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.