First Fall

My first fall here, and I'm awaiting bright fall colors.  So far, the poison ivy and nandina have not disappointed.

I noticed the poison ivy turning first - brilliant yellows, then reds.  And alas, the nandina is truly beautiful!

"Who made this?"
"Um.. nature."
"Mother nature?"
"Yes!"

This, from one of the second graders on the October hikes, as we were crossing the creek.  It occurred to me she has never been in an environment that was not man-made - made for man.

"This wasn't made for us, like an amusement park.  Nature made it over a long time, and it's here for the creatures that live here, not for us."

She and her friend (best friend, I was informed) spent the hike spotting rocks that looked like pizza slices and using a rock as a cell phone to order more pizza slices.  One of the hugely quarried stones became a ginormous pizza slice.  We argued over toppings to order.  They left some slices with only one bite in them, so that other animals had something to eat.  At the end of the hike, the cell phone was still in tow - I only had to gently remind her that everything here should stay here.  I hadn't even finished my sentence and she was already throwing it on the ground.

Who knows what they got out of this hike?...  All I know is, they had a great time and I had pizza for dinner (and I didn't have to argue with anyone about toppings).

First Solo Hike

Sunday morning I took my first solo hike.
75-80, breezy

Hiking by yourself, rather than at the end of a line of single-file people, leads one to appreciate the trail view up ahead.  It made me look ahead more, look farther around more.  I'm used to looking down at the path, at the next person's back in front of me.  I stopped often and just looked into the trees - and listened.
















And after seeing field after field of goldeneye (or is that crown beard?), it made me re-think "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood."

Frost, Texas-style.






At the creek I startled a frog. He peeped at me before plunging into the water to "hide".  Now I see him eyeing me from under the water.  Should I make him face his fear and finally surface with me still here?  Do I have the strength to force the moment to it's climax?  Nope.. I lost interest before the frog lost it's breath.


Surprise find this trip - cedar sage with bright pink blossoms, instead of the deep ruby red I've seen so far.  (I was going to write "normal" red, but for all I know, pink is "normal" and red is "rare".)   This photo, of course, doesn't capture the brilliance.  Is it a variant species?  Or just a by-product of some soil deficiency right here for this one plant?

Speaking of pink, one redbud has last spring's (?) seed pods hanging from it.  Another has new, beautiful blossoms.  Central Texas Gardner covered that very topic from a follower this weekend - the extension agent answer: plants take advantage of water and temperature conditions.  If they were too stressed to bloom last spring (after our drought last summer/winter), then they might "decide" to try now, after some rainfall, in our balmy fall.  I'm glad I caught sight of it.

Open House Oct 20, 2012

The public was invited to come out for hikes this morning, and all docents were invited to take people on hikes as they arrived.   Turns out the first hour was spent getting to know the 10 or so other docents who came - because the public didn't.  Which was fine with me - this land attracts some great docents.

Bill, Nancy and I got into details quickly: Bill decided much of the fields of goldeneye we were ooing and ahing over was actually Lindheimer's crown beard, endemic.

The differences from goldeneye are subtle.  To me, crown beard looks like goldeneye that's grown up a bit more.  But wait - goldeneye has 8 petals, crown has 12.  Both leaves are rough top and underside, but crown earns it's name "beard" from it's very scratchy underside (at least that's my story). Bill also pointed out crown's leaves grow opposite low to the ground, but then are alternate close to the flower.  I haven't gone back to see how goldeneye leaves grow.   But it did occur to me that this means the plant has already "decided" to flower when it creates it's first non-opposite leaf.

Antother way of approaching these flowers is to simply say "It's a DYC" - Damn Yellow Composite.  I have this from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center via Patricia.  There are so many of them, even the experts are flappable.

I like it. I'll probably resort to using it.  Only "Lindheimer's DYC" sounds even better to me.

I hiked trail 4 with Patricia and Susan(?).
Saw a yaupon holly with red berries.
The ladies say you can make a very nicely caffeinated tea from the leaves. Must try that out some time.

Still on trail 4 - Nancy W pointed out an arizona walnut.  It was dark and huge - a perfect place to see a malevolent sprite.

A little ways on, a rare little leaf texas mulberry. Looks like the second try-around for this guy, judging from the small trunks growing out of the big.

Nancy W called us back to the parking lot then, because people were showing up and wanting hikes.  She called on Susan's phone, and when Nancy asked where we were, Susan said "by the escarpment cherry".   We all knew exactly where that was. Not because it's the only one that's growing here, but because it's the one docents stop and point out.

I gave my first official hike to a mother and daughter, Amy and Terra.  Terra's a girl scout, and they thought it would be great to bring the troup out for a hike of their own next month.  I only took them on  a short, easy hike because Terra had heard her mom say "House" and "Free food" for this morning, so she wasn't expecting a hike and had flip flops on. But she loved the hike (and the free food) and seemed excited about coming back again and hiking up to the House.

October Occupations

Saturday the 8th - Docent Training!! Nancy W and John M were awesome.  Nancy gave a lecture in the House, then (what else?) we went for a hike!

Learned the tower is a City of Austin emergency communications tower, and I realized I can see it from Mopac.

Learned about the catzebo at the House.  Must get historic photos of it!!  This is where it used to be...

Saturday the 13th - Regular Hike with 40+ people.
75-80, humid and sticky, very light rain overnight

I came expecting to just be a visitor, but 'the other Nancy' was late, so I helped Nancy W sign people in and round people up.  I stayed at the back with the other Nancy and had great conversations with 2 families.

I realized I now know some things about the plants, and that I don't know how to calm down a child whining "No! I want to go home NOW!" Daria (the whiner), was a trouper up to that point.  She was full of questions and wanted to look at everything.  She held her hand lens to moss and said "It looks like starfish".

Saw a completely dead photinia - brown leaves - fungus, perhaps? Many photinias have some degree of this.  Any chance it's an avenue toward killing them?

Widow's tears are still out - been out all summer.  The other Nancy said it's a good year for them.  Last month a visitor said "It looks like they're floating".  Their stems are long and thin, and leaves far apart, that they do tend to disappear and just pop that blue up 2 feet in the air for us to enjoy.

I named my first species - White galls (aka golf balls).  Definitely not endemic.  Definitely invasive.

I learned red salvia up at the house smells good.  I need to remember to touch and smell more.

Sunday the 14th - Regular Hike with just me, Patricia and Bill.  I guess everybody showed up yesterday.
cool 70 - moderate rain overnight

So glad no one showed!  I got to pick Patricia and Bill's brains!

Today was grass day - muhlys and side oats, the state grass.

And we took trail 4.  Even keeping in mind it just rained for awhile, this is mostly north slope and looks to be the dampest area of the preserve.  Ferns, shrooms, moss galore.  It also has the most urban refuse - both modern from the highway and old ruins - building remnants (much more than you realize - take a look at what all that moss is growing on), tin cans, an old 40's open top spin washer, etc.

Check this shroom out- from a small white ball about 1/2" diameter, a 6" pink schlong emerges!

Who knew mushrooms could be so sexy!  I think trail 4 may become my favorite.

All that moss reminded me of Daria's moss comment yesterday.  I told them the story and Bill said "Well, that's called star moss."  and showed me a pic in his book.  Hmmm... maybe I should get some Daria-smarts and get me a hand lens.  And Bill's book.

We also went on trail 6, which I discovered is the trail I took the first time I came here maybe 4-5 years ago.  I came with Spider Joe's Creative in Nature Meetup group.  We hiked to the overlook and created stuff.  A poem, a watercolor. I did a movement piece about the vultures I saw.