karst – The Hermits' Rest

Book Report: Navigating Rocky Terrain

I got this book, with the complete title of Navigating Rocky Terrain: Caves, Karsts, and the Soul of Unseen Spaces, at the Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting last week. It’s a 2024 book by Laurie Roath Frazier, a fellow Master Naturalist in the chapter that hosted the meeting. She wrote the essay collection while dealing with a series of the holes her losses caused in her life by finding healing in the cracks and crevices of the Texas Hill Country, a landscape very familiar to me, where I also found comfort in hard times.

Since I’m also a huge fan of the unique features of the karst formations I lived in for 25 years, I figured I’d enjoy reading about Roath’s quests and observations. I didn’t expect to be so moved by her work with her inner rocky terrain. It reminded me so much of when my life was fractured by divorce, mental health challenges (mine and a child’s), and fear for the future.

She’s a good writer, though I wish there was more of an arc connecting the essays and that there was some resolution to pieces of her life—like, what happened with her birth family? But I enjoyed both the personal parts and the more scientific information about caves, limestone, bats, lakes, and crevices. And of course, it was nice to read about the Sacred Springs in San Marcos, where I’d just had such a moving experience.

If you’re a fan of nature, geology, or personal growth, you’ll enjoy this little book and support a Master Naturalist!

I hope to share it with friends!

Something else I’ll treasure from the meeting last week: I now can tell you that this is a female house fly. Yep. Males’ eyes look like one big eye.

Friday Play Day

Today was just a bonus day. We were all so thrilled we lived after lightning struck so close to our campsites, that my friends and I mostly relaxed at Cedar Breaks Park today.

Poor tree! Just a few feet from our friends!

I spent a lot of time taking photos of plants and insects all day. Especially fun was a walk around Lake Georgetown with my old friends Hella and Jennifer. I shared some stuff I knew about plants, and they helped me spot things like delicious dewberries. Hella’s dog, Mocha, also enjoyed the fruit!

I’m pretty sure she had as much fun as we did.

Probably our favorite find was this vigorous vine with big, purple flowers. It was new to us all. It’s just gorgeous, violet twining snapdragon (Maurandella antirrhiniflora).

We saw dozens of plants, but my favorite photo was this one. I think I’ll print it.

After our walk, I mostly just hung around talking to friends and enjoying nature. I enjoyed a variety of butterflies and birds, mostly familiar friends, but charming nonetheless.

Turkey vultures kept flying right over us

Now some people have said, “Eww,” to my favorite discovery today. I was absolutely thrilled to see this new and exciting creature. It’s a giant desert centipede (Scolopendra heros). Wow, it’s big and colorful. Be sure to watch the video.

Giant centipede in action

It’s quite beautiful here in the familiar geography of where I lived for so many years. Such variety!

Jennifer amid cedar sage, a plant only found in these cedar brakes.

There’s so much more but I’m too tired to keep going. Another day camping with my old church friends awaits!

The Love of Karst

Expect scenery posts for the next few days! Sadly, I don’t have any great scenery from yesterday, because I was driving, and I’m not one of those folks who uses their phone and drives, especially on hilly two-lane roads. Forgive my stand-in photos.

Yes, Anita and I spent three wonderful hours (minus 15 minutes on Interstate 35) traveling the back roads between Cameron and Fredericksburg. It was glorious. The first part of the trip, heading to Florence, was all new to me. There are some lovely fancy ranches on the road we took.

When we got to more familiar territory for me, I got to show Anita all my favorite small towns, like Bertram, Burnet, and Buchanan Dam. This is the heart of the Texas Hill Country/Highland Lakes area where Lee and I looked and looked for just the right property to retire to before calling Sara and deciding to buy the Hermits’ Rest, instead.

There are beautiful hills, long vistas, the lakes along the Colorado River, and the BEST thing: the karst! All around Inks Lake and Marble Falls is the beautiful red granite (the same stuff that makes up Enchanted Rock). Much of it is right on the surface, creating breath-taking views.

This is our second year using the pop-up tree in a vacation rental. This also makes me happy.

I have to admit that when we crested a hill and I saw the lakes and the rocks, I got all emotional and started to cry. I really, really love this part of Texas. My heart filled with joy and I had to slow down to look at it all.

This area has the Canyon of the Eagles where you can take a boat tour that I have never been on, plus Longhorn Cavern, and so much more. Go there, if you ever get the chance.

Tried to get a free photo of a sunset as good as the one last night. Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com

As we headed towards Fredericksburg, the sun was going down. Oh wow, there were shades of orange I’d never seen in a sunset, sort of melon orange. And as it got more and more purple, even the dead grass on the sid of the road reflected it, and the earth was awash in pink and purple. You can use your imagination, but it won’t do the real thing justice. It will live in my mind!

For the first day of a vacation, this was about as good as it gets. We got to our rental house, which is incredibly thematic. If there’s a Santa Fe kind of item, it’s here. We are really enjoying the rugs and pottery, and I’ll share more about it later.

We decorated for Christmas, and are ready for fun!

Karst Preserve Bonus Field Trip

While we were exploring the Avery Ranch cave, I remembered where I’d seen other caves in the neighborhood over from the one we were in, Oak Brook. I suggested that, if anyone wanted to go look at other local caves, I’d take them there. Unfortunately, my memory issues made giving directions stink, and since I didn’t remember the name of the place we could not look it up. So, only one carload made it.

karst2 — Typical karst pools that form in wet periods. I need to go back in spring to figure out what kind of little plants bloom here. They have yellow flowers and may be lichen.

However, we had a great time at the Oak Brook Karst Preserve once we found it. I have some bittersweet memories of this spot, because I used to go over there long ago, when I was sad about marital issues, to be sad where my kids couldn’t see me. I gave my troubles to Mother Earth, I guess. On a happier note, my traveling companions liked it for more Master Naturalist reasons—flora and fauna!

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