It’s not often that your hard work gets tangibly rewarded. For my paying work, knowing I’ve done my best and that what I’ve done may help someone is enough. This week I’ve been quite satisfied to get a lot of that kind of work done.
My rewards are always nature walks.
Some hard work feels very unrewarding, but must be done. I’ve suffered through a lot of financial work this week, which may explain while I’m still having anxiety chest pains. But I’ve trimmed some expenses and added money to my 401K. That’s the direction where I want to go!
On the road to financial peace.
But tonight I did get a reward. Last week I attained 1,000 volunteer hours with Texas Master Naturalists, which was not easy while working full time and owning horses. My friend who also got the achievement took two fewer years than me! I’m proud of Eric, though. He does great work.
I look like a Boy Scout in my vest.
My reward was a gold dragonfly pin. I got bronze for 250 hours and silver for 500. It will be years before I get another one!
So many pins. The colored dragonfly is for initial certification. The enamel pins are for at least 40 volunteer hours and 8 training hours each year. The bottom pins we got for sticking with the program through COVID.
It was nice seeing a full house at tonight’s meeting, with three visitors, even. We enjoyed a great presentation on lichen, where I learned a LOT. I apparently knew very little about lichen. Did you know they are a symbiotic combo of a fungus and algae? And they have a fascinating structure. Now I want to buy a black light flashlight and go out and see which ones glow.
Interesting! Pamela’s toenail polish reacted to the black light.
We are getting good rain again tonight. That’s so good for the ponds. It will probably knock those few autumnal orange leaves I found today down. It’s ok. I see birds better that way.
Still I’m a little surprised that I managed to get in so many interesting observations when camping under an official “heat dome” phenomenon. I think what helped was that some of the interesting things showed up right next to me.
This little feller was conveniently on my hand this morning. It’s a bronze jumping spider.
It also helps to be around people who are as excited about nature as you are. Our camping neighbors were very excited that one of them had found a live cicada. Then, when he went to show us, it had just emerged from its old exoskeleton. He kept saying, “THAT WAS IN THERE??” It did appear much larger.
Resting up before starting to screech endlessly.
And here’s another beautiful sight to wonder over. This guy, a skink, was two feet from the RV steps. I really appreciate all that nature coming over to show itself to me.
Just dropped by to say hi.
And finally, I didn’t have to go far to see woodpeckers, either. A downy showed up. I like these little birds almost as much as the incredibly entertaining yellow-bellied sapsuckers (they are the smallest woodpecker). My photos weren’t great but I got to see it well through binoculars. The red-bellied male came over so often that I got the feeling he was used to us.
Male red-bellied woodpecker. I got too many photos Blurry downy woodpecker Even blurrier. Bonus crowBonus cardinal All these I saw from the lounge chair.
I had to go a little further to get butterfly photos, but there were lots at the campsite, too. I just got all lost enjoying the giant swallowtails meandering around. Here are a few others I saw.
I can’t help it. Buckeyes are too pretty to omit. This red admiral would NOT open his wings. Another confused Cloudywing. What a name. Giant swallowtailIt rested quite a while. I enjoyed that.
I am excited enough just to see new or unusual plants, but some of the other things I ran into filled me with awe. There’s just a lot of STUFF to see if you look around, and you don’t have to be at a park or zoo to see things that bring wonder.
Robber fly. Scary. Amber wing. Love the shadow. Puff ball — it’s inedible. Beautiful golden reishi mushrooms Gilled polypore fungus Bushy beard lichenGrape shells Wasp nestFemale eastern pond hawkMake eastern pond hawkPardosa mercurialis (practically invisible!)That’s a powerful spiderwebSo green! Six-spotted tiger beetle. Looks like an egg!
There are wonders right at home, too. This evening, we were watching fledgling barn swallows trying out their swooping and diving techniques. They were small but agile. At some point, we couldn’t believe our eyes. One of those little birds was a large butterfly! It flew with the birds, swirling around like it was one of them. I think Kathleen and I were both dazzled. Did we really see that?
No photos of the flying display, so enjoy this rainbow scarab beetle.
Yep, it pays to be observant, even when you’re just relaxing behind the house. It pays to look around in the water trough, too. That’s where I found the beetle.
The Hermits' Rest 