may just be different from now on as I go from the autumn to the winter of life.

Enjoying Life

Why not? I was all tired after helping a lot of folks at work, but when I went out to see the horses, I felt so much better that I did my scheduled ride and enjoyed the nice afternoon.

I had to replace the chairs, but these match better anyway. And one works as a mounting block!

The bulldozer is still plowing away. I think that project will be done tomorrow. He’s made it wider and is building an excellent berm that will be fun for the horses and provide a bit of sound insulation for us (you know, ALL that traffic we get!). Lee says he keeps finding springs, which doesn’t surprise me. But even in this drought to see moist areas surprises me!

And after yesterday’s rant, I’m embracing my quirky decorating style. It helps that Kathleen has made some really pretty fall and Halloween wreaths and gave me one. Doesn’t it look great?

To top it all off, my additional cream yarn showed up, so I can keep going on my afghan project. in the meantime I made part of a narrow border to put on at the end. This is gonna be a project, all right.

Glad to have some calm time in life every so often.

Empathy for Those in Chronic Pain

It’s been a rather painful couple of weeks for me. Since my ungraceful exit off Apache, I’ve been healing in some ways and getting worse in others. What does an “older” person expect, anyway?

Yesterday’s sunset, to remind me that I am in my sunset years.

The funniest injury I found turned up when I was getting my hair cut. Dan put me under the sink and started scrubbing away at my dirty hair, when I said, “Hey, that hurts!” Apparently, I had hurt the top of my head during the fall. I would assume that the helmet squished down on me. It’s odd that I hadn’t noticed it, but then, I don’t brush my hair often.

My back is also not as happy as it was at first. I feel all right in my recliner and in bed but sitting up and standing aren’t great. Sitting up in a desk chair is no fun at all, so I made myself some lumbar support. I think it is just going to have to heal, or I am going to have to go to the local chiropractor. At least I have insurance that covers it!

The worst has been my pelvic area. That bruise was bad news, and it went deep. I got swollen so much that some of my pants felt tight, and I could feel hard lumps under my protective layer of belly fat. It just hurt, that’s all, and going up stairs was always a reminder that I’d fallen. I still feel it a bit, which makes me glad I was too busy working to go to the Christmas Parade with Lee yesterday (he was helping the Chamber of Commerce). The lifting and toting would not have been a great idea.

Autumn is such a nice time for tree photos. Plus, this is much nicer than a photo of my bruises.

I think the bruising, congestion, and pain are improving. The lumps are smaller. We will see if I am able to get on a horse tomorrow. At least the mounting block at the trainer’s place is taller than mine. I probably shouldn’t have gotten the bare bones model.

Whenever I get a temporary pain it makes me think about people who don’t have the option of healing and have to live with chronic pain. I am so grumpy when I hurt, which doesn’t make me fun to live or work with! I hope I get better at dealing with chronic pain, since my guess is I’ll end up with some sooner or later as I continue my march toward deepest crone-hood.

Fiona’s with me on my march. This is on our walk yesterday.

But, as for today, I’ll take a nice, gentle walk with my horse and donkey, like I’ve been doing all week, and get back to the knitting. The latest striped blanket is coming out different, but just as interesting as the last one.

Perhaps that background blanket is not the best choice.

I’m wishing you all a good weekend. It may cool off, but I’m all prepared after getting some key items in Colorado. Ooh, and I booked another trip there in late summer of next year. Hiking here I come!