Tales from a Missing Naturalist

I see that my last blog was April 6 and maybe some of you were wondering what happened to our talkative naturalist: probably too many things to include in one blog.

First of all, it is spring in Texas, early summer actually, and all gardening needs to take place now. For the first time ever since I've lived here we have had a ton of rain, creating a spectacular wildflower display. Of course, along with the profusion of wildflowers comes a profusion of weeds.  I know, I know, there are no such things as weeds, only plants growing where we don’t want them!

I reserve my ire primarily for those that sting, prick or cling to my dog. Today I have to give my hand and arm a rest from two days of pulling the offenders out. Plants like Malta Star thistle that hurts long after you have removed it, stinging nettles, some other plant that appears to be in the carrot family from the look of the leaves but rather than producing carrots, produces the zillion black “stick tights” that can coat a dog or a pair of shoelaces with hitchhiking seeds in a nanosecond! 

I know I've moaned about the burr clover but at least it has a softer burr and lately I have noticed many ladybugs on it so it can’t bee all bad!

Our yard has plenty of plants wanting my attention already but it is hard to resist the “babies” in the nursery. Even my husband, never known for his shopping excess, goes a little nuts buying fruit trees. They are much easier to buy than they are to plant. If you have read this blog for a while or if you live in the Southwest, you know that your most important gardening tool is a pick ax and, not that we have one, but a back brace wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

 He has had to remove tabletop size boulders simply to plant a 4” potted plant! So, reason number one for not blogging, is an overload of yard work.

 

Reason number two is an overload of volunteer work in the spring. I love teaching at the nature center and it's in full gear from February to May. I could work there every day if I chose to. It's also the month of Earth Day, which brings its own round of weekend activities and teaching requests.

However, the biggest roadblock to my writing has been, can you believe it, a broken left wrist!  

 I was just barely over the fractured leg! Incredible, but before you jump to the conclusion that I am a poster child for osteoporosis, I will point out that both the tibia and the wrist are some of the most common breaks, no matter what your age. The wrist was my own fault though, for ridiculous extrovert that I am, I want to teach the kids everything I know and to keep from wasting time, I often walk backwards pointing out things as I go along. Usually, I ask them to tell me if I am going to walk into something, but for some reason this time, I didn't.

What I walked into was a low rock wall around our lily pond.  Tumbling backwards, I put out my hand to stop me but it hit a rock and in the tradition of  “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, the rock won. As with my leg, it couldn't come at a worse time for my grandchildren arrive in five days. It's going to be wonderful having them here and really a broken arm is proving a lot easier than a broken leg. As soon as they leave, I am driving off to the University of Illinois to dog sit for two weeks while my daughters hike Machu Picchu. Then I'm to help one daughter move to West Point where she will be teaching this fall. Lots of driving with one hand but it'll be fine. My hope is that when I'm in Illinois, without a 2-acre yard to maintain or volunteer jobs to go to, I will finally catch up with all the blogs that are clogging my mind.

So, for anyone who wondered why I haven’t written lately, that's the explanation. Now back to trying to transplant some milkweed single-handed. May your May be glorious and free of any untimely injuries!

HAPPY EASTER FROM SOUTH TEXAS

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To my friends in the Northeast who are still waiting for the snow to melt- I wish I could jet you all here to a place where the grass is green, the bluebonnets are lining the highways and birds are in full courtship song.  It is THE best time of year to be here.  Soon it will creep up in degrees, the humidity will more boldly assert itself and the insatiable, practically invisible, mosquitoes will turn gardening from a delightful chore into a bloodletting.  Which is why right NOW is the time to visit South Texas.

If any Californians are reading this, I almost hate to point out that, whereas you are in this awful record-breaking drought, Texas has received more rain than usual and is coming out or “severe drought” status.  Frogs and toads are chorusing like crazy at night, yet interestingly, I haven’t seen any snakes to show me the food chain is alive and well.  But just because I haven’t seen them doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. 

God bless the many flowers that are blooming in the yard, and the coral vine that is finally running riot over the fence.  Yeah! Amazing what the addition of water can do. It practically makes it look like a decent gardener lives here but, we all know that,  that is not true, just the result of rain.  I usually prove the nursery motto, “We grow them; you kill them!” to be sadly true. 

I was teaching at the Guadalupe River State Park today and, as I had experts at my disposal, I quizzed them about when I should expect certain birds to come for summer or go to someplace cooler to nest.  Turns out it is not something you can set your clock by here in Texas as it was in the North.  But still, some species signal “summer” is here.  Or what feels like summer to me, even when it is only March.

 One of those species is the hummingbird.  They have been anxiously awaited; I put out their food as early as mid-Feb.  But, at least in my yard, they are JUST back, and I mean just, as in the past few days. The first to visit the feeders were just passing through, but now I believe “mine” have arrived. 

Yesterday I noticed a few that drank some nectar, took their usual perches and came back to drink more.  If they keep coming back for the next few days I think I can assume we know each other!  Hummingbirds are faithful to their old stomping grounds, and although they only live a few years, I take it their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren etc. continue to call this yard “home”.

The Black-bellied whistling ducks claim to be year round residents but I don’t see them in the middle of “winter” in my part of Texas.  But they are back now and their bubble gum pink legs and neon pink/orange beak make Id-ing them a cinch! My yard is getting regular “fly-overs” for I think they sleep in a nearby spot and then fan out, perhaps to nearby cattle ponds.

None of this is meant to rub it in.  I know the people living in a home we own in Buffalo are claiming they can hear ice falling, they think, between the walls!  Swell!

So clearly Easter egg hunts may still involve a snow shovel there.  I am not sure if the Cape is fully thawed yet, but I remember owning Easter outfits but never wearing them because it was still sweater weather.  No chiffon this year there either.  (Wow, who remembers chiffon?!) 

But whatever climate you find yourself in, I hope the joy of Easter, for those who believe in a risen Christ, will melt your heart wherever you are.  I am writing this on Good Friday, a day full of true drama; the amazing shock that God would do this for me, for you, this horrific death.  That the agony in the garden is because he KNEW in every detail what was about to happen and he said, “yes” anyways.  That kind of love is hard to get our heads around, we seem so totally undeserving.

But he did do it, and it put the “Good” in Good Friday and so we all get handed our free “Get out of Jail” card; one huge sacrifice for us all, one gift, given to anyone, ANYONE who wants to accept it.  Amazing, utterly amazing. 

Happy Easter everyone! May the earth be coming back to life wherever you are, and may you find the time to get out there and see the wonder that is at your feet.