A Well-Armed Laura Ingalls Wilder

Freshly Baled

Joy — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:56:57 +0000

The weather has been perfect. We’ve finally gotten some rain to help alleviate the drying-out-a-little-too-much, tinder-making conditions and everyone is finishing up their first cut of hay for the season. I’m looking forward to cheaper hay prices this year, last year’s high of $125/bale due to drought was tough on us all.

New Growth

Joy — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:21:21 +0000

Last Saturday, as we were driving to our second BBQ and auction, we drove through the area of our county where the wildfires tore through last Labor Day. The trees are charred, some fenceposts are still in pieces hanging half burnt from the barbed wire and it’s still pretty barren when looking across the 8000 acres that caught.

However, on the floor of what used to be the loblolly pine forest, there is a carpet of new growth and wildflowers.

It’s beautiful to see and there’s a rich statement about death and rebirth that’s clear as day.

I have a deep abiding love for tall, long-needled pine trees. They take me back to my youth and playing in the pine forests of the park near our house. I remember laying back on the pine needle strewn floor and looking up to watch the treetops sway. There’s a particular sound that pine trees make when they blow in the wind that is different than other trees. It’s a whispering, like they are telling you the secrets of the world if you’d only just stop to listen.

I remember camping out on Cape Cod among the pine trees, a few hundred yards from the ocean. The sound of the wind in the trees and the surf crashing was pure poetry.

I am astounded that this wildfire area, where there was nothing but charred dirt, has sprung up so many flowers this year. Much of the roadside was bulldozed to make fire lines and I’m amazed anything could have survived. This particular area has become thick with Brown-Eyed Susans, where most of the other roadsides here are more thickly covered in Firewheels/Indian Blankets. Driving through this piney gap, the yellows just explode and spill over the road and pasture.

We stopped and I picked handfuls of them. Brown-Eyed Susans, Firewheels, the mystery red flower I’ve been unable to identify, purple Thistle flowers, Lazy Daisies…one of everything. I know they don’t last long, I’ve got to savor them while I can.

In My Own Front Yard

Joy — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:39:29 +0000

I caught this the other morning in my own front yard (granted, my front yard is like 5 acres). The sun was streaming through the trees lighting up everything in it’s long, slow warmth but the grass still sparkled with dew. I don’t think I’ve ever actually looked at this particular tree in this light or in this way before, but I’m especially glad I caught it when I did since my hubsand mowed this all down the very next day in an effort to control the jungle of weeds on our property.

Sun Dance on the Blankets

Joy — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:00:34 +0000

Around our county the indian blankets have exploded more than any other wildflower this year. Driving down the backroads, they are so thick they choke out most everything else on the sides of the roads in a deep blanket of orange. It’s amazing to see the hillsides turned completely orange on either side.

I woke up very early last Saturday and crept out of the house before dawn to catch the flowers in the long light of sunrise. It was a chilly, crisp morning and it did not disappoint. As I stood in the middle of the road snapping away, not a single car came by to disturb me. It was just the sounds of the roosters crowing and the birds chirping, perhaps an occasional dog barking. The air was blissfully still (it always makes it challenging to get pictures of flowers when they keep swaying in the breeze) and I spent almost an hour trying to find the perfect compositions.

The flowers ebb and flow in particular patterns every year. First come the red phlox, short and so brilliant they never show up in photographs well. Later come a few yellows then the bluebonnets and the indian paintbrush, the brilliant white poppy mallows, and then the brown eyed susans and the indian blankets. I love the phlox and the bluebonnets, but the indian blankets seem to have more staying power.

This year was 3 weeks earlier than usual, likely due to all the rain we had and the mild temperatures. Our last freeze was sometime in early to mid February which gave us (and the weeds) quite a jump on the growing season this year.

Sugar Ridge

Joy — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:51:07 +0000

As we were watching the sun set over a huge field of bluebonnets that we were all free to traipse in on Sugar Ridge Road near Ennis, I noticed a little girl toddling happily among the flowers, her father trailed behind her snapping pictures. She didn’t have a care in the world running and laughing through the flowers. I sat down to get some “on the ground” shots and enjoy the sunset and she came and sat next to me. Her father told me her name was October and we sat and played for a few minutes and then she was off again.

Of the whole day, most of my best shots came from that one field. The other fields that may have been more spectacular looking, but were hard to get good shots of on the whole. I’ve not been able to come up with too many bluebonnet shots that I found that captured the flower in the way that I wanted quite possibly until this shot. Usually the colors are too saturated, the flowers look all muddled and never *just* right. I was very pleased with this shot into the sun (and I didn’t even really mind the lens flare so much). It looks so good to me that I just want to roll it up and put it on a vase in the kitchen!

Also, in another rare people shot (for me), there was a woman there who was taking her wedding photographs in the bluebonnets. What a fantastic idea! I snuck some shots from the side while she was waiting for her photographer between shots. The flowers definitely brought a dreamy quality that would just be absolutely perfect.

And lastly, the two horses in the field on the other side of the road came up to the fence to munch on the grass, but thankfully retreated to put together another perfectly dreamy shot.

Bluebonnets On It

Joy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:27:26 +0000

We drove up through the back roads and byways of rural Texas to visit Ennis, the Bluebonnet Capital this past week. It was perhaps *just* past peak there, a week earlier would have made all the difference in vibrance, but I was still completely agog to see seemingly never-ending fields of bluebonnets rolling before me. And the smell! I had no idea bluebonnets had a perfume until I witnessed so many in concentration! It’s almost like violets and lilacs, a light but dizzyingly heady scent that floated on the breezes.

Best Moments – 4/12

Joy — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:21:55 +0000

- Baby cow season!
- Couldn’t find Bessie Mae the one morning. Turns out she pushed her way through an H-brace and went frolicking on the neighbor’s property. We lured her back fairly easily, she’s such a sucker for cow cookies that all you have to do is wave the magic yellow bag that holds the cookies and say “cooookie!!” and she comes running.
- Suitcase shelves and other fun things to do with vintage suitcases!

- How to make *real* buttercream
- How to use a sock to curl your hair
- Some days are just like this…

- The season’s first lightning bugs
- Sittin’ on the bench in front of the general store full of fajitas and eatin’ my ice cream and enjoying the breeze. Nuthin’ better.
- Running a 5k!
- Planning for the next one (zombie infested 5k!)
- 16 adorable Easter guinea peeps!

- Quiet swooshy sound of geese flying north, an occasional flap but it almost sounded like rain.
- If he aged normally, Calvin would be 33 this year.

Easter brunch with the moms.
- Pincurls and pinup.
- Cowboys and recalcitrant heifers.

- Brushing down the horse and going for a ride to turn a mood around.
- Peace of mind of a healthy heart.
- Harvest Bay coconut water
- Sitting on the front porch watching the newly coop/run-released chickens excitedly dash about, listening to the guineas cackle in the cow pasture, KittyKitty on my lap purring and drooling, the windchimes blowing in the breeze and the hummingbirds’ motors run at the feeder.
- Lucy the chicken and KittyKitty sleeping next to each other on the front porch doormat.
- After 2 or 3 weeks sacking out in the Moon Hut couch, being loved on and given antibiotics for a potentially busted tail and an abcess, KittyKitty has been released back into the world last weekend. He has not really left the porch however, and every time someone comes by he yowls at them demanding gooshy food. Spoiled much?
- Bathtub tea light project complete and it’s the perfect relaxation nook!

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- My favorite fingernail moon.
- The wind at sea video

- The coolest little video about a boy and his cardboard arcade – something happy and positive that made me smile!
- Dewdrops on insects. Simply stunning:

- Sea of bluebonnets.

- Wheelthrowing pottery class!

- The Google offices in Pittsburgh designed their space like Kennywood (the local, historic amusement park that we all know and love)

- Wind picking up ahead of a storm
- A snake in the wildflowers. Read the story, that’ll start your heart!

The Only Bee In My Bonnet

Joy — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:42:34 +0000

Texas Corn

Joy — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:04:05 +0000

I love this old building. I think it just radiates Texas charm.

Also it’s across the street from a cafe that has the best buttermilk pie I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.

My Tree

Joy — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:55:07 +0000

Every night this week there has been a stunning conjunction of the moon, Venus, the Plieades and (sometimes) Jupiter. I find myself looking up every evening and seeing what kinds of shapes the take near each other in the sky. I had the brilliant idea the other night of going out to shoot them behind my tree, which didn’t quite work out how I planned, but still ended up with something moderately interesting. It was 10pm at night though, and I left my house with three flashlights, a camera with two lenses and a tripod, my phone and the hope that I wasn’t going to get shot at or attacked by a dog for shuffling around the weeds on the side of the road late at night. It was uneventful (thank goodness) but hazy clouds rolled in several times obscuring things in a less-than-interesting fashion.

Still, I got something, so here they are: