I finally got some pictures of all these plants I've been babbling about. I tried to get some really great pictures of a whole bunch of butterflies nectaring on some bee balm on the side of the road, but I got attacked by damn fire ants while I was standing still, trying to get a good shot. You know they crawl all over you (which you can't feel, because they are so small) and then they emit a chemical signal so that they can bite you all at the same time, don't you? And it really does feel like fire. Like very itchy fire, all over your feet. I know better than to walk into a patch of sandy grass in flats and a skirt and stand still without looking at my feet, but as I have related time and time again, I just don't learn.
I was walking by the side of the road with the camera because Charley brought home a Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar on Wednesday! I had to walk a few blocks into town - which would be Lytton Springs, our town - to the house with the magnolia tree and steal some leaves so it would have something to eat. I took some pictures during my walk, and returned with a few fire ant blisters, too. As it turns out, it never ate the leaves, but - it pooped a whole lot, affixed itself to a stick inside the plastic jug we put it in, and turned brown and shriveled up. Isn't that great??!!That's exactly what they do before they pupate. So we are awaiting a full blown crysalis and eventually and really beautiful butterfly. Hooray!
In the last few days our kitchen has been completely screened in, the screen doors have been hung, painted and affixed with springs and latches, and our kitchen has been put back together. Of course, this didn't happen on its own, Charley and our friend Phillip and even our friend and tenent John have worked their butts off, making individual screen frames for each space in the wall, and cleaning up sawdust and putting all the bowls and cups and odds and ends back in place.. I merely experimented with cooking a roast and veggies in the crockpot to feed them. I have to admit, the screen project came out better than the roast. The roast turned out pretty bland. Tender, but bland. I think I have identified a few things I need to do in the future. For one thing, I need to make more of an attempt to marinate the meat beforehand. I need to cook stuff longer, and also I need to use flavored liquids to cook in, whether it be broth or just worschester sauce spiked water. I'm certainly open to suggestions. I did love how easy it was to put it all in the pot in the morning and come home to a hot, hearty dinner. We accompanied it with some bakery rye bread and butter. It was a pretty good meal, after some bbq sauce and aforementioned worschester sauce was applied to jazz it up some, but I think I can do better.
Our house has become positively homey with the addition of the screened in kitchen. I took some time tonight to marvel again at the amount of space we have to live in now (after spending a year in a cabin 10x20 feet) and how beautiful it looks painted, and furnished.
I walked our lane this evening when I got home - Questionmark butterflies, and more Red Admirals were all over the place. There was a remarkable number of buzzards flying overhead - there must be something dead somewhere, that's the only conclusion one can draw from that. The rose gentian is going crazy, but you can't see the bright pink star blossoms unless you look down into the weedy grasses. When you do, though, they are absolutely carpeting the front acre. I found a black egg, probably a moth or butterfly, hanging from the underside of one of the leaves of the mystery green plant that's all over everywhere right now. I'll have to keep an eye on it, and see what comes out. We're expecting rain tonight, probably, or sometime by this weekend. We're also going to make our sales debut at the local flea market - me with my jewelry and Charley with his junk, and try to go paddling on the Lampassas River on Sunday. I'm sure I'll have some reports to make on the flip side.
Lke I said, I do have pictures. They are pending a charged battery swap and some other computer voo-doo. Soon! For now, I'm just baiting you, so you'll come back and keep reading! Hah! I have strategery on you!
Have a great extra long holiday weekend, everyone!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
You didn't get the whole Estate Sale Story yesterday! We went back with a larger, empty vehicle to pick up our chair. (We call this one the 'ugly chair' even though once we got it home I realized it looks pretty good with our colorful walls) We also spotted a nice side table to take home with us! It is a cool old retro-ey cabinet table that looks like it was meant for record albums. The doors slide back and forth. We also found a really pretty velvet rocker chair, with wooden arm rests and a tall velvet back. It rocks back and forth on 4 springs, and has a really elegant shape. We also got a really cool old enameled metal 3-shelf rolly cart for the kitchen, in unbeleiveable condition. Because it was the last day of the Estate Sale, everything was priced really low. Needless to say, this stuff did not now all fit into the vehicle we had. We had to make a couple of trips, and stash some of it at my office. We also had a pickup truck in town, but because we wanted to park on the street at this birthday party we planned to go to, and then, for the second night in a row had plans to go downtown, we couldn't very well leave furniture in a pickup truck parked on the street downtown on a Saturday night! So we had all this strategy. The furniture is all home now, and is just wonderful! We could still use a couple side tables, and eventually a couch. The search continues! We love this estate sale furniture, especially the old stuff. It's really beautiful and well made, and even better, much less expensive then shopping at a store. Plus, you get to meet who are usually very nice people, and hear a story of life that is passed. They just don't make furniture, or stories to go with it, like they used to!
After we had the furniture all squared away, we continued on with our evening. After a lovely afternoon barbeque with the birthday girl friend of ours, we met up with our friends Beverly and Jonathan and Stephen and went to the best little movie house in Austin, The Alamo Drafthouse. The Alamo is famous for their special way of showing films, with beer, wine and a hearty menu served during movies, often accompanied by live music or other special guests and features. That night we were there for the Japanese Spider Man film in Foleyvision. They had live Foley artists accompanying a bizzare Japanese film of their version of SpiderMan. We laughed like crazy! What a riot. The combination of the movie and the working foley artists in full view of the audience was hilarious! We had heard that Fred Newman, of whom I'm originally a fan of via the PBS children's series Between the Lions, but later found on Prairie Home Companion, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Newman_(actor) )was in town for the event, but we were wrong, and some other local Foley artists did an excellent job of filling the movie with sound. It was a full weekend! We made it home very late with our furniture and all vehicles.
After we had the furniture all squared away, we continued on with our evening. After a lovely afternoon barbeque with the birthday girl friend of ours, we met up with our friends Beverly and Jonathan and Stephen and went to the best little movie house in Austin, The Alamo Drafthouse. The Alamo is famous for their special way of showing films, with beer, wine and a hearty menu served during movies, often accompanied by live music or other special guests and features. That night we were there for the Japanese Spider Man film in Foleyvision. They had live Foley artists accompanying a bizzare Japanese film of their version of SpiderMan. We laughed like crazy! What a riot. The combination of the movie and the working foley artists in full view of the audience was hilarious! We had heard that Fred Newman, of whom I'm originally a fan of via the PBS children's series Between the Lions, but later found on Prairie Home Companion, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Newman_(actor) )was in town for the event, but we were wrong, and some other local Foley artists did an excellent job of filling the movie with sound. It was a full weekend! We made it home very late with our furniture and all vehicles.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
This morning my alarm went off at 7, and it confused me. What the hell is that noise? The alarm? Do I need to go to work? Why? Can't I sleep some more? Oh yeah... we set the alarm for the ungodly Saturday morning time of 7 so we could make the farmer's market and do some estate sale shopping. Damn.
So we got up, went to the corner store for coffee with Prisilla, our friend who works at the corner store and runs the flea market on the last Saturday of each month, which we have a booth on reserve for this month. We had some questions about tables and stuffs, and we just like to go have coffee with her. We usually walk there, but today we drove. We stopped in quickly, got some coffee and squared away our table needs for next week, and agreed to do a plant trade at the market next week. She has some passionflower vines I want to plant to grow on our lattice over by the kitchen, and we have some exotic pepper seeds she wants to grow.
We zipped into town, and I drove to where I assumed the Farmer's Market was. I do this a lot. I think I know where something is, and when I get there, find out I'm wrong. A half hour later, we had gone to my office and found directions on the internet, and made our way there. We had never been very far away, afterall. I had just confused two very similar downtown parks. We started by having some breakfast tacos at the Market, and walked around to look at produce. Charley wants some sauteed greens for dinner, and I wanted some of the fresh local peaches that were for sale. We got what we wanted, and even tried some Buffalo Jerky and got some local honey to boot. We met a nice lady from Turkey and tried her spanikopita and beet salad. It was pretty good. Frankly, I make a better beet salad, with fennel and apples and feta and yoghurt and a wee bit of vinegar and lemon juice. It all turns a wonderful beet purple color and tastes so fresh and delicious, I could eat it by the bucketfull. We were really suprised at the prices of produce at the Farmer's Market. Granted, we were in Austin. But we spent $50 on squash, beans, chard, peaches, & honey! I do beleive in buying locally, but I think that was a bit on the expensive side. I think we'll start looking around in the smaller communities out by us and see if we can't find something a little more reasonably priced and similarly chemical free, locally grown, and delicious.
Then, we headed out for the Estate sale. What an excellent time we had there! I found a beautiful hand knitted shawl for $1.50, and we found a really comfortable chair for $10! It's somewhat hideously floral and green, but I think a slipcover will fix that. It was REALLY comfortable, and it is probably going to be 'my' chair. What we really need now are some side tables so there are surfaces near the chairs we have. We will be on the hunt in the next few weeks. Charley also got some antique papergoods and I picked up a lovely orange linen tablecloth ($1) that will match the placemats and cloth napkins Charley brought back from Guatemala for me. They are purple and orange and pink and really cool. I also got to use the bag he got for me in Guatemala, a really psychedelic blue woven pattern, at the Market for the vegetables. At various other garage sales we found some star wars figurines for a friend, Charley got an old cigarette tin, and I picked up a set of really fabulous fake eyelashes for my mermaid costume, and a wall map of Guatemala.
Our real goal of the day was to end up at Sears, and Charley got himself a brandnew table saw. The old one was failing, and taking way too long cut stuff, and lordy, do we need to cut stuff. So, we got him a new one with my favorite feature - an attached bag to catch the pile of sawdust that comes out at the bottom! Within 5 minutes of getting it home, he had it put together and started to rip apart the wood for the kitchen screen project. I won't be able to tear him way until they are finished! I understand, though, I like to play with my new toys right away, too.
We have to head into town for a birthday party next. I took a few minutes to wander in the yard and saw the following butterflies: Questionmark, Comma, Red Admiral, Painted Ladies, and a huge Yellow Swollowtail! There are spiders on all of our Agaves with striped legs, that make a web with a zig-zag stitch in the middle. They are really cool little spiders, and one of them was feeding on a rolly polly. The flowers are beautiful, still blooming like crazy, all sorts of colors everywhere, and it did actually get down into the high 70's and low 80's today! Hooray! I"m going to grab my sun hat and see if I can get Charley to put on a Party Shirt and head back out! Good day to you!
So we got up, went to the corner store for coffee with Prisilla, our friend who works at the corner store and runs the flea market on the last Saturday of each month, which we have a booth on reserve for this month. We had some questions about tables and stuffs, and we just like to go have coffee with her. We usually walk there, but today we drove. We stopped in quickly, got some coffee and squared away our table needs for next week, and agreed to do a plant trade at the market next week. She has some passionflower vines I want to plant to grow on our lattice over by the kitchen, and we have some exotic pepper seeds she wants to grow.
We zipped into town, and I drove to where I assumed the Farmer's Market was. I do this a lot. I think I know where something is, and when I get there, find out I'm wrong. A half hour later, we had gone to my office and found directions on the internet, and made our way there. We had never been very far away, afterall. I had just confused two very similar downtown parks. We started by having some breakfast tacos at the Market, and walked around to look at produce. Charley wants some sauteed greens for dinner, and I wanted some of the fresh local peaches that were for sale. We got what we wanted, and even tried some Buffalo Jerky and got some local honey to boot. We met a nice lady from Turkey and tried her spanikopita and beet salad. It was pretty good. Frankly, I make a better beet salad, with fennel and apples and feta and yoghurt and a wee bit of vinegar and lemon juice. It all turns a wonderful beet purple color and tastes so fresh and delicious, I could eat it by the bucketfull. We were really suprised at the prices of produce at the Farmer's Market. Granted, we were in Austin. But we spent $50 on squash, beans, chard, peaches, & honey! I do beleive in buying locally, but I think that was a bit on the expensive side. I think we'll start looking around in the smaller communities out by us and see if we can't find something a little more reasonably priced and similarly chemical free, locally grown, and delicious.
Then, we headed out for the Estate sale. What an excellent time we had there! I found a beautiful hand knitted shawl for $1.50, and we found a really comfortable chair for $10! It's somewhat hideously floral and green, but I think a slipcover will fix that. It was REALLY comfortable, and it is probably going to be 'my' chair. What we really need now are some side tables so there are surfaces near the chairs we have. We will be on the hunt in the next few weeks. Charley also got some antique papergoods and I picked up a lovely orange linen tablecloth ($1) that will match the placemats and cloth napkins Charley brought back from Guatemala for me. They are purple and orange and pink and really cool. I also got to use the bag he got for me in Guatemala, a really psychedelic blue woven pattern, at the Market for the vegetables. At various other garage sales we found some star wars figurines for a friend, Charley got an old cigarette tin, and I picked up a set of really fabulous fake eyelashes for my mermaid costume, and a wall map of Guatemala.
Our real goal of the day was to end up at Sears, and Charley got himself a brandnew table saw. The old one was failing, and taking way too long cut stuff, and lordy, do we need to cut stuff. So, we got him a new one with my favorite feature - an attached bag to catch the pile of sawdust that comes out at the bottom! Within 5 minutes of getting it home, he had it put together and started to rip apart the wood for the kitchen screen project. I won't be able to tear him way until they are finished! I understand, though, I like to play with my new toys right away, too.
We have to head into town for a birthday party next. I took a few minutes to wander in the yard and saw the following butterflies: Questionmark, Comma, Red Admiral, Painted Ladies, and a huge Yellow Swollowtail! There are spiders on all of our Agaves with striped legs, that make a web with a zig-zag stitch in the middle. They are really cool little spiders, and one of them was feeding on a rolly polly. The flowers are beautiful, still blooming like crazy, all sorts of colors everywhere, and it did actually get down into the high 70's and low 80's today! Hooray! I"m going to grab my sun hat and see if I can get Charley to put on a Party Shirt and head back out! Good day to you!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
I've come inside early tonight to seek refuge from the mosquitoes, which have become quite a nusiance. I didn't escape without some welts, they are itchy and burning. I've been eaten alive in the last couple of days, with or without bug spray. The only real solution is long pants and long sleeves, and if you can't tell, that's a stretch for me. I hate getting all covered up like that to go outside. Besides, it is hot. The thermometer says the hottest temp today was 94, making May 15th the hottest day of the year so far. We're supposed to get a cold front tonight and cool off to be in the 80's for the weekend. I'll believe it when I see it. If it rains tonight, we could get there. Despite the heat, some very spring-like flowers are hanging in there like champs. I noticed the Day Flower - sometimes called Widow's Tears - was blooming yesterday, but they are gone since Charley has come home and done some much-needed weed-eating around the house. (yay! Charley is home!) There are some winecups still going at it, and Texas Paintbrush, and the Beebalm is blooming like crazy, all stacked up like cakes. The firewheel are still chugging along, and the Rose Gentian is probably the most beautiful bloomin' thing we've got right now. The cows spend most of the day around the big tree in the next-over field, but by the time I got home, it was cooling off and they were spread out. I moo'd at them in their flower-dotted field and they looked at me funny. I should be able to put some pictures of these plants up soon, because the camera came home with Charley. We're going to spend the weekend boating and seeing a friend who is leaving Texas for Alaska, and going to a birthday party, but also getting our Media organized, so fresh pictures will be more available soon.
I also saw another fuzzy caterpillar, 3 Comma Butterflies, 2 Questionmarks, a couple buckeyes and several Painted Ladies, one of which was obviously freshly hatched and vibrantly colored. Charley and I also spotted a big green metalic fly that moved as though it was animated, and someone hadn't drawn quite enough frames to make it move smoothly enough. I walked around with the Amdro for a while, looking for ant mounds to kill. I probably would have found more if I was just out for a wander, but I found the two I definately remembered and cheerfully sprinkled my poison around for them to find. It might rain tonight, but I thought I would at least give it a try, and it was an excuse to walk around the land for a bit. We've also moistened and covered the compost with a black tarp, just to give it some encouragement. It is filled with Rolly-pollys and turning into rich, black fluff at the bottom.
Needless to say, its been wonderful to have Charley home. He brings such a spark of life to the house, is motivation incarnate, and with his newspaper spread out around the easy chair and his reading glasses left nearby, makes the house even more homey that it was. He's all culture shocky, and so every convenience is a little piece of heaven to him. He's really appreciating having a wife, air conditioning, a comfy bed, and no need for a machete. It's very cute. We had friends over last night, and we both mentioned later how we savored having our wonderful new house filled with laughter and food and people and candlelight. He cleaned out the shed today, a big job! Now we have a caving and camping shed, and a separate tool/workshop shed. We even threw a bunch of trash away and put some stuff in the scrap metal pile to sell in town to the junkman. He sure works hard. I endured a day of meetings at work today, so I was happy to come home and help put the last few things away in the shed, and not be sitting at a table analyzing my reports. I did my wifely part by bugging him about seeing his travel doctor and wearing his arm brace. Back to domestic bliss....
I also saw another fuzzy caterpillar, 3 Comma Butterflies, 2 Questionmarks, a couple buckeyes and several Painted Ladies, one of which was obviously freshly hatched and vibrantly colored. Charley and I also spotted a big green metalic fly that moved as though it was animated, and someone hadn't drawn quite enough frames to make it move smoothly enough. I walked around with the Amdro for a while, looking for ant mounds to kill. I probably would have found more if I was just out for a wander, but I found the two I definately remembered and cheerfully sprinkled my poison around for them to find. It might rain tonight, but I thought I would at least give it a try, and it was an excuse to walk around the land for a bit. We've also moistened and covered the compost with a black tarp, just to give it some encouragement. It is filled with Rolly-pollys and turning into rich, black fluff at the bottom.
Needless to say, its been wonderful to have Charley home. He brings such a spark of life to the house, is motivation incarnate, and with his newspaper spread out around the easy chair and his reading glasses left nearby, makes the house even more homey that it was. He's all culture shocky, and so every convenience is a little piece of heaven to him. He's really appreciating having a wife, air conditioning, a comfy bed, and no need for a machete. It's very cute. We had friends over last night, and we both mentioned later how we savored having our wonderful new house filled with laughter and food and people and candlelight. He cleaned out the shed today, a big job! Now we have a caving and camping shed, and a separate tool/workshop shed. We even threw a bunch of trash away and put some stuff in the scrap metal pile to sell in town to the junkman. He sure works hard. I endured a day of meetings at work today, so I was happy to come home and help put the last few things away in the shed, and not be sitting at a table analyzing my reports. I did my wifely part by bugging him about seeing his travel doctor and wearing his arm brace. Back to domestic bliss....
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Do YOU Blog?
I am newish to this blogging thing. I mean, I have understood the artform since the word weblog was first contracted and the resulting 'blog' word coined as a term, but I just started keeping one myself. I used to think they were boorish and narcissistic. (used to?) No really, but then my mom started keeping one and it changed my attitude. I really looked forward to reading hers, and it felt like I was getting to know her better. Because aren't we really all just mysteries to eachother, mysteries we occasionally get to solve but, more often than not, are just able to attempt resolution?
Do you blog? Do you read blogs? Do you ever browse blogs? I am spending the last night of my husband's absence doing stuff I'd do if I were single. Yes, like staying up all night and geeking on the computer. (I had a dull single life, eh?) It seems like everyone and their brother's dog has a blog these days. At least it does when you click 'next blog' in the nav bar at the top. Most of them aren't even in English, that's refreshing. Here's some interesting stuff I spotted:
http://kristinandjoshcanfield.blogspot.com/
These people are just way too pretty and have a too-cute lifestory. This shit is like porn for travel/adventure dorks. I want to live in Costa Rica, too! Damn. I want friends like this, except I'd feel resentful and jelous and not quite sure I should believe they are for real.
http://etheralplanes.blogspot.com/
Something like eye-candy, only more like eye-gourmet-buffet.
http://massiveunderstatement.blogspot.com/
I think I like eavesdropping on someone a lot hipper than me. This blog makes me laugh.
<-----
<-----
<----- Anyway, check out my list of links over there. I have a buncha cool stuff and you should. Especially TShirt Hell, because they have THE most offensive t-shirts and it makes me happy that they exist. I giggle and think of all the pissed-off people out there, mad at a t-shirt, because people who get mad at t-shirts are usually a pretty hilarious kind of pissed-off. Because, damn, their t-shirts are O-FFENSIVE.
OH, and listen to This Week in Science. I'll give five bucks to the first person who tells me the date of the episode that I got a shout-out LIVE ON AIR FROM TWIS! It made my day, I want someone to hear it, and I'm a gambling type.
And Comment, dammit. (if you were going to comment and just hadn't yet, I didn't mean 'dammit' at you. :-) )
Do you blog? Do you read blogs? Do you ever browse blogs? I am spending the last night of my husband's absence doing stuff I'd do if I were single. Yes, like staying up all night and geeking on the computer. (I had a dull single life, eh?) It seems like everyone and their brother's dog has a blog these days. At least it does when you click 'next blog' in the nav bar at the top. Most of them aren't even in English, that's refreshing. Here's some interesting stuff I spotted:
http://kristinandjoshcanfield.blogspot.com/
These people are just way too pretty and have a too-cute lifestory. This shit is like porn for travel/adventure dorks. I want to live in Costa Rica, too! Damn. I want friends like this, except I'd feel resentful and jelous and not quite sure I should believe they are for real.
http://etheralplanes.blogspot.com/
Something like eye-candy, only more like eye-gourmet-buffet.
http://massiveunderstatement.blogspot.com/
I think I like eavesdropping on someone a lot hipper than me. This blog makes me laugh.
<-----
<-----
<----- Anyway, check out my list of links over there. I have a buncha cool stuff and you should. Especially TShirt Hell, because they have THE most offensive t-shirts and it makes me happy that they exist. I giggle and think of all the pissed-off people out there, mad at a t-shirt, because people who get mad at t-shirts are usually a pretty hilarious kind of pissed-off. Because, damn, their t-shirts are O-FFENSIVE.
OH, and listen to This Week in Science. I'll give five bucks to the first person who tells me the date of the episode that I got a shout-out LIVE ON AIR FROM TWIS! It made my day, I want someone to hear it, and I'm a gambling type.
And Comment, dammit. (if you were going to comment and just hadn't yet, I didn't mean 'dammit' at you. :-) )
Thursday, May 10, 2007
A Two-fer-one Day
Spring is indeed lingering in Texas. Today was beautiful, a swirling mix of warm with sunshine and cool with shaded, cloud-dappled skies. As one flower droops, another bursts into floresence. Everything is long and tall and weedy these days. Today I noticed the weedy lands were covered in Rose Gentian blooms, hiding below the bobbing seed heads on foxtail grasses and fading firewheels. I saw a Questionmark Butterfly manically skidding around the Agarita in the last sun patches of the day, as I pulled in tonight after work. It lured me out for a walk, even in my knee-length, sleeveless dress. This time I had the presence of mind, at least , to spray a little DEET-y spray on my legs before my wander. I am sick of so many itchy bumps, especially since the last time I went berry-picking I ended up with the large, puffy, insanely itchy red welts that herald the long-suffering of the chigger bite.
I watched the clouds form boiling pink and orange towers, the dark threat of rain in the opposite corner of the sky from the sinking sun. I couldn't help but take a quick step in every newly discovered ant heap I found, staring at the resulting chaos I just can't seem to resist creating for every colony I come across. I need to get out into the yard with the Amdro again, during a rain-free spell, whenever that comes, to put the ants down once again. They are the only critter I enjoy getting rid of, because they might eat you if you fall down into one of their mounds.
I found a plump, fuzzy, black caterpillar clinging to a bobbing blade of tall grass. I'm always pretty proud of myself when I find a caterpillar. I love the whole transformative life cycle of those squishy little bags of bug guts. I particularly enjoy identifying butterflies, by watching their unique flight patterns and flashes of colors, scanning with my eyes and quickly changing my range of focus to follow a specimen long enough to get a lock on the genus, if not the species. I am not very good at finding caterpillars or crystalises, however. So, woohoo! Score one for me.
There is a light green, stalky, soft, leafy plant that is taking over the yard. I do not know what it is, and I would like to. It seems really useless and is crowding out the more interesting stuff right now. I would like to know what it is, because I would like to love it more, since there is a lot of it. I also spotted lots of slender, glittery-eyed spiders with furry, light-colored limbs and tiny, weed-colored, almost perfectly camoflauged grasshoppers. They always seem like paranoid little weirdos to me, with their ridged carapace and their large eyes that extend into the back of their head segment. They make a lot of noise.
The ground is dry and hard, except for a few regular marshy spots on the back acre, even though we've a had a few nights with pretty good rain showers lately. Ruts, carved when the ground was more like frosting, have remained however, now crusty and likely to trip a wanderer like myself. But ending up with my hands in the dirt and my face down near that strip of grass that grows down the middle of all country lanes, I was reminded of one of my favorite flowers, the wild honeysuckle, still blooming like crazy, like it has for months, nestled among the long weedy grasses. The wild honeysuckle always tickles my fancy because it is so delicate, but blooms so steadily on that punished strip of grass I'm talking about. It amazes me that it continues to bloom here, because I know my exhaust system cuts right over it, and the bumper of our friend's truck slices right into its space, too. Wild Honeysuckle might be small, but I could smell it, pitched over onto two hands and only one foot, head down, and only one delicate, tiny, half-inch bloom inches from my face. I could smell it like it was a hedge of star jasmine, not just clusters of white and pink eyelash-like petals arrayed on a slender stem. I picked it, and carried it around with me, smelling it constantly. They wither quickly, and it is all stem and curled up petals by now, like a miniscule columbine flower. I admire these little beauties, for being so perfect and delicate and strong blooming in the dangerzone, the middle of the road, where even grass only dares to grow so high. I took a deep breath and noticed it was getting duskier by the moment.
When I returned to the house to putter inside, the Indigo Girls were on the radio, singing "...when God made me born a Yankee he was teasing" ... a song about springtime in the southlands. Amen, sisters.
I watched the clouds form boiling pink and orange towers, the dark threat of rain in the opposite corner of the sky from the sinking sun. I couldn't help but take a quick step in every newly discovered ant heap I found, staring at the resulting chaos I just can't seem to resist creating for every colony I come across. I need to get out into the yard with the Amdro again, during a rain-free spell, whenever that comes, to put the ants down once again. They are the only critter I enjoy getting rid of, because they might eat you if you fall down into one of their mounds.
I found a plump, fuzzy, black caterpillar clinging to a bobbing blade of tall grass. I'm always pretty proud of myself when I find a caterpillar. I love the whole transformative life cycle of those squishy little bags of bug guts. I particularly enjoy identifying butterflies, by watching their unique flight patterns and flashes of colors, scanning with my eyes and quickly changing my range of focus to follow a specimen long enough to get a lock on the genus, if not the species. I am not very good at finding caterpillars or crystalises, however. So, woohoo! Score one for me.
There is a light green, stalky, soft, leafy plant that is taking over the yard. I do not know what it is, and I would like to. It seems really useless and is crowding out the more interesting stuff right now. I would like to know what it is, because I would like to love it more, since there is a lot of it. I also spotted lots of slender, glittery-eyed spiders with furry, light-colored limbs and tiny, weed-colored, almost perfectly camoflauged grasshoppers. They always seem like paranoid little weirdos to me, with their ridged carapace and their large eyes that extend into the back of their head segment. They make a lot of noise.
The ground is dry and hard, except for a few regular marshy spots on the back acre, even though we've a had a few nights with pretty good rain showers lately. Ruts, carved when the ground was more like frosting, have remained however, now crusty and likely to trip a wanderer like myself. But ending up with my hands in the dirt and my face down near that strip of grass that grows down the middle of all country lanes, I was reminded of one of my favorite flowers, the wild honeysuckle, still blooming like crazy, like it has for months, nestled among the long weedy grasses. The wild honeysuckle always tickles my fancy because it is so delicate, but blooms so steadily on that punished strip of grass I'm talking about. It amazes me that it continues to bloom here, because I know my exhaust system cuts right over it, and the bumper of our friend's truck slices right into its space, too. Wild Honeysuckle might be small, but I could smell it, pitched over onto two hands and only one foot, head down, and only one delicate, tiny, half-inch bloom inches from my face. I could smell it like it was a hedge of star jasmine, not just clusters of white and pink eyelash-like petals arrayed on a slender stem. I picked it, and carried it around with me, smelling it constantly. They wither quickly, and it is all stem and curled up petals by now, like a miniscule columbine flower. I admire these little beauties, for being so perfect and delicate and strong blooming in the dangerzone, the middle of the road, where even grass only dares to grow so high. I took a deep breath and noticed it was getting duskier by the moment.
When I returned to the house to putter inside, the Indigo Girls were on the radio, singing "...when God made me born a Yankee he was teasing" ... a song about springtime in the southlands. Amen, sisters.
O's Kickball game, D's past life
Well, D was tired and needed to get to bed early, and so D& O's mom made a last minute plan for a friend to take O to the aforementioned kickball game, so that I could stay home and put D to bed. Olivia came home in a good mood, but the team had lost the game. She was a little bummed about that, but she admitted that they other team had "strategy" and some good kickers. Besides, O's team had beat them the last time they faced off, so she figured it was just kind of like taking turns.
Before the game, a couple of other teammates were at the house, playing on the trampoline in the backyard with D & O. The subject of the team they were going to face came up, especially the "big kicker", a tall-for-her-age 1st grader opponent, who aparently has good timing and power in her legs. The girls all groaned and wailed and imagined horrible scenarios in which the big kicker knocked it out of the park, or into one of our heroine's teeth. I talked a little about visualization, and asked them if they thought it would affect their game if they instead intentionally imagined themselves as a big kicker, or zipping around the bases, light as air. I explained that imagining all these horrible big kicker storylines was called "psyching yourself out" and asked if they thought that might effect their game. It was pretty cool. They did seem to think that they would be better off not thinking about imagined situations that hadn't even happened yet, when they could be spending their time making up cheers for their own team, or even just playing kickball! They were really open to the idea, and even tried the visualizations, for about 2 seconds, before resuming their tumbling and bouncing on the trampoline.
When O got home, she did mention a couple things that I found interesting. She wished that the other team just wasn't very good, that all the other teams weren't very good, so they could just beat them all the time. I told her that I feel that way, too, in general, but have found that the only times I get better at something is when I'm around people who are better at it than I am, or challenged to do better than I already do. I talked about how if there were never any challenges, then she might not be very good at anything, because there would be no reason to ever try harder, and grow. O really got this concept, and embraced it. She spent the rest of the night telling me about times she had been challenged, and had overcome it, or not. She did say that the times you're challenged and it whups you are the times that were easiest to think of. I have to agree, on most days.
She also made a pretty quick and dirty analysis of the skills of the team, and while she assessed herself as a pretty fast runner with the ability to do some quick footwork to avoid close calls, she put herself in the bottom two kickers on the team. She wasn't embarrassed or even very critical of herself. She said it with a shrug. She even knows that its a technique issue, and she needs to work on it. I suggested that once she gets a few good kicks she should try to remember how it felt, and replicate that feeling as much as she could. She said she just needs to kick with her foot in a different position. Heh.
I told her that one of the things that was so cool about babysitting her is that it was a lot like just hanging out with a friend, and not so much like _babysitting_ at all. She paused for minute, smirked at herself, smiled at me, and gave me a big hug. Then while she had me by the neck, she pulled me down to her level for a bounce-off-my-face, big smack of a kiss. She said her friends had noticed that I'm the only one who ever calls her by a nickname, but it was okay, because that's just how I am, and she didn't mind that. She told them to call her by her full name.
While O was at the game, I pushed D on the swing for a little bit before dinner and bath and story and bedtime. She launched into a story in a very condescending, lectury manner, as though I may not understand, about her "other mother, the one up in the clouds" who she says she speaks to, who used to take care of her, and was her mother "a very long time ago before she was born". Curious, especially if you believe in ANYTHING supernatural. (I admit, I do) I asked if it was a different mommy than her mommy now, who I named. She assured me it was a different mommy, who used to be her mommy. I always speak pretty acceptingly, especially during imaginary play. Sometimes kids will end up laughing at you if you take them seriously when they are putting you on, but she was just as matter-of-fact as I. She swung in silence for a while, and then decided that we should go and play some music together.
She hooted and wheezed and heaved minor chords out of her harmonica, I slowly plunked out a new song from her sister's piano lesson books. Then, she danced, while I played her favorite waltz from an old piano lesson book from my childhood. I have stashed my old book in their bench, so I have some familiar material when they demand a concert.
Before the game, a couple of other teammates were at the house, playing on the trampoline in the backyard with D & O. The subject of the team they were going to face came up, especially the "big kicker", a tall-for-her-age 1st grader opponent, who aparently has good timing and power in her legs. The girls all groaned and wailed and imagined horrible scenarios in which the big kicker knocked it out of the park, or into one of our heroine's teeth. I talked a little about visualization, and asked them if they thought it would affect their game if they instead intentionally imagined themselves as a big kicker, or zipping around the bases, light as air. I explained that imagining all these horrible big kicker storylines was called "psyching yourself out" and asked if they thought that might effect their game. It was pretty cool. They did seem to think that they would be better off not thinking about imagined situations that hadn't even happened yet, when they could be spending their time making up cheers for their own team, or even just playing kickball! They were really open to the idea, and even tried the visualizations, for about 2 seconds, before resuming their tumbling and bouncing on the trampoline.
When O got home, she did mention a couple things that I found interesting. She wished that the other team just wasn't very good, that all the other teams weren't very good, so they could just beat them all the time. I told her that I feel that way, too, in general, but have found that the only times I get better at something is when I'm around people who are better at it than I am, or challenged to do better than I already do. I talked about how if there were never any challenges, then she might not be very good at anything, because there would be no reason to ever try harder, and grow. O really got this concept, and embraced it. She spent the rest of the night telling me about times she had been challenged, and had overcome it, or not. She did say that the times you're challenged and it whups you are the times that were easiest to think of. I have to agree, on most days.
She also made a pretty quick and dirty analysis of the skills of the team, and while she assessed herself as a pretty fast runner with the ability to do some quick footwork to avoid close calls, she put herself in the bottom two kickers on the team. She wasn't embarrassed or even very critical of herself. She said it with a shrug. She even knows that its a technique issue, and she needs to work on it. I suggested that once she gets a few good kicks she should try to remember how it felt, and replicate that feeling as much as she could. She said she just needs to kick with her foot in a different position. Heh.
I told her that one of the things that was so cool about babysitting her is that it was a lot like just hanging out with a friend, and not so much like _babysitting_ at all. She paused for minute, smirked at herself, smiled at me, and gave me a big hug. Then while she had me by the neck, she pulled me down to her level for a bounce-off-my-face, big smack of a kiss. She said her friends had noticed that I'm the only one who ever calls her by a nickname, but it was okay, because that's just how I am, and she didn't mind that. She told them to call her by her full name.
While O was at the game, I pushed D on the swing for a little bit before dinner and bath and story and bedtime. She launched into a story in a very condescending, lectury manner, as though I may not understand, about her "other mother, the one up in the clouds" who she says she speaks to, who used to take care of her, and was her mother "a very long time ago before she was born". Curious, especially if you believe in ANYTHING supernatural. (I admit, I do) I asked if it was a different mommy than her mommy now, who I named. She assured me it was a different mommy, who used to be her mommy. I always speak pretty acceptingly, especially during imaginary play. Sometimes kids will end up laughing at you if you take them seriously when they are putting you on, but she was just as matter-of-fact as I. She swung in silence for a while, and then decided that we should go and play some music together.
She hooted and wheezed and heaved minor chords out of her harmonica, I slowly plunked out a new song from her sister's piano lesson books. Then, she danced, while I played her favorite waltz from an old piano lesson book from my childhood. I have stashed my old book in their bench, so I have some familiar material when they demand a concert.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
The herd of buffalo at 183 and 21 was clumped up together, by the part of the field nearest the road, tonight on my drive home. There are three little cinnamon buffalo babies, where just last week I had only noticed two! They were mingling with the Longhorn in the fading bluebonnet patch, a quintessential Texas scene, in the golden light of the setting sun.
It's been rainy and humid by turns, with more storms likely brewing. The forecast was dismal today, with a big question mark over a dark, raining sky picture, complete with a cartoon cloud blowing wind from its puffed up cheeks, for the next TEN DAYS. Good grief! Certainly it will rain and clear off, they just don't know when. We need the rain, its true. We're pretty close to caught up, if not caught up already, but the water we get now has to sustain us through another long hot summer. This afternoon was suprisingly breezy and sunny, and bordering on hot. I am savoring the lingering spring, now that I have a small taste of what is to come!
I checked the compost and the ants are gone. I did poison them with Amdro, and now I wonder if it was bad to put that in the compost? I have a lot of stuff to put in the compost, since I've been such a bachelor while Charley's been gone, and there is, sadly, rotting food left in the fridge.The compost heap doesn't stink, though, so we must be doing something right with it.
This is my last weekend to putter around by myself and really work on the mermaid costume for my trip to NYC in June. It's almost done, I mostly need to glue some things on more securely. Something to cross off the list! Woohoo! Then I can work on learning to cook in the crockpot, and report on my adventures.
I had a wonderful weekend. I attended a Cinco de Mayo party with the best Fajita spread I have seen in a very long time. I dominated the Bocce Game, and won so many rounds I got bored! Hah! Then I got to introduce a bunch of friends to the game "apples to apples", which is a scream. I was also honored to have guests out on Sunday. Two of my girlfriends, who are going off in different directions for the next large part of their lives, came out to enjoy my solitude with me. We had lots of coctails and giggled and gossiped, and it was a really wonderful day. E is off on her way to South Dakota for the summer to her seasonal parks job, and M is headed back to school - grad school - and both have incredible possibilites out before them. That kind of energy is a real delight to be around. It was one of the easiest, most comfortable afternoons I've spent recently. Lovely.
I'm babysitting tomorrow - an overnighter. O (6) has a kickball game. We're going to be busy. I never knew before spending overnights with the girls, that doing anything besides playing in the back yard, cooking dinner, taking a bath, and going to bed means you're going to be VERY busy and barely get it accomplished with there are small children involved! I get to do the whole gettin' up early and making sure she catches the bus and her sister, D (3) gets to her friend's house for the morning. I love spending time with these kids, who have truly become friends to me over the years, and it is always fun to spend time with your friends. I'm excited about the kickball game. I can't wait to cheer O on. I know she's a bit nervous about this match, and we always have interesting conversations about stuff going on in her life. I hope I can provide some encouragement and insight. She's such a good listener, and conversationalist, and our exchanges always leave a lasting impression on my life, too.
Sounds a little boring, but that's the update on life here at the Butterfly Palace!
It's been rainy and humid by turns, with more storms likely brewing. The forecast was dismal today, with a big question mark over a dark, raining sky picture, complete with a cartoon cloud blowing wind from its puffed up cheeks, for the next TEN DAYS. Good grief! Certainly it will rain and clear off, they just don't know when. We need the rain, its true. We're pretty close to caught up, if not caught up already, but the water we get now has to sustain us through another long hot summer. This afternoon was suprisingly breezy and sunny, and bordering on hot. I am savoring the lingering spring, now that I have a small taste of what is to come!
I checked the compost and the ants are gone. I did poison them with Amdro, and now I wonder if it was bad to put that in the compost? I have a lot of stuff to put in the compost, since I've been such a bachelor while Charley's been gone, and there is, sadly, rotting food left in the fridge.The compost heap doesn't stink, though, so we must be doing something right with it.
This is my last weekend to putter around by myself and really work on the mermaid costume for my trip to NYC in June. It's almost done, I mostly need to glue some things on more securely. Something to cross off the list! Woohoo! Then I can work on learning to cook in the crockpot, and report on my adventures.
I had a wonderful weekend. I attended a Cinco de Mayo party with the best Fajita spread I have seen in a very long time. I dominated the Bocce Game, and won so many rounds I got bored! Hah! Then I got to introduce a bunch of friends to the game "apples to apples", which is a scream. I was also honored to have guests out on Sunday. Two of my girlfriends, who are going off in different directions for the next large part of their lives, came out to enjoy my solitude with me. We had lots of coctails and giggled and gossiped, and it was a really wonderful day. E is off on her way to South Dakota for the summer to her seasonal parks job, and M is headed back to school - grad school - and both have incredible possibilites out before them. That kind of energy is a real delight to be around. It was one of the easiest, most comfortable afternoons I've spent recently. Lovely.
I'm babysitting tomorrow - an overnighter. O (6) has a kickball game. We're going to be busy. I never knew before spending overnights with the girls, that doing anything besides playing in the back yard, cooking dinner, taking a bath, and going to bed means you're going to be VERY busy and barely get it accomplished with there are small children involved! I get to do the whole gettin' up early and making sure she catches the bus and her sister, D (3) gets to her friend's house for the morning. I love spending time with these kids, who have truly become friends to me over the years, and it is always fun to spend time with your friends. I'm excited about the kickball game. I can't wait to cheer O on. I know she's a bit nervous about this match, and we always have interesting conversations about stuff going on in her life. I hope I can provide some encouragement and insight. She's such a good listener, and conversationalist, and our exchanges always leave a lasting impression on my life, too.
Sounds a little boring, but that's the update on life here at the Butterfly Palace!
Saturday, May 5, 2007
A quick survey of what's blooming in the yard from my walk to get the mail:
Texas vervain
winecup
brown eyed susans
blue-eyed grass
spotted beebalm (my current favorite plant)
spiderwort
firewheel
crow poison
Texas paintbrush
rose gentian
wild iris
yarrow
sow thistle
plume thistle
prickly pear cactus
several yellow sunflower/coneflower/daisy looking things I should take the time to distinguish
a ruffly, peachy colored flower on a hairy leafy stem I can't identify
the dew berry bushes continue to have berries
the agarita has berries
Mourning Cloak Butterfly
Hairstreak Butterfly
several dragonflies
It is Cinco de Mayo! I am going to a party! But first, a little chinese food in town.
Texas vervain
winecup
brown eyed susans
blue-eyed grass
spotted beebalm (my current favorite plant)
spiderwort
firewheel
crow poison
Texas paintbrush
rose gentian
wild iris
yarrow
sow thistle
plume thistle
prickly pear cactus
several yellow sunflower/coneflower/daisy looking things I should take the time to distinguish
a ruffly, peachy colored flower on a hairy leafy stem I can't identify
the dew berry bushes continue to have berries
the agarita has berries
Mourning Cloak Butterfly
Hairstreak Butterfly
several dragonflies
It is Cinco de Mayo! I am going to a party! But first, a little chinese food in town.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
I left work earlier than usual today. A few cavers, fresh from the Guatemala Expedition, are returning and our house is a convenient stop over on their way further west and north. I wanted to be home to greet them. They'll be here any minute.
Leaving early grants me the pleasure of a few hours of workweek evening daylight hours. I am sure that this delight will increase with the growing summer, but right now these hours are at a premium, I haven't experienced them much all winter long. I often take this extra grant of time at home to walk our land. I still haven't been everywhere on it! Frequently, and especially when I'm not wearing long pants in which to brave the wild bramble on most of the land, my path follows our lane, at the front of the property. There are lots of flowers blooming along it right now. And the butterflies were out tonight! There must have been a hatch, there were several with ruffle-y wings not yet quite expanded to fullness for flight. There were bees, which I note especially right now amid so much news of the rapidly failing populations of honey bees. There were remarkably many black flies, as well. And of course mosquitoes. I actually screeched in fright at the big black bug that landed on my arm at one point - a large attack mosquito. I know better than to wander with bare legs, but my linen skirt rustling in the breeze felt so liberating that I didn't pause to change before heading out, so now I am itching and suffering the welts of mosquito nibbles. I absolutely marvel at how big they get, and at how weirdly shaped the sharply defined welts are on my wrists and behind my knees.
I visited our compost heap, and it seems it has been made into a fire ant apartment complex. I couldn't resist poking it with our compost stick, and watching them roil forth. As I sit here and type, I still have the 'creepy-crawlies' - the feeling that there are little teeny insects crawling on you, whether or not they actually are there. There are, in fact, a few small critters wandering lost up my shins, but I have crushed them to dust with my ninja-like reflexes heightened by fire ant paranoia.
The flowers that are blooming are called Firewheel, or Indian Blanket Flowers. They were being visited by Red Admiral Butterflies, in abundance. Also I spotted two American Buckeyes, a black swallowtail of some sort, and a large hairstreak. They were sunning in the fading light, and I was entranced. I think I saw about 20 individuals flittering about and pumping their wings. The winecups and the Texas Paintbrush are still blooming, and the field off of the short leg of Hwy 21 that I travel was still boiling over with bluebonnets. I lingered in the flower patch in the ditch, outside our gate at the very front of the land. Several folks drove by in big rumbling and whistling trucks, and waved at the girl standing by the side of the road, staring at the weeds.
Leaving early grants me the pleasure of a few hours of workweek evening daylight hours. I am sure that this delight will increase with the growing summer, but right now these hours are at a premium, I haven't experienced them much all winter long. I often take this extra grant of time at home to walk our land. I still haven't been everywhere on it! Frequently, and especially when I'm not wearing long pants in which to brave the wild bramble on most of the land, my path follows our lane, at the front of the property. There are lots of flowers blooming along it right now. And the butterflies were out tonight! There must have been a hatch, there were several with ruffle-y wings not yet quite expanded to fullness for flight. There were bees, which I note especially right now amid so much news of the rapidly failing populations of honey bees. There were remarkably many black flies, as well. And of course mosquitoes. I actually screeched in fright at the big black bug that landed on my arm at one point - a large attack mosquito. I know better than to wander with bare legs, but my linen skirt rustling in the breeze felt so liberating that I didn't pause to change before heading out, so now I am itching and suffering the welts of mosquito nibbles. I absolutely marvel at how big they get, and at how weirdly shaped the sharply defined welts are on my wrists and behind my knees.
I visited our compost heap, and it seems it has been made into a fire ant apartment complex. I couldn't resist poking it with our compost stick, and watching them roil forth. As I sit here and type, I still have the 'creepy-crawlies' - the feeling that there are little teeny insects crawling on you, whether or not they actually are there. There are, in fact, a few small critters wandering lost up my shins, but I have crushed them to dust with my ninja-like reflexes heightened by fire ant paranoia.
The flowers that are blooming are called Firewheel, or Indian Blanket Flowers. They were being visited by Red Admiral Butterflies, in abundance. Also I spotted two American Buckeyes, a black swallowtail of some sort, and a large hairstreak. They were sunning in the fading light, and I was entranced. I think I saw about 20 individuals flittering about and pumping their wings. The winecups and the Texas Paintbrush are still blooming, and the field off of the short leg of Hwy 21 that I travel was still boiling over with bluebonnets. I lingered in the flower patch in the ditch, outside our gate at the very front of the land. Several folks drove by in big rumbling and whistling trucks, and waved at the girl standing by the side of the road, staring at the weeds.
Did I mention that my new husband is out of the country right now? He is galavanting in Guatemala, with little contact back home, but I did hear from him yesterday. He always emails me from internet cafes when he's away. I've never been in an internet cafe, or at least, have never relied upon one for internet service.
They have been caving near Coban for the last two weeks. A few folks have splintered off and returned home, camping out on our land as they pass through. Phillip has been sick. He's better now, though. Matt and Nancy might go do a gig for the Discovery Channel in Belize. Charley is going to kick it at a friend's mother's beach house on the Pacific side for a couple days and do some mangrove swamp kayaking. He was looking for postcards on ebay when he emailed me. The good news is that they are coming home! He and Phillip will arrive by bus sometime on the 13th or 14th. It's just nice to know, to have that date to looks forward to. He hasn't mentioned much caving, but I know they found a big one, because one of the early returning folks showed me some pictures. Charley did say they seem to be the only folks caving in that country.
I've been having great fun while he's away, going to music and community festivals, hanging out with old friends. I'm going to do some overnighter babysitting for D&O, my favorite kids, next week. And clean the house. I live like a messy batchelor when he is gone!
This time his absence really threw me off all my routines. It's been nice relaxing at my house alone, but I"m just getting adjusted. That was kind of a suprise, since we've been apart before. Definately something we'll do again in the future, so its got me thinking about how to make those transitions a little more smooth for myself. I felt like maybe I was just unprepared this time, with so much happening right before he left. I'll have to think on that.
It rained like hell again tonight. We've had a lot of rain, but we need it. It's been either nice and raining, or hot and humid lately. It is much nicer to appreciate the needed rain from a sturdy house than from in the car when I can't see the road. That was kind of a scary drive home tonight. Mostly, because I have to drive across a lot of creeks, and this part of the country is known for its flash floods, and I couldn't see the road. There was definately standing water in a few places. But I made it home by driving really slooooowwww and feeling the pangs of adrenaline in my body until I could drive more normally when the rain let up for a while. The adrenaline was kind of a metalic taste, or an electric feeling, mostly in my mouth. It definately helped me be more alert, and also a little stressed out. Our place isn't mucky, though, and it can get mucky with enough rain. Right now it is just wet and puddly. This wet weather does at least extend the comfortable temps into late May, and I am not complaining about that. Coolness and rain become something precious come August.
I have been thinking that our place needs a name. A Casita Something, or something. Just so I can say that instead of "our place" which sounds kind of boring. Compounds should have names. There is a miniature pony farm around here called "Little America". Like that. I'll have to give it some thought, and consult with Charley when he returns.
They have been caving near Coban for the last two weeks. A few folks have splintered off and returned home, camping out on our land as they pass through. Phillip has been sick. He's better now, though. Matt and Nancy might go do a gig for the Discovery Channel in Belize. Charley is going to kick it at a friend's mother's beach house on the Pacific side for a couple days and do some mangrove swamp kayaking. He was looking for postcards on ebay when he emailed me. The good news is that they are coming home! He and Phillip will arrive by bus sometime on the 13th or 14th. It's just nice to know, to have that date to looks forward to. He hasn't mentioned much caving, but I know they found a big one, because one of the early returning folks showed me some pictures. Charley did say they seem to be the only folks caving in that country.
I've been having great fun while he's away, going to music and community festivals, hanging out with old friends. I'm going to do some overnighter babysitting for D&O, my favorite kids, next week. And clean the house. I live like a messy batchelor when he is gone!
This time his absence really threw me off all my routines. It's been nice relaxing at my house alone, but I"m just getting adjusted. That was kind of a suprise, since we've been apart before. Definately something we'll do again in the future, so its got me thinking about how to make those transitions a little more smooth for myself. I felt like maybe I was just unprepared this time, with so much happening right before he left. I'll have to think on that.
It rained like hell again tonight. We've had a lot of rain, but we need it. It's been either nice and raining, or hot and humid lately. It is much nicer to appreciate the needed rain from a sturdy house than from in the car when I can't see the road. That was kind of a scary drive home tonight. Mostly, because I have to drive across a lot of creeks, and this part of the country is known for its flash floods, and I couldn't see the road. There was definately standing water in a few places. But I made it home by driving really slooooowwww and feeling the pangs of adrenaline in my body until I could drive more normally when the rain let up for a while. The adrenaline was kind of a metalic taste, or an electric feeling, mostly in my mouth. It definately helped me be more alert, and also a little stressed out. Our place isn't mucky, though, and it can get mucky with enough rain. Right now it is just wet and puddly. This wet weather does at least extend the comfortable temps into late May, and I am not complaining about that. Coolness and rain become something precious come August.
I have been thinking that our place needs a name. A Casita Something, or something. Just so I can say that instead of "our place" which sounds kind of boring. Compounds should have names. There is a miniature pony farm around here called "Little America". Like that. I'll have to give it some thought, and consult with Charley when he returns.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
I am a newlywed. I married a guy whose antique orange 1953 Dodge Bus I admired 10 years ago when, unbeknownst to us at the time, we lived within three blocks of eachother, in the city. Now that bus is parked on my land. In the meantime, he took up inhabiting 3 acres on the black prairie lands south east of Austin, Texas. I lived in the city in little apartments. We met at our caving club, but only got together because we'd been doing some paddling together, and some friends of our conspired and planted the seeds, knowing we had crushes on eachother.When we started dating, one of the things that Charley liked about me was that I liked his place. It was definately... rustic. He wanted to build his conglomerate of salvaged buildings into a real house, but didn't have any firm ideas for what to do. A few days later, I approached him with some plans that I had drawn up! I didn't know if he was really serious about the building project, but I had plenty of ideas! He asked me to move out and build it with him. So today, we have one building finished. We have an outdoor kitchen that is quite unfinished. I am living in the finished building, built around a metal gas station building. It is such a great house! We painted in really crazy colors, and there is so much room! It's really neat to live in a space you designed yourself, and you know exactly what is in the walls, because you helped to put them up.So now I live in the country. I drive a lot, because I still work in the city. We're trying to participate in our small town life more often. I want a dog. Charley travels quite a bit. We have plans to have a family, very soon. Our 'compound' is a work in progress... we have a shop, another building, a garden to plan, a kitchen to finish.My life has changed quite a bit, recently! But it also feels very natural, like I'm right where I'm supposed to be. My life as it is now is very different from how it has been for the last 10 years, so I'm using this blog -pportunity to chronicle it.Stay tuned. Mostly I'll be writting about my day to day life, living in the country and commuting to my citylife and having a family, growing a garden, building a house, managing 3 acres, being married, and getting a dog. (we'll see)
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Berries VS. Stabby Ankle Grabbing Bushes
I picked berries off of the berry jumble tonight before the bugs attacked me. I wore my Slosh Boots and glad for it, too. There was mud, and lots of thorns. The berries were sweet and I netted plenty, although I wasn't greedy. I had to chide the birds for letting some of them rot on the vine. I also picked a big bunch of flowers for my bedroom. They look beautiful next to the goddess statue and the wafting incense and the flickering purple pillar candle.
I hate these berry vines most of the year, when I want to wear flip flops and wander about my yard. Charley told me to wait and see how I felt when they had berries on them. I have to admit, I like them a whole lot more with berries on them. I wonder if I can confine them to a particular patch of the yard? I'll have to put it on the list of stuff to do in the yard.
I keep lots of lists. Otherwise, I would forget some of the good stuff I come up with! Lately, I'm crossing lots of things off of my lists! Yay for me. Like, build house, get married. Yeah, lots going on. Sleep! Better put that on the list! I think I am going to retire to my bedroom, with this month's copy of Texas Co-Op Power (Bluebonnet Co-op Edition) about lady cattle ranchers.
G'nite! See you around.
ps oh yeah and here's to my new blog! I'm sure it will all become much more clear, very soon.
I hate these berry vines most of the year, when I want to wear flip flops and wander about my yard. Charley told me to wait and see how I felt when they had berries on them. I have to admit, I like them a whole lot more with berries on them. I wonder if I can confine them to a particular patch of the yard? I'll have to put it on the list of stuff to do in the yard.
I keep lots of lists. Otherwise, I would forget some of the good stuff I come up with! Lately, I'm crossing lots of things off of my lists! Yay for me. Like, build house, get married. Yeah, lots going on. Sleep! Better put that on the list! I think I am going to retire to my bedroom, with this month's copy of Texas Co-Op Power (Bluebonnet Co-op Edition) about lady cattle ranchers.
G'nite! See you around.
ps oh yeah and here's to my new blog! I'm sure it will all become much more clear, very soon.
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