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.
Tree carnageCoots. This is our view. Seneca from the lakeArtsy grass and sunMore geeseTrees and lakeAhhOoh
What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?
Now this is a good question! It’s been quite a challenging year, but the good stuff has been huge. I’m actually doing very well, considering. And here’s why.
Bonus: cool skies, like this sun dog this morning, Thank you, Nature.
Progress with Horsemanship: I’ve gotten to where I can ride Drew, at least on many days. And Apache and I have made so much progress that I can’t stop smiling when I think of it. My nerves are better and he feels better, which is such a great combination.
He’s un-learning a lifetime of holding his head high.
Learning about Birds: I gave the Cornell Ornithology Lab a nice donation this year, because the improvements in the Merlin Bird ID app have made this bird lover know so much more about what lives here at the Hermits’ Rest and wherever I visit. I feel like I have familiar friends everywhere I go now, even with eight similar sparrows here at once.
Since I got no bird pictures today, here’s a Red Admiral I saw in my meditation tree.
Camping in Seneca: one of the best things about this year has been going camping with Lee. It’s been wonderful for our relationship to get away and spend time together (when I’m not hiking solo). He sure loves to drive that thing.
Natural-Lee
Making Mental Peace with My Family: I’ve worked hard at accepting the way things are with my family. I just want my son and sister happy with their choices. I’m doing much better at accepting the family members who DO talk to me just as they are. And I feel more empathy with my parents, who did the best they could. Even Mom. This kind of thing has helped bring me more peace inside.
39 years without Mom. That poor woman.
What’s good with you? Whatever it is, hold onto it! We’re in for some bumpy times, I think.
Happy Hanukkah for my Jewish friends. It’s such a hard time, especially for those close to me.
The weather should be glorious for the next few days, so we’ve decided to spend longer than usual out in the motorhome. That’s made possible by the fact that we also brought my car so Lee can attend a meeting back home and we both can explore this area a bit.
We barely fit both vehicles in, but we did it!
This shady woodland is in Buescher State Park, which is a weirdly shaped area full of trails and scenery. It connects to Bastrop State Park vía a scenic road that I hope to go down tomorrow.
There’s a new dam at the lake, too.
I had fun because I arrived first and got to be the only person in the camping area for a while. It let me really hear the pileated woodpecker singing and pecking away. They are quite noisy birds!
They really can peck, too.
I did a preliminary survey of the plants around the campground. Lots of yaupon and oak, but there are some famous Bastrop County pine trees and others. Not much is blooming after the light frost we had, but I was delighted to find a couple of interesting plants.
This shiny vine is lanceleaf greenbrier, which I’ve looked for often. (Smilax smallii)
After my walk, I helped my friend Jen get her trailer unhooked, because her site was too short to fit her camper and her car in without unhooking. We got it done in a fit of woman power and grit. When Lee arrived, I hooked the water up with no dripping, so I’m feeling like a mighty camper.
But I’m not sure if I should go in the restroom. Am I both a woman AND a lady?
Jen and I had nice times chatting and trying to plan a potluck location (none of the cute cabins were available). Then Lee and I spent time with my other favorite co-camper, Mike, with whom I intend to do some good hiking. I earned a lot about AI from him as a bonus.
Nice empty park road.
I’ll enjoy working tomorrow with a view of trees (and no barking dogs to interrupt my recording of myself talking), then get in some exploring. in the meantime, back to knitting by the fake fireplace.
I thought if I skipped July and didn’t camp until late August, it might be pretty. Well, I’m in one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been (in other years and other seasons), and it’s depressingly hot, crunchy, and dead.
Campsite view.
The good news is that there are empty sites, and it’s pretty quiet with hardly anyone outside.
And the antenna gets network TV
The bad news is all the trees are super stressed, all the small plants are dried up and not blooming, I haven’t seen any butterflies or other insects, and I’ve heard two birds.
This cedar elm looks better than many, which are all brown.
Plus the bedroom won’t slide out for some reason, so I don’t get to try out the office setup I’d planned, which involves an Indian tall ottoman and a “chair pillow.” Hoping we figure it out and can try again next time. I can sleep just fine (especially since I took painkillers for my throat).
Pillow.
I’ll have more blistering hot camping tales tomorrow. I’ll get up early to walk a little.
Spoiler alert: yes, you can. Even I can, with good planning and a little luck. I got through today with only one little bit of heat dizziness. Hooray.
I had it made in the shade!
First, we booked a trip to a shady park and I was careful to try to select a shady campsite. I did, though I sacrificed a lake view. We are next to the lake, but there’s brush blocking the view.
The lake is about a foot past the big trees. I like the bent one.
We were actually able to sit outside much of the afternoon, thanks to the shade and a brisk breeze. I got to knit and read, and of course look at and listen to birds. There’s a red-bellied woodpecker that comes by often, and I even got photos where you can tell what it is!
Woodpecker fun
But my smartest way to deal with the heat and still have fun was to do all my “hiking” while it was still relatively cool. Now, don’t think I went out before I had my coffee. I’m not that driven. But I was out by 9, and went three mikes or so. Yes, much of the time I stopped every few feet to look at a plant or butterfly, but I did get 54 exercise minutes!
I went through some very pleasant and shady paths, and though there were few wildflowers, like yesterday, I did find some beautiful new flowers. My absolute favorite is this one, which is one of two plants, both that can be called butterfly pea. Or pigeonwing. I hope I get iNaturalist help with it.
So beautiful. I can sorta tell where it got its Latin name, Clitoria mariana.
The other flowers I enjoyed, maybe mostly because of their name, were the trailing fuzzy-beans. What a cute name. In fact, there are multiple fuzzy-beans in North America. Huh.
It’s a vine that grows very long tendrils.
It was a fun plant day, for sure. Here are other highlights. A couple are a little blurry because the phone was running low on battery so I took pictures fast.
Good ole black-eyed SusanThis is tiny, a gulf skullcapVery pale ruellia Slender green threadIron weedEbony spleenwort. Ugly name for something so gracefulBlack walnutWhite mouth dayflower Osage-orangeOsage-orange tree Shaggy portulaca Stiff hair sunflowerAmerican germander Meadow pink still bloomingOne last bluebonnetThis is delicate white nymph. Very pretty plant
The trail I took led to the old Springfield cemetery, which is in the park. Springfield is the place that used to be where the lake is now. It has some old graves, ones with interesting features, and some unmarked ones. I thought it was interesting that some of the Black workers who built the park are in there, from the 1930s. There were not many integrated cemeteries then.
Bluebird house Best tombstone. Check these out
After the cemetery, I got on the road, but still found lots to look at. I knew I’d gone far enough when I realized I was at the park store. That’s a ways away from the campsites. I rested in the air conditioning there and enjoyed teaching the employee about iNaturalist and Merlin Bird ID. I can’t help it. We had fun.
My hiking boot fell apart when I took it off. I’ll try to get it fixed. It’s only 28 years old!
Lee and I relaxed and watched a movie this evening. Camping is so good for us both. I treasure these times of relaxation and being surrounded by nature. By the way, I passed no one on any trail. Bliss!
What’s Mexia (muh-hay-yuh)? It’s one town over from Groesbeck, the county seat of Limestone County, Texas, since the previous county seat it under a lake, which I’m right next to at the moment. That’s right, the middle of nowhere, Texas, just a different nowhere from where I usually am.
Springfield is down there, somewhere.
Actually, Lee and I are on this month’s camping trip, which is to Ft. Parker State Park. It’s very pretty and woodsy. It’s history is interesting. Ft. Parker is where some young woman was captured by Native Americans and liked it. She was not happy to be “rescued” by “civilized” people. This park is right near it, and was built, as were many Texas parks, by the CCC. What’s interesting is that the dam and buildings were built by black members of the CCC. They re-used most of the wood they cut down to build the buildings. It sounds like they had lots of fun on their off-duty times.
Rec center
It’s just as hot here as it is at home, but it’s shady. We have a beautiful campsite. I was impressed that Lee got us backed in perfectly between two trees.
We even had space to expand my bedroomLake is behind us.
Of course, I could not keep myself from going on a walk. I meant to just go around the camping area, but I ended up going down a beautiful trail. I got to see where people can go kayaking and swim, too.
Trail head
There was a cool floating bridge to go over, and I ended up at a pretty bird blind kind of dock, from which I could see lots of great egrets roosting. I also saw some cormorants.
Lake birds
While wildflower season is pretty much over, there was still much to see on the trail. Many vines and shrubs are in bloom, so if you looked carefully, you could see much beauty. You didn’t have to look hard to see all the Turk’s cap in bloom. Those red flowers are showy (and have the sweetest nectar of any plant). The trumpet vines are also blooming, so there’s no lack of color. With the heady scent of button bush all around, it was like a sultry jungle.
Turk’s capI never saw so much growing wild Trumpet vine flower Button bush and beeMy friend, pitchers’ leather flower Delta arrowheadLance leaf greenbrier Beautyberry Bull nettleBee balm
There was a reasonable breeze so I didn’t overheat (and it was cooling off by the time I went out). I really enjoyed the peace. It wasn’t quiet. There were at least three kinds of cicadas drowning out the few birds I heard (mostly cardinals, white-eyed vireos, wrens, and cuckoos).
This thing is a cattail toothpick grasshopper. Huh!Nice, normal dragonfly. Eastern pond hawk. Widow skimmer with broken wingBig burly!That’s not a tree. It’s a grapevine. Wow! Turtle shells! There were dozens of nests like this!
I’m looking forward to heading out early tomorrow for more trails. I have a cooling towel!
I did promise to finish writing up my trip to Pedernales Falls State Park. Gosh, I hope you like wildflowers and scenery and stinky insects. I had lots of energy for hiking/looking at plants, thanks to sleeping so well. Ahh. Total darkness and no barking or licking makes for great sleep.
Lee needed coffee, too.
So, once I woke up on Sunday morning, had my coffee, and analyzed bird songs (so many vireos), I took off for the other nearby trails. First, I took the Coyote Crossing trail, which led deep into a very humid woodland area and crossed a mostly dry creek that feeds into the river.
There were many interesting fungi, ferns, and vines in the moist environment. I also got to see a ladder back woodpecker. Mostly I enjoyed the deep green solitude.
Grama grassMore Pearl milkweed Coyote Crossing
Once past that trail the scenery was very different, with seemingly endless swaths of black-eyed Susans and their friends. There were lots of new flowers there, and I had one of those “Linda Jo moments” when I got practically giddy over plants. But I didn’t have a fellow Master Naturalist to exclaim to!
Berlandire’s yellow flax. New to me. White rock lettuceSkeleton flower and friends Gregg’s tube tongue. Great name.
The next trail was the one that led to the swimming area of the river. I must admit I forgot there was a river to go to, because I was so mesmerized by the flowers. The trail went down steep steps. Every time I stopped I said to myself that THESE were the prettiest flowers I ever saw.
So much horsemintBreathtaking.
And there were so many butterflies that I felt like Snow White in the meadow. They were flitting all around me. It was magical!
I finally got to the river, and was happy to see it wasn’t crowded. There were just a few families wading around and playing, plus a woman with a big dog.
Mystery flower. INat thinks it’s bindweed.
Eventually I turned to go back, stopping to photograph lizards and more flowers. I let the family with the dog pass me on their way up, then encountered the dad resting halfway up. I said something about taking it slow because I was a naturalist, and we got to talking about his interest in foraging. Talking to them made me not even notice the steep climb! Finally, someone was interested in my blathering.
They left to take a bathroom break and I headed back along the road, where I found some phlox and other plants that like sand.
Spiny lizardPretty army worm caterpillar Common whiptail lizardPhlox!Red satyr
The family drove by and asked if I would like a ride back, and to be honest, that sounded good. So I joined them. They said they were thinking of driving to the big falls, and invited me along. I’m glad they did. It was a ways down the road.
We had a fun walk to the falls. The best part was when I saw a dung beetle rolling a ball of poop across the path. Carl (the dad) got all excited, because he didn’t know we had them in Texas. That got the two boys and the wife excited, too. She took movies and we had a grand time watching the beetles while all sorts of people passed us, probably thinking we were weird. But it was educational!
We finally made it to the overlook, and it was gorgeous. We saw a wedding party, too. We were all too tired to go down to the river, but they were going to go Monday morning. I was fine just looking down. The photos don’t do it justice, for sure.
Veda takes photos. Carl, the boys, and Zoe. I was there, too.
And that’s about it for adventures. The rest of the day we sat outside a lot and went in to watch movies. I don’t know what to think about the Legion of Superheroes movie. They did stay pretty true to the characters…but it was nowhere near as good as Ant Man and the Wasp. Marvel does make a good movie.
Listening to me talk about birds.
Back Home
I was glad to get home on Monday, but sure enjoyed my wallows in nature. I needed that rejuvenation. Of course, there’s plenty of nature here. Just look at the baby birds in a nest on our back door!
Too tired to peep. A storm kept them awake.
Speaking of storms, one showed up out of the blue yesterday and dumped a ton of rain in a short time. It was full of thunder and lightning. The dogs were NOT thrilled, and since I was the only one in the house, all five indoor dogs clustered around me. Penney and Carlton were under my desk. Harvey was beside my chair. Alfred was standing on the other side of the chair panting into my face. At least Goldie just stayed on “her” couch.
Help!ShiverPantNo room for me!
Eventually, Penney wormed her way into my lap and did that unbearable wiggling and trying to squirm up to the top of my head, or inside me. I’m not sure what her intent is, but it’s hairy, hot, and whiny. Thank goodness I discovered the guys were stranded in the garage so I “had” to take them umbrellas. That allowed the dogs to distribute themselves among three people. Whew.
Help ME!
And oh yes, I’ve had my dose of cuteness. look at Jhayati! She’s so soft! And like my dad, she’s never met a stranger. Sara is in love. I’m pretty thrilled, too.
I’m bigger. I love my human!Butt scritches are excellent. Pat my butt. Ignore my spawn. About 3 weeks old.
Long time no blog! I could not get anything but brief Facebook updates to upload, so I just spent quality time with nature and Seneca the RV (and yes, of course with Lee).
See, I was happy.
Pedernales State Park has so many trails! I didn’t get to anywhere near all of them. Plus they have MANY miles of equestrian trails. I went to all the ones I could walk to, though. Actually, our camping spot was right next to the entrance to the Twin Falls trail, so there were no possible excuses to not go there.
The fall is behind the dead branch.
It’s a beautiful pool, surrounded by ferns. It’s off limits to people, but there’s a nice viewing area. And the trail is steep and challenging, but gorgeous, with lots of rocks, ferns, and birds. I’m so glad I have the Merlin app! I now know three different vireos but sound. And the ivory billed cuckoo. What a sound! I heard them all on this trail.
You had to duck!Lots of rocks Beautiful rough lip fern Tiger bee fly
The best part of the trail was the bench where I stopped to rest on the way back up. I sat there for about five minutes, then I heard a noise. It was a doe, a large, sleek beauty. I watched as she went about her business, ignoring me completely. What a treat!
The doe, and me enjoying the bench
I was full of joy and peace after that walk. For some of rest of the day I sat outside a lot and enjoyed the birds. We enjoyed our neighbors, who were a family with two kids who were truly enjoying their visit. Ee kept having to find their lost baseballs.
Bird watching station.
I got the itch to go out again, so I walked to a place that’s a low-water crossing. It was very peaceful, with only a few other folks around. I had a blast hanging around the cypress trees and finding out what grew along the Pedernales River (pronounced in Texan as “purr-duh-nal-iss”). I got some really cool pictures especially the first one below.
This is an owlfly. It’s gorgeous. Spiny lizard on patrolSkeleton flowerA well?My beloved pearl milkweed. Ah. Great name: redwhisker clammyweed. Two butterflies!Orange sulphur
That’s about all I packed into this long and beautiful day. Well, I did do my nails a very patriotic way, for Memorial Day.
I’ll try to write up the rest of the weekend tomorrow. I hope you enjoy some of the things I saw. I put up a LOT of photos on iNaturalist and lots were new to me. I got quite a few birds on my life list!
After work and the horses getting bodywork done, Lee and I fired up Seneca and took off for another camping expedition, this time to Cedar Breaks Park, one county over near Georgetown, Texas. We’d camped on the other side of the lake from here before, but never at this site, which is a Corps of Engineers park (yay, free entry with my Senior Pass).
Pretty Lake Georgetown
I was really excited about it, because I was going to get to see some of my friends from a previous stage of my life when I did lots of stuff with a Unitarian Universalist Church in Cedar Park. One tradition I really enjoyed were the camping trips they’d do a couple of times a year. We went to some pretty places from the time my kids were little until we got our original RV and camper.
This is also a pretty place!
My friend Jennifer (who is a regular reader of our chatty little blog here) has done most of the campout planning for years, and I really appreciate the effort she makes to decide on places and get things lined up. Now that we have Seneca, we can camp again, so we decided to go to the next one she scheduled.
So, here we are! It has been raining off and on all day, which is how Apache managed to roll in muddy spots and turn himself into an Appaloosa horse.
Check out my new spots
It alternated between sun and rain all the way over here. It was sunny when we went into the grocery store to get supplies, then rained hard while we were inside, then was sunny when we came out. Fun weather.
Nice to see full lakes
It stayed fun once we arrived, where Lee impressed the folks who’d also arrived today (official start is tomorrow) by backing into our space like a pro. I reminded the folks that he IS a pro, having driven “big rigs” for a living for a few years.
What a pretty site, right on the lake
After hugging Jennifer a ridiculously long time, I caught up with other friends I’ve missed from church and toured everyone’s campsites, RVs and trailers. That was great fun. Our Cameron friends Mike and Martha also came along, as I’ve been camping with Martha as long as I have with Jennifer, since all our adult children were young.
Two happy friends
Mike inherited a very cool vintage motorhome a while back and has restored it to functioning again. It’s quite funky and very well designed, I’m so glad he got it up and running so they could join us on this long weekend get together.
My dear friends under the very nice cover each site has
Other excitement for me and Jennifer was identifying a summer tanager using the Merlin’s Bird ID or eBird app, then finding it in a tree. I got blurry photos, but you can tell they aren’t a cardinal. This was a first for us, and it was just wonderful to find it with my very first birding friend!
TanagerTanagerNot a tanager
While I was showing Jen Seneca, we realized the temperature had gone way down, really fast. Yep, the real front was coming through. It was also going through Cameron, and we have reports of frightened dogs at home. Lee and I went inside to watch the weather coverage on TV when BLAM! A boom louder than when Sandy the Squirrel hit the transformer rang out, I texted Martha and Jen. Were they ok?
Where we areCameron is in the red
Yes, they were ok, but lightning had struck a tree right behind the cute vintage motorhome. Mike reported that there was a bit of flame, but it went right out. When it stops raining, we’ll check into the damage. They’re pretty sure the power to their campsite also went out, so they are using generator power. Yow!
I tried to take a picture of the weather. I got raindrops, but it looks interesting!
Next it started hailing. Lee is wishing Seneca was back under the cover at the ranch, but we’re here now enjoying the sounds and the light show. There will probably be more rain this weekend, but hey, I’m on a lake, there are birds and flowers, and more friends come tomorrow.
Just before the rains, this immense flock of gulls flew around and landed in the water, very noisily. Lee saw the whole thing, but I at least saw them milling around in the lake. Best photo I could get.
After the craziness of this week, of COURSE lightning struck!
My family likes to renovate homes. You may already know that! We’re low on actual homes, so it became time to renovate the rolling home, Seneca the Motorhome. Lee had a plan to make himself a rolling home office.
Hey, where’s the dinette?
We hardly ever use the dinette that converts to a bed fit only for children. So, the men of the house got to work. It wasn’t too hard to get anything out except the seat belts. Those were in really well, which was a good thing when I was riding in there.
It’s not a table now, it’s a desk!
They unbolted the dining table and put it up the correct height to be a desk. They had to put it next to the couch, because that’s where electrical outlets are. I think it’s a good spot.
Spacious!
I like that you can more easily get to the bathroom when the slide outs are closed. And a person could watch television and work, as long as that person isn’t Lee. He needs to concentrate. He’s ordered a desk chair that will look good, and there will be tie-downs to keep the chair secure when we’re on the road.
I ordered a nice little vacuum cleaner for all the past and no doubt future mouse turds. It didn’t help that dog food was lodged under the dinette! All in all, I’m looking forward to our next outing.
The Bull Part
This started my day off right Sunday. I headed out to feed the chickens and check on the horses and noticed the horses were all near the pens, not out grazing. They do that sometimes, so it wasn’t a big deal. Then I realized something was amiss.
I don’t own a huge, black horse.
Hmm. Droodles and Apache were in the bull’s pasture and Haggard was relaxing in a horse pen. Interesting.
We like having him around.
I was briefly concerned that I wouldn’t be able to set them back to not, but as the photo hints, the horses came back to be petted as soon as they saw me. Then Haggard just got up and sauntered back where he belonged.
Fiona wouldn’t come back, so she was stuck on the other side once I re-shut the gate (which some equine must have opened). By the time I came back to ride horses, she was braying to come back. No bull!
In Conclusion
It was just a nice day yesterday. It ended with a big family dinner including the whole gang, for once. Vlassic enjoyed that we were all outside a lot. It was too nice to stay inside! We Texans treasure pleasant weather whenever it shows up.
Martha and Vlassic had a lot of catching up to do.
The Hermits' Rest 