The Caregiver’s Tales
Tiny essays on life, nature, grief and other things that catch my fancy in the Texas Hill Country. Here’s how it all got started.
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Bird Watching
I’m in a cabin by a spring fed lake. I went to sleep with the windows open and the soft sound of rain all around. The sun still lingered in the sky, but I was tired and ready for bed. The light rain is still here this morning as in the sunlight because the days are long in this northern clime, partly, I imagine, to make up for what happens this winter when it disappears and the cold comes.
Lakeside
I’m in the northern latitudes at the side of a lake in Maine, where the loons call at night and a gentle mist rises from the water in the early morning. There’s barely a breeze and the water is smooth as glass. Kids are asleep in the living room, and I’ve had my coffee and sat outside in the cool morning air.
Flood Days
My hardwood mulch is growing a mushroom forest. Gray Inkcaps, lots of them. Four days of rain will do that for you. Since last Thursday more than three inches has fallen on the homestead courtesy of decaying tropical systems from Mexico and a low pressure ridge from the northwest. Every river I can name all around me is running full and the local lakes are benefitting. I hope this spasm of wet weather is a portent of better things to come. Blanco county, however, is in the grip of a drought that started in 2022 and it looks to be worse than the one we endured in 2011-2015.
Mother Nature
It rained all day yesterday. Steady. Nothing too heavy. I’ll check my rain gauge at first light. It’s likely to be close to two inches. Yesterday’s heavier rains fell west and south of here on the Guadalupe River watershed. Those rains came down fast and furious. This morning, just down the road about 30 miles in Spring Branch the river is running at 29 feet which is not the 37 feet they were forecasting, but it’s still plenty high.
Remembering the Revolution
I’ve been in remembering mode recently. Mostly good things. And one of those things was our first garden, early in our marriage, while I was still a student in the 70s. We lived with another couple. Communes were good. Community was good. We found a nice big old house close to downtown Houston and turned our backyard into a garden. I was an organic gardener, too, because I’d read Silent Spring and knew that while plastics might be good career advice, chemicals might not be so hot for the planet.
Petals on the Ground
It’s always interesting to me the love-hate relationship people have with plants, particularly the ones they don’t like. Crape Myrtles, for instance, are considered messy trees by some of my friends, and lantanas are equally disliked by others. We have both in our yard, and we’ve had them in every yard we ever owned.
Thoughts on Nature
My run in with The Ecology of Invasion by Animals and Plants by Charles S. Elton has stirred up a lot of sediment in the old brain. I am reminded of Earth Days gone by. I remember protests on the banks of the Houston Ship Channel. I helped remove ligustrums from the park next door. I supported movements to protect animals because a short food chain is an unstable food chain. It's as though I thought the war had been won, only to realize it’s still raging. Thanks, Charlie.
Loving Nature
Apple slices with caramel sauce is my new favorite thing. A little pleasure. Here’s another. Finding a good book. I just finished The Ecology of Invasion by Animals and Plants by Charles S. Elton. Here’s the distilled lesson I got from reading the book. The boot of mankind treads heavy on the world. Did it give me hope? No. All I need do is drive down highway 71 going into Austin and see the enormous subdivisions cluttering the hillsides to know that we’re perfectly willing to pave paradise.
What I See
I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I’ve puzzled sometimes over what I’m beholding, especially when it comes to my gardens because I know they are in no way classical. If anything, they look like pure chaos. Plants are thrown together and sometimes plants which in other times would have been considered weeds are allowed to stay, just to see what they do. There are days when I look at the garden and wonder what in the world am I doing.
The Visitor
Made a nice little discovery in the new garden along the north fence. Sunshine Mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa). How can you not like a plant with that name? It speaks of bright mornings, orange juice, and champagne. Plus, it’s got fern-like leaves and purple blooms. I’ll have to keep my eye on it and see what it does. It’s supposed to be a ground cover and it’s drought tolerant because it has deep roots, but so is khaki weed and I don’t want that in my garden.
Invasion Theory
I’m glad for the weekend because my back has decided to remind me that I’m an old man. Although, since I’m old and retired, I don’t really need the excuse of the weekend to sit around and do nothing. But old habits die hard and on most weekdays, I feel like I should be doing something and a bad back is a real hindrance. Luckily, I’m pretty much caught up on the yard word, so what needs doing is pretty easy.
Garden Party
I’ve decided I’m going to war against nutsedge. Not on a grand scale, just in what I now call the north fence garden. The problem I have is that the garden is currently mostly bare dirt and that’s just an invitation for everything to come grow. I can dig up the nutsedge as I dig up the coastal bermuda. Of course, there are poison options, but I’ve always preferred pulling and digging as my weed control option, even when I had a lawn in the suburbs.
A New Thought
I’m fond of expressing my appreciation for native plants, and castigating invasives but I wonder now if that language is appropriate or even helpful. Before the advent of humans, I’m fairly certain plants moved from place to place born on the wind or in the guts of birds or animals as seeds. That’s how any island developed its biosphere. So, no plant springs whole cloth from the ground. They just get somewhere. Like it. And grow.
Home Movies
When is a weed a weed? Answer. When you decide it is. This is particularly true when you like plants from the wild. Because almost every weed flowers and sometimes they look nice in the garden. And native plants are usually ones you find growing in the wild although I don’t believe I’ve ever run across a salvia greggi in the wild. Although maybe I just haven’t been looking. In the end, it comes down to taste and your willingness to pay attention.
Finding Flowers
I like to look down when I walk because that’s where the flowers are. Yesterday, as I walked through a patch of tall grass and wildflowers on my back lots, I noticed a flower I'd never seen before, Wingpod purslane. It has a pretty little bloom that runs and hides when the sun gets too high. I think today I’ll try to gather some of its seeds to keep it around, maybe move it to the front yard gardens.
Looking Ahead
We’ve gone from a dry May to a wet June here in the Hill Country and it feels good. Not real sure how long it will last, but it’s here and I’ll take it. There’s a fog on the hills south of town, and a heavy dew on the grass this morning. Everything is green and anything that needs water is putting on new growth, even the Mountain Laurels are in on the game.
Feeding Time
Storms have rumbled around the Hill Country all night, mostly to the west and north. The tail of one of them is dragging across me even as I write this morning. But it’s light and I doubt anything very heavy will fall. That’s okay. We’ve had a decent couple of weather weeks. And a half inch or so of another gentle rain is nice. I’m sure the plants and trees are in heaven, because everyone is putting on new duds in the form of foliage.
Garden News
Let’s mutter around some more in the gardens and talk about blackfoot daisies. I’ve got them planted in four spots, and they’re doing amazingly well, especially since the recent rains have fallen, and we got another inch last night. I set them up to get the soft morning sun then afternoon shade. The soil is well drained although it might be too rich for them. I’d like them to become a fixture and now that I’m once again spending time with the plants, maybe that can happen.
Your World
This is going to be the gardening equivalent of bragging about your kids, telling everyone they really knocked it out of the park in fifth or sixth grade band, as if no one has ever had a kid who did something, some time to make their parents proud. But here goes. My catmint walker low is blooming. Both plants. Bought this spring for the back porch garden, which is notoriously hard on plants.
Night Rain
My goodness, we got another dose of rain last night. The big storm fell to the south of us, but we got a nice taste of the action. We have another chance tonight. That would be sweet. I like these seasonably cool mornings as we head into summer. The baking days will come soon enough and last longer than anyone really likes. So, the soft, cool touch of a rain soaked morning is a nice memory to carry into summer.