Glorious. That’s the word for today. So, I went out to the woods to look for signs of Christmas and miracles. I found some of each!
The first miracle was water in the stream.
I ended up standing right where the above photo was taken for a long time, just listening to bird songs and watching them flit around. It’s lots easier to spot them in winter. I saw one I could not identify that could have been a black phoebe.
Too blurry. Wah. Not a miracle.
Once I got walking, the subtle signs of Texas Christmas began to appear. First, there was a Christmas cholla. That’s pretty obvious.
Then I found our one holly plant, a possumhaw (deciduous holly).
Cheerful berries.
So, how much more holiday greenery could I find? Of course, mistletoe!
After a long day of working through my mental paralysis, I came home to do the usual chicken and horse chores. I decided to really look hard at what I saw on the path and just live in the moment.
Beautiful crow poison blossom
It helped more than I thought it would to immerse myself in the life on the ranch. There were so many bees in the blooming clover and so many butterflies on the flowers and so many birds and so many bugs! The 5 Vitamin Bs: Blossoms, bees, butterflies, birds, and bugs.
evening primrose
these look like stars
fetching vetch
spider web blown by wind
shiny
The most common butterflies were Buckeyes, checkered whites, and sulphurs. I also saw a hairstreak.
buckeye and little wasp
checkered white
upside down
mating
And in the bird department, I was extra excited to hear a familiar call. The dickcissels are back! They’re one of those birds whose numbers are dwindling, so it makes me happy to know they like it here.
dickcissel
Sparrow of some sort
Blackbird flying
I also enjoyed the sounds of sparrows rushing out of the grass and the red winged blackbirds calling and flying around. They’re everywhere right now.
I enjoyed a lot of interesting bugs, but my favorite is this Texas flower scarab. It was vigorously digging away in this thistle.
Thistles have friends
Just enjoying the light on the grass, along with my friends the butterflies, bees, birds, and bugs got me in a better frame of mind. Thanks, Mother Nature!
The Upstate Gardening blog with Gardening Information, Recipies, Home Improvement Ideas, and Crafts Projects to make your life more beautiful and healthy.
The Hermits' Rest 