dailyprompt – Page 18 – The Hermits' Rest

Birds, Woods, Gifts

Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.

Being out camping makes it easy to talk about two of the best gifts I’ve ever received, and share my famous/endless nature photos with y’all, too.

Maybe a beaver pond on Lake Ray Roberts.

I talked about this back when I got it, but I’ll repeat that my bird journal is a gift that means a lot to me. The amount of time my husband put into designing the format, finding hundreds of bird pictures, printing the book, then binding it himself was considerable! It’s not just a journal for writing down my sightings, but it’s also made just for me. I use it daily and am reminded of all the kindness deep within Lee’s hermit heart.

The other gift I’ve appreciated a lot is the opportunity to be out in nature so much since we got this motorhome. It’s helped keep me mentally and physically healthy. Lee drives me quite cheerfully and is fine when I go away for over three hours looking at plants and birds. He also kindly drives me to horse events, which are another element of my sanity.

I think we’re getting our money’s worth with this monster.

I may have overdone it today, since my stomach has been unhappy and hiking the entire equestrian trail probably didn’t help it. But I lived.

The trail passed an old homestead chimney.

The trail was worth it, with interesting sights I didn’t expect. The part of the park I was in today has much more varied microclimates, and there was evidence of a controlled burn not too long ago. I could also see that a lot of brush had been cut back, perhaps to create more prairie areas.

The fire may also help in another way. I was charmed to realize I’d walked into a pine forest. It’s apparently cut off from the piney woods, like lost pines near Austin. The fire may encourage more young pine trees. They are needed, because many of the pines I saw were quite old. They were just beautiful.

I managed to see and hear more birds today. Many were by water, including the pond shown at the top of this post. I heard a belted kingfisher go on and on, along with four woodpeckers and many small birds. At one point I saw a downy and red-bellied woodpecker on the same tree! Near there I flushed an owl, which was another fun surprise. All my sightings went into Merlin, because they are tallied as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count . I’m happy to participate in this!

I did run into a few folks on the trail, two sets with unleashed dogs, and three horse groups. I was able to warn two groups of a tree that was blocking the path. The third group was four Mexican-American men with authentic outfits, great hats, and excellent cowboy hats. Their horses were fancy as they were, too.

I politely didn’t photograph the riders, but this is the tree. It must have fallen recently, because the trails are well maintained.

It was a lot of fun, even with a stomach ache. I did take it easy the rest of the day. We watched The Big Year, which is still very funny, and I was impressed by how much more I understood about the bird content than I did when the movie came out. It’s funny even for non birders.

Here’s where I walked today. Yesterday I walked north to Quail Run.

Now to get ready to work in the morning then drive home. I’m glad I can work in the evening to make up for the drive time. Of course, it’s nice and warm here starting tomorrow. But it will be warm at home, so I can horse around.

Isn’t That a Loaded Question?

Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

These days “patriot” doesn’t mean what I used to think it meant. So I’m not gonna declare myself either a patriot or a non-patriot. I am not of the opinion that the place I was born is better than any other place. Or worse. Every place has pluses and minuses.

Even the place I live, Texas, has its good points. (Let’s skip the bad points, I don’t have the energy…sorta like our power grid.)

That was my graceful transition into how much I enjoy the State Park system in Texas. Each one we visit is so different! I’m glad I had a chance to explore Ray Roberts State Park before the cold front came through and the camping area filled up. I got to see and hear all the wildlife before boats and screaming kids took over. Kids. So cute until the screech.

Anyway, work was challenging today, so a breakfast and lunch walk both helped, as did the post-work decompression (I sighed a lot at my laptop).

In the early walk I mostly listened to birds, happy to find them. There was even an Osprey. I heard fish jumping and annoyed a deer who was just trying to relieve herself.

I was proud of myself for seeing a bluebird in my binoculars before Merlin heard it! The biggest surprise was hearing wild turkeys twice. It was a relief from crows and geese.

We crows are magnificent. We grace you with our caws.

The lunch walk took me down some fun little trails that eventually led to the equestrian area.

The equestrian camping area is really nice and well maintained by a group of dedicated people. The stalls are in great shape, have roofs, and even include gutters. I talked to a couple of women who love the trails.

You pull your trailer right up to the stalls.

After work it was still pretty nice outside so Lee walked on the concrete path with me for a while. Wow it would be great for cycling.

I did a pretty good job sticking to the path as I enjoyed the hills, watched woodpeckers at work, and checked out the iron-rich rocks in this part of the state. I love seeing how different it is just a few hours away from home.

Eventually I got to the huge recreation area where there is a beach, boat ramps, playgrounds, and parking galore. This place must hop when it’s warmer. I left there quickly and instead focused on this beautiful inlet near some primitive camping.

Eventually I headed back on dirt trails, even though I’d worn the walking shoes, not the hiking boots. I was rewarded with more cool rocks and more deer.

As the park filled up, Lee talked to people. I went inside and knitted. We enjoyed mindless television thanks to the new antenna that’s finally replaced the one the trees on Tarrin’s road ate. There were 80 channels! The local television commercials reminded me of what I don’t like about Texas (political ads). Tomorrow I get to relax, though I’ll go hike even in the cold!

Enjoy more photos!

Filched Feathers

Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?

No doubt I’ve accidentally done something I’m not supposed to do more than once and still don’t know it. But one I do know about is that for a while I had a collection of bird feathers I’d found on the ground on the ranch. There were striped hawk feathers, huge black vulture feathers, etc.

Here’s some feathery grass. It’s a bluestem.

In my Master Naturalist training I learned that it’s against the law to collect and display native wild bird feathers unless you’re a Native American doing it for spiritual reasons. I think the Migratory Bird Act is the law. It’s so people won’t hurt birds to make hats or other decorative objects.

Fly free, migratory birds! These are geese, probably Canada geese, photobombed by a tern.

I set my wild feathers free and now happily display domestic chicken feathers. It seems like if the feather fell out for bird-related reasons, like fighting or molting, it wouldn’t harm anything. Oh well. I will look at feathers on birds. That’s fine.

Birds I looked at today included a lot of coots.

Yes, we have flown the coop once again (more bird talk) and Seneca the motorhome brought us to Ray Roberts State Park, Isle de Bois unit. This lake provides Dallas and Denton their water.

It’s still looking pretty wintry up here, but we are right on the lake.

Note all the logs. I guess there was a bad storm up here recently, because there is a big mess in the campground. It’s sort of sad. I hope the trails look better! The lake gives great views, though.

We arrived just at sunset. I had to get work done first.

I have seen more birds than I’ve heard, so far. There are very busy white-throated sparrows, loud crows, cardinals, and great blue herons that make noise. But the coots, ducks, geese, and terns didn’t have much to say. The terns were diving from the air, and the coots and ring-necked ducks were diving from the water. it’s lots of fun to watch. I’ll enjoy working from the picnic table tomorrow!

These are the ducks. I know, hard to tell. They have longer black bills. Coots have short white ones. My binoculars helped.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to some quiet hiking. They have paved trails! There’s also an equestrian area to check out. Saturday it will be colder, but I brought my trusty winter hiking clothing AND hiking boots that aren’t broken! I’m set.

So pretty here. The white dots are a plane and its reflection.

The horses and dogs have good care, so all should be well at home. Of course we miss them. But quiet is nice. Enjoy more pictures.

Still a Weird Happy

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

Yes, if there was a biography about me (Zzz) it would be called Still a Weird Happy. That was the name of our club of misfit hippy girls in 7th grade, which we turned into imaginary alien friends. Anita and I wrote stories about the Weird Happys (spelled that way on purpose) when we were young teens.

All of us Weird Happys were odd in one way or another, both the humans and the imaginary ones. But we embraced it. And I’ve always tried to keep that attitude. (I was trying to write something nice, but I’ve been interrupted five times now.)

I interrupt this whine with a hairy buttercup. They are so shiny.

Yeah, I’ve skipped blogging for a couple of days, because I’ve felt pretty boring. It’s been fine, just nothing extraordinary. I had a good lesson on Apache yesterday, and it was great to have him rideable again. Here he is very tired after Tarrin made him do things he didn’t want to do.

Even his new brow band didn’t perk him up.

Drew seems better, too. Today I was able to exercise him and groom him normally. He just had one little expression of annoyance when cantering. I was able to remove his burs and everything. Wow, both horses doing okay! It must be time to leave town for a few days!

I’m in love with Mabel now and let her nip me.

The other mildly interesting events this week so far were bird related. On Monday, I had the chance to hang out in the back yard and listen for birds around sunset. I was entranced at the sound of two great horned owls calling to each other. Mourning doves were also cooing away, which was so soothing!

And yesterday I was out walking when two red-tailed hawks flew right over my head, calling and calling.

They began their love dance, and I watched the whole thing! Next, they flew over to the big electric pole and began making little cooing chortling sounds. I’d never heard hawks speaking their love language before. What a privilege!

Soon enough, they flew off together. I saw and heard them again today. I wonder if these are the same ones I saw a few weeks ago?

I never see these guys at the same time I see the red-shouldered hawks or harrier. That’s unlike the woodpeckers, who seem to all hang out at the same time. Today I heard a Downy, a Ladderback, and a Pileated within 5 minutes of each other.

Yes, my life is calm right now. I’m loving my work and enjoying my leisure, which is pretty great. However, if you have a spare moment, please send healing vibes to my Purple Martin-loving friend, Donna, who had back surgery, as well as to family members dealing with challenges.

Stay weird. Be happy.

What’s New, Newshounds?

You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?

If I got great news, I’d tell the people in my household, then call Anita and Mike, because they are the people I tell stuff to. Then I’d tell my local friends email chain, my old LLL friend Facebook group, my horse friends, and my other Facebook friend group who I’ve been friends with before there was anything other than email. I guess I’d then go out with the horses and think about things. I might do the horse part first.

What news do I have for you blog readers today? There isn’t too much, since we got lots and lots of rain. All good. Not like mudslide rain, just standing water that’s not conducive to outdoor activities.

February showers bring happy wildflowers.

But everybody at our house did go look at paint colors for the renovation project house. Mmm, two shades of white. But, it had to be whites that complement pink and tan, the colors of the retro tile we are keeping.

I got paint samples to take over to the house to see how they go with the brick (peach) and roof (gray/green/brown). I want a grayish green for the trim and a dark apricot for the doors. We will see if any of them look okay or if we have to be more conservative.

We also went all the way to Temple to look at tile and floors for the house. No final decision was made, but it was fun looking. We also had a good lunch (especially the squash casserole thing) and ran into our next-door neighbors/relatives. It’s rare that all five of us are in the same place. We are a happy, yet hermit-like family.

Floor candidate. Goes with creamy colors.

I’m glad Apache is better about his medication now, or I’d have gotten extra wet trying to get it to him. The other horses will get their rations whenever it isn’t raining tomorrow. It was slippery out there!

No bird news from here. I saw sparrows and a hawk. Oh, and doves in Temple.

I saw this tiny arachnid on the new drywall.

Newshounds, I’m sure you wished for more, but I doubt you want to read the Jackson Browne lyrics I got all misty over and posted on Facebook. You can go listen to the version I watched tonight. Perfect for a reflective old imperfect human, even if he did write These Days at 16.

It’s a Carousel, Life

Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?

Probably many of us have waxed and waned in interests throughout life. My hobbies have remained pretty darned consistent, though. I did stop sewing (mostly quilts) for some reason, around the time when my other upheavals were heaving (divorce and nonprofit organization going up in flames). I still like reading, knitting, horses, nature, and hiking. Oh, and fingernail polish. That’s a weird one.

The amount of doing of any one thing goes up and down, of course. It’s part of the carousel of time. Oh wait, that’s some old song.

Speaking of carousels, my horses have made me feel like I’m on one lately. Up and down. But hey, today the horsies are on the up side (by the way I read that PETA wants to ban representing horses on carousels because that encourages people to think of them as conveyances — oy).

I vote for snapping turtles on carousels. (I ran into this one while bird watching in the woods.)

In addition to receiving their charming custom halters in the mail today, Apache and Drew both are doing better.

Tarrin came here again today for training and we ended up having a lot of fun. First she worked with the Problem Child, Droodles. He was much less reactive today, and after a bit of work on politeness, was able to get in some good ground work, including cantering (some even good cantering).

I laughed at how disdainful they appeared.

He seemed to look forward to his massage.

I had no trouble working with him, either, though he had a little canter meltdown that I took care of just fine. I’m improving.

Apache seemed glad to get back in the saddle today. Like he did yesterday, he did groundwork with glee. Tarrin said his canters were impressive, and that he did flying lead changes, like a fancy horse. He had so much energy that it was catching.

We did have to calm down when I got to ride him (yay!). Luckily all that rushing around tired him out a bit. We had some nice success working on a relaxed walk and some smooth trot transitions. That was so much fun to work on.

We’re both a bit old to be doing this but we don’t care.

It appears he didn’t lose what we’d been working on before the abscess. That doesn’t surprise me. He’s always been able to pick right up where he left off. I’m so proud of him.

After we finished, Tarrin, her cousin, Lee, and I all went in the tack room and went through some of the stuff that came with the trailer. Some things there were so many of that I donated them to the prize collection for Working Horse Central shows. I should have thought of that sooner.

Tarrin was great at spotting what was trash (mechanical hackamores, stud chains) and treasures (this custom bit I’m trying to clean up).

She also encouraged me to take parts of some of the fancy bridles off and see if they would work on Apache’s bitless bridle. Now he has a fancy brow band. I can’t wait to try it on.

By the time they left, the prizes took up lots of space in Tarrin’s truck, plus I was able to give her cousin a horse blanket and other things. I got some really nice brushes I didn’t realize were in there. Pretty exciting stuff!

Daily Bird

I was saddened to see that my big bird recording got trashed this morning, but I was able to remember most of what it heard. Besides, my walk in the woods was fun, since I got to see plants, fish, and the snapping turtle.

I’ll give you this photo and not one of the hairy fungus growing on cow poop. You’re welcome.

I’ll let those cheerful red-winged blackbirds be bird of the day, since I talked about their pals the cowbirds yesterday.

My dad hated these guys. The males would always go after him at our South Florida house when he was mowing the grass between our property and a Corps of Engineers canal. He also said they never shut up. That’s sort of true, though the house sparrows have them beat.

I didn’t realize the females arrived before the males until this year. They just make a clicking sound as they fly overhead in large flocks. The males show up around Imbolc and perch in trees or on wires loudly singing their distinctive songs. They make me think of wildflower season. Of course, there aren’t many of those yet. Just the tiny ones.

This speedwell blossom is about 1/4” wide.

I hope you’re able to find an up part on your life carousel. But it’s true that getting to a high point is more fun when you start low. I think.

Dang. These blogs would be a LOT better if I wasn’t always writing when I’m sleepy.

I Like Candy?

What’s your favorite candy?

Weird question. I’d say my current fave is a salted caramel milk chocolate square thing you can get from Costco. One is plenty.

I needed a Milky Way bar this afternoon to give me energy to do chores after work. I wish it had helped me realize my Master Naturalist meeting was tonight. I wrote it down on the wrong Thursday in my calendar. Buh.

Before spacing out, I had a long but fun day, especially when a nice woman taught me how to build a chat bot in MS Teams. I’m not sure if it’s what I actually need, but I had fun messing with the technology.

Then I headed out to horse world without a care in the world.

Drew walked right up to me and indicated he was not interested in working with me, so I put him in his pen and had fun with Apache. He was very interested in getting some fun and exercise in. He acted thrilled to be groomed (I was thrilled to groom him, because he’s shedding! On time! The medicine may be working!

When I took him out to do some slow walk and trot loops (adding more straight walking in), he decided to jump the cavaletti. After a try or two he was trotting over all the logs with vigor. When I sent him the other way after a bit of a rest, he got the zoomies and literally flew over everything at a canter, three times. When I stopped him, he had that look on his face he gets when he knows he did a good thing.

So we left all the other horses to wait for supper while we had a nice walk over to some old grass that won’t kill him, as a reward. I’m glad I had that Milky Way bar, because he had me zipping with him. It was fun.

Daily Bird

Today I heard yet another sound I’d been missing since summer, the sound of a mockingbird going through its repertoire of songs. All winter they’ve just been chirping, like the cardinals and blackbirds also did. I reveled in my mini concert this morning!

Other birds are singing more rather than just giving short calls. The tufted titmice are now bellowing their shrill song, and to my surprise, the brown-headed cowbird has a very pleasant tinkling chiming song that I heard a lot today. See, they aren’t all bad.

Gimme a Break

Do you need a break? From what?

For one thing, I need a break from blogging, so this will be brief. I need a break from one other thing, and it’s the endless rehashing of unimportant “news” items.

I’d love to read or hear a daily summation of facts about local, state, national, and international news. Separately, I’d enjoy choosing some analysis by people I trust. Once. Not the same news with one extra nugget each time à la CNN.

And if I want to read about which singer is dating which athlete or which member of the British royal family had surgery, I could go read People. Separately.

Daily Bird

Today I saw one of my favorite raptors doing its job. The Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius) is a resident during its nonbreeding months. I love watching them flying low over the fallow cropland and pastures, looking for field mice. I’ve seen them catch their prey more than once.

I was feeling jealous of my friend Pamela, who lives not too far from here, because she’d been seeing one and I hadn’t. But now I’m happy to see this striking bird with the interesting habits over here in Walkers Creek!

I Like the Internet but Also Horses

The most important invention in your lifetime is…

I was going to say something silly about this question, then I thought about how many friendships and connections I’ve made since I got online back in the olden days of the 1980s. So, thanks, Al Gore, for inventing the internet. (I was at the University of Illinois at the right time, so I do sorta know how it all really went down.) Yes, the internet was important to me, the good and bad aspects!

Still, the parts of my life that are in person are much of what’s made my life good. I’m feeling a little better about my living, breathing horse buddies today. Apache and Drew must be exhausted from all their adventures the last few days. And to top it off, I wormed them! (Well, Tarrin wormed Droodles, because I was worried he’d chomp on me.)

So, today was supposed to be a one-horse lesson with Lee driving, since Sara is unavailable. Instead I loaded both my dysfunctional steeds in the trailer to see what could be done with them.

Drew started the day not letting me groom him, so that saved some time. When Tarrin looked at him, his neck was better, but his poll (top of head) was a mess. She spent a long time working on it, then his legs. His whole spine must hurt, which is why I couldn’t brush his tail. Tarrin’s convinced he hurt himself and pulled a lot of muscles, plus may have been kicked on his side. I think that’s likely, from observation.

Once she did all that, he did all kinds of yawning and releasing, like his did after his trim yesterday. And when she was leading him to the lesson area, he kept rubbing his nose along the ground.

He did okay doing some ground work, so maybe he’s feeling better. My job is to exercise him first, then try to groom him. I have ways to stop him from biting, too, so we’re hoping he will heal.

Apache is a happier story. The fancy boots seem to have done the trick, and he was able to do ground work just fine. We may get to ride in Friday. I’m so relieved. It’s hard with both horses being broken.

Apache is also taking his medication well now, and was easy to worm. And the best news? He’s starting to shed! Maybe he’ll be more comfortable soon!

That’s enough blah blah about horses. I really should start writing in my horse journal again so I don’t fill the blog with all horses all the time. Here’s a bird. It was trying to escape.

Perspectives of a Crone

How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?

I’ll answer this question about the passage of time. The older I’ve gotten, the more I see life as a gift to be savored and enjoyed, not rushed through. I enjoy each day now, rather than waiting impatiently for some future when things will get better or I’ll achieve some goal.

These are the good old days, as Carly Simon said 50 years or so ago.

Horse butts tell you the wind is coming from the west.

Today was windy and cool, but I stood outside and savored the trees and birds anyway. My freshly washed hair did suffer.

By making even the drudgery of the day pleasant, I pleased myself very much. I had a fun discussion about horse personalities with a Tractor Supply worker while we reassured the woman around my age who was being trained on the cash register that she’ll figure it out. Why rush to get out? I met two nice people, and the horse owner told me it was great meeting me.

I then had a perfectly fine time in the local grocery store, too. It’s amazing what treating people nicely can do for your day.

This is the perspective I’ve gained as I’ve entered my “crone” phase of life. I’ve still got lots more wisdom to gain, but I like where I am now.

Horse report: Apache seems happy with his boots. Drew was fine until I tried to brush his tail and mane. Out came the teeth. Puzzling. Tomorrow is farrier day. We will see what that brings.