Hark!

"Hark!" Kit's Christmas Program, 1, 2, 3, 4 December 10,2009
Odessa, Texas

My granddaughter, the angel.

Lovely light in the church, but it sure makes it hard to get photos of 5 year olds.

The Shortest Distance Possible

...
The shortest food distance possible: from backyard to fridge
October 12, 2009
West Odessa, Texas

Since I planted this pomegranate tree some years ago, this summer is the first time it produced fruit. Exactly four pomegranates. I couldn't be more proud. One burst, so that's for the birds. One I ate. No ceremony, just ate to see if it was real. And edible. And two now await to be appreciated appropriately, and as slowly as possible.

Hematite Concretions

Hematite concretions
West Odessa, Texas

July is usually a dry month, but not this year. We've had lots of rain, and rain not only makes everything green and pretty, but also makes it a good time to go scouting for these little "rocks," hematite concretions. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some in other parts of the world are big enough for a person to stand on! I find these little roundish, ones regularly -- being round they like to roll into the ruts of oil field and utility roads. The first one I found last summer was so perfectly round I thought was some sort of buckshot.

Concretions can be found in many parts of the earth and these could be many million years old. In this batch, I especially like the one on the far left, still embedded in a piece of caliche. The larger ones on the right are split in half :( And the split one at the very top you can see is concave.

Interestingly, concretions like these were found on Mars, nicknamed "blueberries." They are part of the reason that it is believed that there once was water there, as concretions are formed by water and a bunch of other science stuff I don't quite understand.

For more information you can read these links:

• "Earth Has Blueberries Like Mars" from the University of Utah.
• Concretions are sometimes mistaken for meteorites -- "meteorwrongs" as per a Washington University site.
• To see more you can also google image search for "Moqui Marbles." They were supposed to be used by Shamans and the ones from Utah are now sought by New Agers.

Indian Rush Pea

Indian Rush-pea (Hoffmanseggia glauca)
West Odessa, Texas

I have to explain that, while out taking photos, I periodically take photos of intersections, highway signs, street signs, whatever so that when looking back through the photos I have an idea of what area I was in when I took them. (Good idea, eh?)

So, today I was going through some batches of my photos and noticed something in one of those marker type photos. I noticed that in a mere two days the Indian rush-pea had exploded. Take a look at these two photos of almost exactly the same area to see what I mean. The first one was taken June 30, the next one on July 2nd. Amazing what a little rain will do. Rush pea is right.

...

Lemon Horsemint for Jomamma

Close up of Lemon Horsemint (Monarda citriodora)
Coke County, Texas

I've had a great time looking at Jomamma's West Texas photos (so far she's posted part 1 and part 2) taken while she visited her brother's ranch recently. There were photos of fish, longhorns, vinagroons, tarantulas, fishing, fire arms, breakfast tacos, a pet bobcat, fishing, a stinky dog, er, Stinky the Dog, a tire swing, catching the first fish of the day, and more. Every photo depicts family having a great fun being together. And did I mention, photos of fishing?

And while there, I spied a flower that I wonder if was the one she commented that she wanted to know the name of. I took these photos along the roadside back in May when we went camping. And say, we were fishing, too!

Reading up on this showy native flower, it seems like it should be in every Texas garden. It's supposed to be easy to grow, not picky about soil type, will fill in any unused spaces, and even though it's an annual, should pretty much self-seed. When you crush the leaves they smell lemony (it's part of the mint family) and the First Peoples and Settlers made tea from the boiled leaves.

According to my newly purchased 1928 Texas Wild Flowers by Ellen D. Shulz -- I'm so tickled pink I found a copy -- the beekeepers of Texas at that time considered this plant one of the most important. And if you keep chickens (that would be you, Mom, er, Bobbie) Shulz writes that the dried plant put in the hay of their roosts will keep away mites and fleas.

I also was suprised that Linnaeus himself gave the plant its genus name! Monarda is after the Spanish botanist Nicolas Bautista Monardes who, while never actually visiting the Americas himself, did study them. Ok. I know this last bit is rather botageeky, but I thought it was cool.

A Flower for Sweet Irene

Common Passionflower (Passiflora caerulea)
On my western fence
West Odessa, Texas

If you haven't seen this flower before it's going to look a little unbelievable, but believe it or not, it grows quite well in my yard, providing me with blooms continuously from April until sometimes as late as November.

The Passion Flower created quite a stir when it was first seen by Spanish explorers of South America in the 17th century. Priests at that time gave the flower the name we use today, assigning various parts of the flower to symbols of the Passion of Christ. Wikipedia outlines the various symbols quite nicely:

The unusual shape of the flowers has led to the plant being associated in Christian symbolism with the passion of Jesus; the three stigmas representing the three nails used to nail Jesus to the cross, the ovary and its stalk represent the chalice of the Last Supper, the five anthers represent the five wounds, the corona represents the crown of thorns, the ten 'petals' (actually five petals and five sepals) the apostles (save Judas the traitor and Peter the denyer); the old leaves also represent the hands of those who persecuted him, the young leaves the point of the lance used to stab him, and the tendrils the whips of those who beat him.

There are quite a number of species of the passiflora genus, almost 500, each seemingly more exotic than the next. Three species are native to Texas: Bracted passionflower (Passiflora affinis), Fetid passionflower (Passiflora foetida) and the really beautiful Purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) which I tried to grow, but sadly placed it in one of the places where my dog Dixie likes to stand guard to bark.

The passionflower, a vine, is the exclusive food of the caterpillar of the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. Throughout the year, I enjoy the butterfly company just nearly as long as the blooms. By the end of the summer, the hungry caterpillars can have the vine looking pretty ragged, though. The price of enjoying butterflies; you must also enjoy, or tolerate, caterpillars. You can see butterfly eggs in the picture above, the little orange specks on the bud on the left.

The fruit is edible. On my plant the fruit is rather bland-tasting, but nothing that adding a little sugar, some spices, and throwing into a pie crust wouldn't cure. However, I've not yet gotten enough fruit at one time to ever try that idea out.

Now I think you know everything I know about the passionflower vine.

Except how heavenly it is scented.

Devil's Daughter

"Devil's Daughter", dodder (Cuscuta sp.)
Ector County, Texas

So, ok, it's not really called Devil's Daughter, it's called dodder. But it is also sometimes called devil's guts, devil's hair, and witch's shoelaces -- cool names I think.

I've seen this stuff for as long as I can remember living here, but I used to think it was some sort of oil field trash because of that weird orange color and because it looks strewn on the roadsides.

One day last summer I took a closer look and saw it's some sort of plant! But turns out, not a very nice plant. It's a parasite that will kill its host and can transmit some diseases to it also. Its seeds -- which it makes in abundance -- can last 5-10 years in the soil. It has a variety of plants it likes (and some it doesn't), unfortunately those it likes includes alfalfa, flax, and potatoes. Recently it was discovered the plant uses a kind of plant sense of smell to find its preferred host.

I used to think it was kind of cool, but after reading up on it, I'm thinking it's not too cool. Kinda pretty up close, but no, not cool.

How many trees do you see?

Sandhills along Ranch Road 1601
South of Penwell, Texas

Yes, there's one mesquite, but would you believe that you are also looking at a section of the world's largest oak forest?

Most of the green you see in the photo is Harvard Shin Oak trees (Quercus havardii). No one around here is crazy enough to call this a forest, in spite of the fact that even the U.S Forest Service deems it one. Everyone around here calls a stretch of shin oaks like this, "shinnery." Shinnery is endemic to this area and grows no where else. Even here it only grows in the sandhill areas and rarely gets much taller than a foot, although occasional specimens will grow to regular tree size.

At Harvard University's Flora of North America site, you can see the shin oak's distribution which covers most of West Texas, Eastern New Mexico, parts of Oklahoma, and another forest straddling Utah and Arizona. I read on a U.S. Forestry page that this diminutive oak covers 5 to 7 million acres!

I've been meaning for ages to leach in boiling water, then try eating some of the acorns as Native Americans did, but haven't yet. Maybe this fall. If so, I'll let you know.

Links:

• One of my all-time favorite sites for this kind of information is of course the Sibley Nature Center in sister city Midland. Much of what we are learning in the Master Naturalist 2009 class revolves around habitats; the sand dunes being one of eight of the Llano Estacado. An introduction to the sandhills, how they form and continue to form, is here. (Who knew sand could so interesting?)
• Another great thing about the Sibley site are the photo essays. From the photos of the Master Naturalist class of 2008, Burr Williams posted this photo-illustrated essay about the evidence they found of all the critters that make the sandhills home.

Snow in JUNE?

Hail
West Odessa, Texas

Oops, no. Not snow. Hail this afternoon! This is what "golfball-size hail" I've heard so much about looks like. And let me tell you, it was noisy too.

Spontaneous Plans

Fishing the Colorado River near Robert Lee, Texas
August 2008

After work yesterday, my brother Casey walked in and said "I'm in the mood to go fishing!" Turns out, he unexpectedly actually has all three days of this Memorial Day weekend off. So, after a a phone call to the owner, we're heading to a favorite privately-owned spot on the Colorado, where we went last August and had such a marvelous time.

I might add, this is also less than a quarter mile from where they've had at least one Big Foot sighting! If I'm not back by Monday, well...

Getting geared up

Step 1: Design card (you can also see the back here.)
Step 2: Print cards
Step 3: Re-design debicates website, make it ready for stories
Step 4: Get out there!
Step 5: Post stories on website
Step 6: Feel the joy

Links
Dan Heller shares his knowledge, giving the ins and outs of when you need a model release for photographs.

All Too Seldom

Memorial to actor Dan Blocker, aka "Hoss" Cartwright
O'Donnell, Texas

"Thanks to film, Hoss Cartwright will live. But all too seldom does a world get to keep a Dan Blocker. Dedicated on July 4, 1973"

Driving back from Tahoka on Monday, I had enough daylight remaining to take some photos. Fifteen miles from Tahoka, I turned off the highway to check out little O'Donnell, population 1011.

It was about 6pm, and the evening was warming some after cool showers earlier that day. A kid's baseball game was going on in a small field and, while meandering through the small town streets, taking photos, I could hear the cheers.

The town, although not especially affluent, was well-tended. There was a historical museum that was of course closed that time of day but begged my returning some time to visit it. There were four -- count them, four -- little parks with various amenities like benches and fountains. In one of them was this memorial to Dan Blocker, who played beloved Hoss Cartwright in the 60s and 70s television show, Bonanza, whose character was "lovable, but slow-witted" and always wore a 10 gallon hat.

I loved how each residence was unique, unlike so much of America's neighborhoods with matched houses. Each home and yard had its own style, and more than a few souls were outside tending to their well-loved, sometimes funky, refuge. That uniqueness combined with purposeful tending, gave me the feeling the residents were very accepting of one another.

Every person I made eye contact with waved at me, and not with that wary look one usually receives when invading a small town with camera in hand.

These little things I saw in just an hour's time -- the parks, the baseball game, the yards, and the waves -- seemed to be the activities of a town sincerely friendly and uncommonly content. All too seldom, indeed.

May vs. Baker

Lynn County District Courtroom
Lynn County Courthouse, built 1912
Tahoka, Texas

Yesterday the Lynn County court held a hearing in the case of May vs. Baker Et Al, a civil case regarding the mineral rights of Tahoka Lake Pasture. The district judge rescheduled the hearing for June 16th in order that other interested parties might be found and notified so that this matter would not inevitably come before the Court again. Until that date or until the parties can come to an agreement, she ruled that no mining action may take place. The Court thanked the many observers for their attendance and civic interest.

Did that sound like a objective court beat reporter? Let me tell you the story as a subjective blogger.

I went to Tahoka yesterday to show support for Mrs. May and the destiny of Tahoka Lake Pasture in a court hearing. Mrs. May asked people to attend the hearing in order to show the wide interest in the outcome of this case. I would say there was about 50 of us, including at least three Ph D's of science, an elementary school teacher and his class of 8th graders, a Tahoka History Commission member, citizens of Lynn County, and at least two nature photographers (Donna and me).

The issue at hand is an 82 year old cousin to Mrs. May's deceased husband who has mineral rights to Tahoka Lake Pasture. I'm not sure how it is in the rest of the world, but in Texas and other parts of the U.S. ownership is divided between the surface land and the minerals such as oil, gas, etc. that might be within it. Baker is contending that beyond the typical mineral rights, he also has rights to mine for caliche on the property, which means dynamiting, laying roads into the property, heavy trucks coming in and out, not to mention the big piles of earth and deep pits.

You likely -- and luckily -- don't know about caliche. Caliche is used in construction. In Texas it is a common a base material for roads and to make cement. Caliche is as common and is as ubiquitous in the landscape of West Texas as mesquite. Which is to say, for anyone who has tried to dig a hole out here and has hit caliche, a pain-in-the ass kind of common.

Yesterday was just a hearing, and even it was postponed. Thank God the judge did order that between now and the next date, June 16th, nothing can be done there, and specifically no mining. She did take notice of the unusually large number of attendees to this civil case, but reminded us -- as any good judge should -- her ruling will be on the basis of law, not popular opinion.

I'll continue to pray for a ruling the same way that I and others see it: how, in this case, mountains of caliche brought forth from below are at odds with the Rights of the surface of the land.

Links:

• Tahoka, Texas site, where I learned that the town of Tahoka is named after Tahoka Lake, not the other way around.
• Tahoka Lake Pasture blog.
• An article I wrote on that blog about the adventure of trekking around TLP with a scientist.

Happy Earth Day

Estigmene acrea, or Salt Marsh Moth -- or possibly a Estigmene albida

I've seen quite a few of these very pretty moths this year, thanks to one of my dogs.

By jumping up to peer into my office window, my new dog, Ansel, has created a large hole in the bug screen. Because the evenings are so pleasant now, I open the glass pane every night. Moths are attracted to my lamp light and thanks to Ansel, there is no barrier. Various critters have easily found their way in to visit me and occasionally to have their portraits taken. For now, I prefer the communion with nature than doing the home repair.

Oh, and maybe I shouldn't use the word pretty to describe this particular specimen, because as per the bug guide site, this is a male moth. He is distinguished from the female by his handsome orange hindwings.

A very Happy Earth Day to all, great and small.

TLP with TLC

South end of Tahoka Lake Pasture, Tahoka Lake, Texas

A few weeks ago I had hinted that I would be embarking on a special photo adventure. And so I have! Donna and I have been invited to hike and photograph the Tahoka Lake Pasture as part of a team of individuals who are hoping to see this very special place become a state protected entity. We plan to go there every weekend possible for at least the next year. My blog will now be taking weekends off, mostly because when I get back home I can hardly move from hiking and bending all day.

Tahoka Lake Pasture has been in the May family for more than a century. The family owns two and a half sections, or a whopping 1600 acres. Their property encompasses all but the most southerly end of the kidney-shaped salina. (The photo above is just the south end view.)

We have spent two weekends there now and have fallen for it hard. It is a dream come true in every sense for Donna and me. We owe an immense thank you to Burr Williams of the Sibley Nature Center for putting us in touch with Mrs. May, vouching for us as good human beings and dedicated photographers/nature nuts.

This last weekend we had the pleasure of meeting one of the important individuals associated with the future of TLP, Dr. Warren Conway, a waterfowl specialist at Stephen F. Austin University. That sounds really stuffy, doesn't it? Well, he was anything but. Instead he was warm, curious, funny, helpful, and of course, really stinking smart. Donna and I plied him with zillions of questions, and he gave each a thoughtful answer, answers I will be thinking about for some time to come. And I'm happy to report that my training with the 2009 Texas Master Naturalist program has already made me seem smarter than I am when Warren asked about a little weed at our feet. It was one of the exact plants that Burr had given us an impromptu lecture on during our field trip, the "filaree." Although, I'll confess, I botched it by telling Warren it was a "filagree." (Sigh.)

Currently at the lake there are tens of thousands of sandhill crane (Grus canadensis) roosting at night. They will be migrating their way to Canada for their breeding season soon. Luckily that will happen just about the time spring is due to arrive, taking the edge off missing their graceful silhouettes in the sky and their distant trumpeting during the day, things which right now seem as much a part of the lake as the wiry hackberry trees and golden clumps of grass.

I can't count how many times Donna and I have looked over barbed-wire fences with longing, like two kids peering into a candy shop window. We have used our imagination many a time to wonder what it would be like to hike, to photograph, and to experience deep inside one of the vast Texas landscapes that we have seen from county roads. Our trespassing days may be behind us!

We are most humbly grateful to be invited to participate in this amazing place.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

"Itsy Bitsy Spider"
My home office curtains
West Odessa, Texas

Is any spider really itsy bitsy?

Regardless of size, this one and I have decided to live together peacefully on one condition: that it stays on that side of the curtain. For a few weeks now, it has complied.

Master Naturalist (in training)

Gold fish swimming in urban forest pond
Wadley Barron Park
Midland, Texas

"Urban forest?" Who knew there were any forests in West Texas? We denizens might answer with a wink and a nudge that oh sure we have lots of forests of mesquite. But, in all seriousness, towns and cities of West Texas have created forests. Our urban homes, parks, businesses, and all the places we humans like to landscape have made an ecosystem. Is it a natural ecosystem? A real ecosystem? These fish swimming in a Midland pond don't have any doubt it is. And since taking my first step toward officially becoming a naturalist on Saturday, I don't either.

Donna, myself, and a class of about 20 other enthusiasts signed up this year to become certified Texas Master Naturalists. Thanks to Mr. Burr Williams at the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, we have begun our year-long adventure to the great outdoors, and will venture out as far as Lake Lancaster and as near as our own backyards.

Each month in 2009 we will meet to be trained in eight ecosystems of the Llano Estacado, accruing at least 40 but up to 64 hours of training. In addition, we must gain 8 hours of advanced training and donate 40 hours of volunteer work this year and every subsequent year to maintain our certified status. Through this program we can move beyond being mere enthusiasts to stewards and educators.

The Coolest Thing Ever

Ran Gogh Gallery aka The Art Colony
42nd & Dixie
Odessa, Texas

New to Odessa is a funky art gallery! It was opened this month by Randall Horn who goes by the artist name of Ran Gogh. He was born and raised in Odessa, but you might have heard about him after he moved to Van Horn, Texas where he lived for some time and specialized in Van Gogh renditions. He was featured in the book The Face of Texas, the photography of Michael O'Brien. And he had been featured in the television show The Texas Country Reporter back in 2006.

He has now moved back to Odessa, where he works by day as a corrections officer. And with him, he moved his gallery back home. Out of love for art and himself experiencing the difficulty in getting his painting displayed in traditional galleries, he has opened his gallery to other artists. For free. He only collects the sales tax. Now that's a serious opportunity there for all the artists in the community.

Currently, he has about seven other artists on display, including Melody Hernandez, who's abstract you can see on the left. On the right is Mario Marquez's black and red "Che" cut out and painted on corrugated cardboard. Ran Horn has room for about 40 more artists, including photographers.

These last two paintings are by Horn himself. On the left are examples of his Van Gogh renditions, and on the right is an original tribute to Georgia O'Keefe. I think it's lovely how he has both her young and old self together, standing through the years in front of her Ghost Ranch mountains. I'd love to own and enjoy that one. Hm, who knows? Wonder if he has layaway.



You can contact or learn more about Ran by going to his website, www.rangoghtx.com www.vangoghtx.com. It's not yet updated with the new Odessa location information, but there you can see more of his paintings and Ran himself.

Porcupine Watching

"Porcupine Watching: 1 Find a spot. 2. Take a seat. 3. Look way up."
(click on any image to see larger)
Off Loop 338
Odessa, Texas

Porcupine watching is hard work.Especially when the porcupine is sitting quietly watching you as you are sitting quietly watching him.

Thanks to 18X zoom, here's a look at the elusive creature. (I am now sounding like a Geico tv commercial.)

I'm guessing his teeth are made orange by all the bark he eats. His scat is also orange. How do we know? We looked down on the ground where he had been dining, obviously for a while.

Doesn't he have a cute hairdo? Cute at a distance, anyway.

The Lilliput World of Lichen

The Lilliput World of Lichen
(as of yet unidentified)
Near Rankin, Texas

It's like a whole 'nother world when you look at it closely. I love lichen and fungi, both a beautiful part of the cycle of life.

I remember once when I was a kid in Oklahoma I collected as many fungi as I could find for a Show and Tell day at school. I must have found a dozen different specimens of all colors and sizes. The only problem was that I collected them on a weekend camping trip with my parents, and Show and Tell was always on Friday. My collection was pretty ripe and not very impressive by then.

I remain undeterred. These days, though, I can simply take a photo of it.