April Showers...

We've had more than showers here the past several days. We are still at our place in Medina (west of San Antonio), getting ready to head out for the summer. In the past several days we have had wave after wave of severe thunderstorms, resulting in more than 7" of rain.

Sunday night was the worst, with about 5" falling. We got up the next morning and went for a walk to survey the damage. The entrance to our park includes a section of road across a small dam. There is hardly ever any water behind the dam, so imagine our surprise when we saw this!!

Our road in (and out!!).

It turns out that a small dam upstream of our park failed and sent a wall of water, along with trees and debris down our way. The folks with homes closest to the drainage had water within just a few feet of their homes. Now they have a lovely lakeside view!

The drainage pipes under the drive were partially washed out, but there is enough road left to safely drive in and out.

The owner and managers here are great folks, and had the road cleared within an hour.

We will be heading west in a day or two to do some exploring in West Texas, New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona before we turn north toward Colorado. 

Mark

Wildflowers and Waxwings

We have visited the Hill Country State Natural Area twice in the past week. Once to hike with our friends Rick and Sharon, and again this past Sunday to participate in a Wildflower Walk. The weather was a little damp on Sunday and we were the only folks to show up for the walk. So Teri and I were led around by a very knowledgeable ranger and had a great time.

First the Cedar Waxwings. Look at the picture below and guess how many Waxwings are in that tree.

Cedar Waxwings in Tree

They blended in so well that they looked like leaves. It turns out that there are between 50 and 75 birds in that picture!

During the Wildflower Walk we saw all kinds of flowers. Big and small, showy and subdued. 

Antelope-Horns Milkweed

The Antelope-Horns Milkweed was big, but not particularly colorful. While the Ratany was tiny, but brightly colored. 

Ratany

Winning the award for best camouflaged flower was the was Queen's Delight. That green spike is the flower. 

Queen's Delight

You can see where the Squarebud Primrose gets its name.

Squarebud Primrose

And Yellow Flax was putting on a nice display. 

Yellow Flax

We saw a plant with leaves that resembled a Bluebonnet, but the flower was different. It turned out to be the oddly named Scurf Pea.

Scurf Pea

Another (barely) blue flower was Blue-Star. 

Blue Star

We saw a lot of Indian Paintbrush up in the Inks Lake, but were pleased to find its larger cousin, the Prairie Paintbrush down in our neck of the hills. 

Prairie Paintbrush

Another wildflower that thrives in the rocky Texas Hill Country is the aptly named Limestone Guara. 

Limestone Guara

And finally, the Bushy Skullcap. On the ranger's checklist she had a hint beside this one that read "Bugs Bunny Teeth". Do you see them?? This is the kind of hint that will stick with me for years!

Bushy Skullcap

We saw many other varieties of wildflowers, but I'll spare you a dozen different DYC (Darned Yellow Composite) pictures. You can thank me later!

Mark

Spring in the Texas Hill Country

We finished our volunteer stint at Inks Lake State Park and are back at our little house in Medina, Texas for a couple of weeks.

Our friends Rick and Sharon came up from South Texas to visit for a few days, so we headed off to Lost Maples State Natural Area for a hike and some bird watching. It has been a wet year and it was great to see the springs and creeks flowing strongly and the fresh green leaves coming onto the trees.

It has been a banner year for wildflowers, and the Scarlet Penstemon were in full bloom along the trails.

Scarlet Penstemon

We walked right under this sleepy fellow, who had chosen a rather bare tree for his nap. He wasn't there when we returned later in the morning, so perhaps he found a more shaded spot.

Porcupine

We saw a couple of Golden-cheeked Warbler but I failed to get any pictures. I did get this picture of a beautiful Yellow-throated Warbler.

Yellow-throated Warbler

A park host was kind enough to point out the nest of a Yellow-throated Vireo. Can you see the lichen-covered nest?

Yellow-throated Vireo Nest

As we returned to the parking lot we heard a little racket down along a nearby stream. We found a pair of Green Kingfishers discussing the fishing in the area.

Green Kingfisher

We couldn't have asked for a nicer day for our hike. The Texas Hill Country on a cool spring morning is a pretty good place to be!

Mark

Rock Stacking Competition

Who thinks up these things?

It’s actually the Rock Stacking World Championship.

Did you know that there are internationally renowned rock artists?

Did you know that Llano, Texas is the Home of the World Rock Stacking Championship?

The Llano Earth Art Fest (LEAF) was this past weekend.  From what I could find this was the second year for the rock stacking championship.

While Mark was participating in the first ever disc golf competition in Llano, I hoofed it over to the park on the beautiful Llano river to check out all the festival had to offer.

Other than the rock stacking part everything else was pretty typical of a local festival.  There were booths (about 60% food, 30% jewelry, and 10% other stuff), face painting, a climbing wall, live music, etc. 

Carving sand castles.

And, of course, there was rock stacking.  It took me a while to figure it out.  There were little piles of stacked rock everywhere.

Hum... it didn’t seem all that hard, I didn’t get it. 

Turns out anyone could grab a handful of the free rocks and make a little stack. 

But then, after walking around for a while, I saw a few stacks that were obviously “professionally” stacked.  These had signs next to them that said they were entered in the contest and not to disturb them.

The Llano uplift provides the beautiful granite rock but it was acceptable for the contestants to bring their own rocks to enhance the appearance of a particular stack.

This is LEAF (Llano Earth Art Fest, get it?).  I had just walked up and snapped this picture when he started unzipping his outfit.  I guess the show was over.  I never did find out what LEAF was all about. 

There are always a few characters at these things:
  Nice hat!

This is a 3 day event with even more things happening after dark (fire spinners, star gazing, etc.).

With all the rain we have had this past week the Llano river was really rocking. 

Teri

Planning The Next Move

We’ve started our 4th, and final, month here at Inks Lake!  Neither of us can believe how fast the time has gone. 

Even though our days are full from morning till evening, we haven’t been blogging much.  Our volunteer work here is the same as 2 years ago (cabin host).  Mark has flown his planes a few times, when he can find a day that isn’t too windy, and he has hooked up with a few guys that play disc golf several times a week.  We’re still working out at the YMCA 5 times a week and have really been enjoying it.  My Kindle has been smoking with all the books I’ve read this Winter and I’m still crocheting as much as ever.

It’s been a while since I posted pictures of my afghans so I thought I would show a few of my latest.  Last year I donated 22 afghans to charity (Linus Connection).  This year, who knows?  I’ve gotten a good start.  

We’ll be leaving Inks Lake at the end of the month and spending a few weeks in Medina, then it’s on to the next adventure.  We know we’ll be in Leadville, CO for the summer, we just have to decide on a route: Davis Mountains, Southern New Mexico, SE Arizona?  We’ll have several weeks for sightseeing and want to get the most out of them.

Teri  

Pecan Flats Trail

Teri and I are finishing our second month at Inks Lake State Park. Time really flies!

The park has about 8 miles of hiking trails, but the trails have been closed during much of our stay because of controlled hunts in the park. Now that the hunts are over we decided to check out the 3.5 mile Pecan Flats Trail. The trail features 28 interpretive points and a nicely done booklet describing each point.

Cedar Waxwing Flock

We immediately encountered several large flocks of Cedar Waxwings. They seemed to be enjoying Mistletoe berries, and Teri spotted this pair feeding one another.

It was sunny and unseasonably warm. Male Northern Cardinals were singing like it was Springtime!

Northern Cardinal

While much of the trail was along a creek and featured large Pecan trees, some of the walking was on exposed Gneiss and Granite. There were some interesting rock formations along the way.

This trail provides access to a small primitive camping area. The area is far away from the lake and seldom used. We were tickled by this sign at one of the sites. Clearly no cocktails, but what about beer??

Campsite Sign

Sparrows tend to be drab, but I think the Black-throated Sparrow is a sharp-looking little bird.

Black-throated Sparrow

There are many types of cactus in the park. We think that this is Lace Cactus but are not sure. Anybody know?

Lace Cactus?

We saw a few common butterflies, which is a surprise in late January. We have had many freezing mornings, but these guys were out enjoying the sunshine just like we were.

Common Buckeye

Variegated Fritillary

Mark

Balcones Canyonlands NWR

Teri and I have been enjoying our time at Inks Lake State Park in the Texas Hill Country. Today was cool and drizzly, but we decided to get out and do some exploring at the nearby Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge.

Balcones Canyonlands is made up dozens of different tracts of land set aside as habitat for Golden-cheeked Warblers and Black-capped Vireos. Most of the areas are closed to the public, but the Doeskin Ranch tract has about 6 miles of public trails and we decided to try them out.

The forecast was for rain so we stuck to a couple of the shorter trails. The Creek Trail follows a beautiful clear creek and has several interpretive stops and a trail guide. Doeskin Ranch was a working cattle ranch up until 1992, so there were several old buildings, fences and roads to see as we walked.

Creekside

With the wet year we've had the creek and springs were flowing well. In dry years the creek apparently dries up, leaving only a couple of water holes for the wildlife.

Small Waterfall

We also hiked the Pond and Prairie Trail, and saw a small group of Ring-necked Ducks that flushed before we got close enough for pictures.

Our visit was shortened today by rain, but we'll return once the weather improves to hike the more extensive Rimrock and Indiangrass trails on more elevated areas of the refuge.

Hillside

Perhaps we will look into volunteering at this refuge in the future.

Mark