Springing Along...

Beautiful Swamp Spider Lily (Hymenocallis liriosme) 
growing in the marsh at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.

April is here and I don’t know about you, but Spring has been busy and full of pollen for us.  East Texas has all the live oak pollen of South Texas plus other varieties as well – water oak, red oak, white oak, burr oak and willow oak to name a few.  Then there are several varieties of maple, ash, birch and hickory and don't forget the dogwood, redbud, sycamore and sweetgum.  Oh, and we can't leave out the pine trees!  Our patio, sidewalks, cars and even the furniture in the house have been yellowish-green for over a month now.  Suffice to say, pollen is plentiful in East Texas and we have the sneezes to prove it.   

There have been bluebonnets around Nacogdoches, but not nearly as

plentiful and glorious as they have been in other places this year.

Just to make sure we are really appreciating the bounty, Maya brings as many oak catkins in the house on her paws and fur as she possibly can to distribute in every nook and cranny.  What a sweetie!  But I can’t be mad at her; it is not her fault that I can’t keep it swept up fast enough.  I have brushes by both the back and front door to do my best in helping 'de-pollinate' Maya upon entry.

The iris have been spectacular both in the wild and in yards
making up for the lack of bluebonnets.

It seems I never make time to blog these days.  Just because we aren’t traveling to new and wonderful places all the time doesn’t mean there aren’t things we are doing and things worth writing about.  I have to face it, I’ve been slacking.  It is only 3 – 4 weeks before we are “On the Road with Maya” for the summer!  I have to start training right now and get back into blogging shape for the summer.  (David and I have already started going to the ‘Rec Center’ to get our bodies in a little better condition.)

David and his lab partner looking for vertebrates along Lanana Creek.

Since my last blog back in February, we have had a few little adventures.  David and his lab partner, Cade, have been surveying at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center for their class, Vertebrate Natural History.  Maya and I have been tagging along on some of the survey days and doing photographs as they observe or catch something interesting.  Birds, fish, snakes, anoles, skinks, squirrels and deer have been ‘counted’ but so far no amphibians have been seen.  However it isn’t for lack of turning over logs. 

Broadhead skink sunning on a bridge at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.

Bluebird on a nesting box at the PNPC

The babies are getting a juicy spider!

Recently, I started volunteering at the Pineywoods Nature Center as an Education Volunteer.  I am still shadowing the school programs and learning the activities but I hope to be leading groups before much longer.  Many of the activities are similar to programs I worked with in San Antonio but I do have a lot of new plants to learn and animals too.  After all, it is a whole new ecosystem in East Texas.

Children making rope from raffia strands at the PNPC

as part of the 2nd Grade program, Go Wild!

I am learning all kinds of new stuff in my Digital Media Class.  I just finished an animation project and now I am in the process of making a short video for my last project.  This class has been a lot of work for me learning new programs and then trying to make something interesting and meaningful.  I can’t say that I have always succeeded in this endeavor.  But it has kept me spending tons of time in the digital media lab on campus.  I am looking forward to going back to ‘plain old photography’ or digital photography, anyway.  Most likely, I’ll never have a darkroom again.  Sometimes I am a little sad about that.  But times change.

One of my Digital Media Projects loosely based on

Roy Lichenstein's pop art work.

In March we had Spring Break quickly followed by an Easter Break.  That was weird having a week off then coming back to classes for three days and having another five days off.  We had thought of taking our RV, Silver, out for Spring Break but the memories of the last time we spent Spring Break camping with the masses made us change our minds - that and the fact we couldn't get reservations anywhere.  Instead, we opted for a quick car trip to San Antonio to get our doctors’ visits out of the way and then on to Odessa to visit my parents for Easter.

My friend, Stephanie volunteering at the SABG Spring Break Plant Sale.

While in San Antonio I managed to get by the Botanical Garden for a couple of hours.  I hadn’t stopped by the Garden in over two years and it was long overdue.  The Garden is building a new Entrance and Education Center with a Children’s Garden and Activity Center.  The new areas have been prepared and the actual buildings will start to go up soon.  It should take about a year to complete.

Five-lined skink at the PNPC

I visited with a few volunteers/friends at the SABG Plant Sale, but we had such a short time in San Antonio and so many appointments (even Maya went to see her favorite vet) that we didn’t visit much with friends.  David and I really missed our three-month stay at Government Canyon this year.  That was such a fun volunteer job and we so enjoyed 'living' in San Antonio again for a few months.  We will definitely try to volunteer there again.

"On Duty" last February at Government Canyon State Nature Area

After Spring Break we went to see my parents for Easter.  They both had colds and I came down with my first cold in years.  David managed to escape but I was pretty sick for a week and congested for even longer.  We have both been so healthy these past few years of traveling.  I thought that in going back to school we might get sick more often, being exposed to all the college student stuff.  But no, it was my parent’s fault.  OK, I won’t blame them yet again for the woes in my life.  I’m a little old for that.  We just need to get back on the road soon and get my immune system stronger.  Been living too clean, we need to get back to the dirt!  Well it is only a matter of a few weeks now.

A good mama bird!

Clean Maya feet -- a rare site these days!

A Happy Valentine's Day!

The camellias have been blooming profusely since January
I never knew camellias were so magnificent in winter months until we moved here

Wow!  Four weeks have gone by since starting the new semester and it is Valentine’s Day.  David and I are all settled into our new schedules and new classes.  Right now David is studying for a test next week in his Vertebrate Natural History class.  He has been having fun getting in touch with his ‘inner fish’ but soon he will be moving on to salamanders, skinks and lizards.  Forest Ecology is also keeping him busy as he attempts to grow loblolly pine seedlings in the lab.

 

David in action with other birders at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center's
Backyard Bird Count Event

 

I, on the other hand, have been struggling with a digital media class.  I say struggling because I had hoped I would be learning more about photo editing programs.  But so far anyway, we are making collages and drawing and painting with Photoshop.  Believe me when I say there was a good reason I chose photography when I attended art school so many years ago.  However I am learning some new things and if you promise not to be too critical, I’ll show you the edgy, arty, sort of valentine collage I made for my first class project.  (Remember, you promised…)

 

Does the camellia look familiar?
I picked the flower and scanned it at the digital lab and it made
a big mess.  I may be banned from using the scanner...

 

 

The weather has been so spring-like this past week.  Nights are pretty cool, but the days have been gorgeous.  We’ve gone for lots of walks in the SFA woods near campus, the Pineywoods Native Plant Center and just around the neighborhood.  Not exactly worthy of David keeping ‘stats’ on, but we are moving.  Gotta get in shape for this summer’s adventures, after all May is not that far away!

 

Bird table with real (but dead) specimens of birds common to East Texas

 

Yesterday (Saturday) was the annual Great Backyard Bird Count and the Pineywoods Native Plant Center had a Birding Day Event and Bird Count. Poor Maya had to stay home since she is a bit of a distraction when one is counting birds, but David and I took part in the event and had a great time birding and meeting new people.  And we made it up to Maya with a long walk on Saturday afternoon.

 

The kids had a blast learning to use binoculars and looking for birds

 

On our walk around the neighborhood earlier this afternoon we noticed so many things blooming or seriously budding.  Not only tulips and daffodils, but iris and even redbud trees were starting to bloom.  I don’t know about your part of the world, but down here in East Texas, spring seems to be on its way.  After all the snow in West Texas around Christmas, winter seems to have spent itself out.  But we will see -- Mother Nature is always full of surprises.

Happy Valentines to all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changing Plans -- Again and Again

A cold January day on the Guadalupe River

We are back in East Texas after a road trip that turned out nothing like we planned.  Admittedly our plans were somewhat nebulous, but except for the trip out to Odessa and a quick stop in San Antonio, I don’t think we went anywhere we thought we would. Winter camping weather is always unpredictable but this year’s El Nino made it even more so.   
  

Guadalupe River State Park

 

 



 

After spending two weeks in Odessa, we nixed our plans to visit the Big Bend area because of the snow and cold and instead went straight to San Antonio where it was at least a little warmer.  Our favorite state park near San Antonio, Guadalupe River, was getting ready to close down for one of their deer hunts so we could only stay a few days.  We managed a few quick visits with friends and one nice hike in the park before it was time to leave.  We missed seeing too many of our friends!  But knowing we would be back in March for Spring Break made it a little easier to spend such a short time in the place I still consider ‘home.’ 

 

John with Cosmo and Caelyn, Cindy with new boy Finch
and David with Maya (who doesn't have to wear a coat)

 

Good camping buddies of ours, Cindy & John, met us at Palmetto State Park located a few miles off Interstate 10 east of San Antonio.  David and I have spent time camping at Palmetto for the past two winters and it has become one of our favorite state parks.  This was Cindy and John's first time to camp at the park and they brought their newly-adopted Italian Greyhound, Finch plus the two they already had for a grand total of three 'Iggys.'  Counting Maya, we had some very doggy walks.  Maya thinks she is bigger than all three of them put together (and definitely has more fur).

 

 

Dwarf palmettos bordering swamp

 

Cindy with her new baby, Finch

 

 

Palmetto is a small, gem of a park that manages to feel remote and mysterious even though it is very close to I-10. The miniature palm trees or dwarf palmettos that grow near the San Marcos River and throughout the ephemeral swamp areas of the park give a tropical, almost ‘Jurassic Park’ feeling to the place.  No wonder there are rumors of a ‘swamp thing’ that lurks around the area. 

 

 

Sunset on Lake Livingston from our 'living room'

 

 

Maya appreciates David's Christmas present of brand new hiking boots 

 

With only a week left until it was time to be back in Nacogdoches, we opted to head slowly back to East Texas and explore some new places rather than visit the coast.  From Palmetto we traveled just a little north of Houston to Lake Livingston State Park, a new place for us.  Recent rains made this park and its trails very wet and muddy but we stayed three days anyway hiking a little in the park and also traveling to a nearby part of the Big Thicket National Preserve.

Really?  Good thing David has new boots for this.

Trail Carpet?

The first winter we were ‘on the road’ we visited a different area of the Big Thicket and really enjoyed our time there.  This time we explored the Big Sandy Creek Unit which is the second largest unit in the Big Thicket National Preserve.  We hiked about 4 miles along the Big Sandy Trail which meandered through a lovely forest of beech, magnolia and loblolly pines.  The weather was sunny and 60, the land gently rolling, the ground soft and sandy underfoot with  some swampy areas near the floodplain of Big Sandy Creek – a nice hike indeed.  We did some driving around as well and located a few other trailheads for future adventures.  This part of the Big Thicket is only a couple of hours from Nacogdoches so I believe we will be returning soon.

Maya loves hiking

A great trail and a great day!

 

From Lake Livingston we made one more stop before going home.  The Davy Crockett National Forest is southwest of Nacogdoches and only about 25 miles away.  With moving, settling in and starting classes we hadn’t had time to do much exploring of the nearby forests so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to do so. 

 

 

Along the Tall Pines Trail in the Davy Crockett National Forest

 

 

Ratcliff Lake in the Davy Crockett National Forest was our camping spot for two gorgeous days.  We shared the large campground on the lakeshore with only two other groups of campers.  It was quiet and remote and we took two great hikes, one for about 4 miles on the Tall Pines Trail and another hike of over 9 miles on a section of the 4-C trail.  Both were beautiful trails through upland pine forests and the weather could not have been better.  It never ceases to amaze me how being in nature is so restorative to both body and soul.  Of course good weather really helps too. The last week of our trip saw the tensions leave our bodies and the worries vacate our minds.  It was a great way to end our first road trip since settling down, even if nothing did go as planned…

Small lake on the 4-C Trail, Davy Crockett N.F.

 

 

 

 

 

Holidays: Celebrations, Snow

Fall color was beautiful in the weeks before Christmas

Those three weeks before the Christmas break from school were very hectic for us – studying for exams, doing a little Christmas shopping and preparing to take off on a month-long adventure in our RV, Silver.  However we did take some time to enjoy our first Christmas season in Nacogdoches.  A few walks in the woods enjoying the last vestiges of fall color helped calm us during exam week and checking out the Christmas decorations both in town and on campus helped to get us in the holiday spirit.

 

Along the Sweetgum Trail at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center

 

The azaleas were also blooming before Christmas

 

 

The ‘Seven Flags’ Christmas Parade in downtown Nacogdoches was the first Christmas Parade I had ever seen in person.  It was a cold night and we bundled up and found a good spot on the square to view the parade.  Most of the store windows were decorated and lit up and many downtown businesses were open.  While not exactly the Macy’s parade, it was a big parade with all the trimmings including music, dancers and lighted floats.  I think everyone in Nacogdoches and the surrounding area was either in the parade or watching it.  

 

Parade Watchers

 



A very festive store window in downtown 'Nac'

 



Another store window with a 'Darth Vader' Christmas Tree



After exams we spent a day loading up Silver for the trip.  Since we haven’t been living in Silver, we had to take a little more time making sure we had put everything in that we needed.  Winter camping requires a little more preparation since you never know what weather you will run into.  But after much checking and re-checking, we were as ready as we were going to be and headed on down the road for West Texas.  We made a couple of stops along the way to see family and friends but pretty much headed straight for Odessa. 

 

We couldn't believe how many RVers decorated for Christmas

At lot of the 'residents' at the commercial RV parks are 'winter Texans' taking refuge
  from colder climates.  I guess it makes since that they would decorate for Christmas.

 

It was good to have several days before Christmas to visit, cook and do that last minute shopping.  We had a nice surprise of my dad’s sister and niece from Arizona flying in for the holidays.  It had been several years since they had come for Christmas.  My brother and his wife hosted a fantastic Christmas Eve dinner.  Mom and dad were feeling pretty well and in good spirits so it turned out to be a very fine Christmas indeed. 

 

Christmas Eve entertainment with a little help from a friend

We had planned to go to either Ft. Davis or Ruidoso after Christmas, but Mother Nature had other ideas.  The day after Christmas Odessa had 7 inches of snow.  And eastern New Mexico got much more.  Roads were closed and it was mighty cold, so we elected to stay put for a few more days.  Just when we were thinking about venturing out in Silver we heard that more snow and cold weather was on the way.  Things were not quite working out as we had hoped – we had been envisioning a warm New Year’s celebration in the Big Bend area.

 

The 'blizzard' hits

 

As it turned out, we spent almost two weeks in Odessa before we finally took off in Silver.  Not exactly what we had planned, but driving an RV on slippery roads is not our idea of a good time.  And we still had fresh memories of last year’s trip to Ft. Davis when we were caught in an ice storm.  It was beautiful, but confined us mostly to the RV which was without power part of the time because of the storm.  Maybe we are getting ‘soft’ in our old age, but camping in freezing temperatures isn’t quite as much fun as it used to be.

 

 

Anyway, we are finally on the road in Silver and it still isn’t very warm anywhere in Texas but the 50s are better than the 30s and below.  Most likely we are headed for the coast.  We are hoping to get a few warmish days somewhere in Texas during the ten days we have left... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A long time coming...

The joys of unpacking...  Actually, Maya thinks it is pretty boring.

OMG, I can’t believe how the time has flown!  My last blog entry was the first of September and here it is just after Thanksgiving!  Well, since September we have managed (finally) to get moved into our rented townhome.  We made a long trip back to Odessa, rented a U-Haul and hired some help to load it from our storage locker.  Then we had a bit of a visit with family before driving the U-Haul back to Nacogdoches followed by a grueling few days of unloading in the heat.

 

Compared to our RV kitchen, our townhome kitchen is huge!
One thing is the same though, David still makes great pancakes.

 

Since then we have been unpacking, unpacking and unpacking.  I only thought I got rid of a lot of stuff.  Let me tell you, more of our stuff is going to find a new home.  We’ve vowed to downsize by half again before the next move.  Really, we did do a decent job of “de-stuffing” ourselves almost four years ago.  But since then we have lived on the road with much less and we realize that we haven’t missed the stuff that was stored.  (With one exception, our Select Comfort Bed!  It is good to be sleeping on it now.)

 

Nacogdoches has a good Farmers' Market

 

Most ‘things’ have become just that for us now – ‘things’ we can easily live without. But the stuff I have the hardest time letting go of is books, family things that have been given to me and photographs, both the ones I have taken through the years of family, vacations, etc. and the ones I have collected from friends and other artists.  So, most likely there will always be some stuff in my life.  But I will think long and hard about adding anything new to the collection.

 

 

A Trip to the Pineywoods Native Plant Center's Fall Plant Sale

 

Maya loves a good plant sale

 

The sale made me lonesome for all my Plant Sale volunteers
 and friends at the SA Botanical Garden

 

As always, Maya knows who needs to give her a pet

 

 

Life in the small town of Nacogdoches is pretty quiet now that we are mostly unpacked and settling in.  Our house is one mile from school, an easy walk, bike ride or three minute drive.  Downtown is another mile down the road from school or two miles from us. There is a gas station on the corner two blocks away from our house.  The grocery store is three blocks away and the Post Office is just across the street from the grocery.  After years of living in big cities, this is kind of cool.  But there are many things small towns don’t have.  One of them is traffic, that we don’t miss, but there is not really a good grocery store.  That we do miss.  Alas, as we have found in all our travels, there is no perfect place.  But all in all, we like it here for now and are beginning to feel at home.

 

We just returned from spending Thanksgiving with my parents in Odessa.  They were feeling fairly well for all they have both been through this year and we had a nice visit and good food.  All of us were very grateful this Thanksgiving and counted our blessings.

 

On the way back to Nacogdoches the traffic was horrible coming out of DFW.
All that traffic and rain too!  We were glad we were going the other way.

 

On another note, school is winding down for us – two more weeks, then final exams.  We have both enjoyed our classes this semester.  I have been making new photographs and enjoying using the print lab in the art department at SFA.  It has been fun to learn new skills and be printing photos again.  David has been having fun with his classes in the Forestry School too, although he didn’t realize he would be writing so many papers.  All in all, it looks like we both might pass this semester.

 

Fall is here, the first week of December!

 

It has been an adjustment going from ‘road warriors’ to students and settling down.  But I think we have gotten most of the major shocks behind us – one of the biggest being that it now takes longer than 15 minutes to clean the house.  We don’t know how long we will live in “Nac” but it looks like we will be content to stay a few years so long as we get to hit the road and the trails come summertime.  And speaking of the road, we are going to take “Silver” out on the road for our month-long Christmas break and do some winter camping in Texas.  Wanna come along?

 

 

New neighbors, Ginger and Rachel

 

 

Unpacking is messy and very tiring -- we are all glad it is mostly done!