Road Trip to Texas – November 2024

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My monthly 2-day road trip to Texas to visit my dad was sunny and full of fall sights. The temperatures were decidedly cool. On the first day, I noticed more hawks that usual on high branches of roadside trees – particularly in Oklahoma. Some of them were probably red-tails but some were obviously smaller. Going 70 miles an hour, I only get a quick glimpse (avoiding becoming a distracted driver).

I stopped at the Texas welcome center on US 75 after leaving Oklahoma to eat my lunch and enjoyed their native plant garden. The Turk’s cap was still blooming.

The American beautyberry has clumps of purple drupes but some that were on the top part of the clump looked burnt. I wondered if they got the most summer sun…and were damaged by many days of the high temperatures.

There was a small tree that had a lots of red berries. I managed to ID it: possumhaw (Ilex decidua). It is a native deciduous holly. It grows in Missouri and I might plant one in my yard…maybe replacing a non-native.

It was very windy the next day on my drive back to Missouri. I didn’t see hawks perching….but did see some soaring. One was flying low over a field near the highway --- obviously hunting.

The sun was going down by the time I got back to Missouri. The light from the setting sun gave the roadside trees and orange glow. It was a good scenic finale for the road trip.

Meadow at Lake Springfield Boathouse

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I opted to drive myself the Lake Springfield boathouse last week so I could photograph the meadow/prairie and the other plantings near the boathouse before the rest of the Identifying Woody Plants class arrived. The beautyberry was spectacular! I am so glad I planted some in my yard recently and hope it makes it through the winter to be a great plant next year.

The common milkweed had already been cut down but there were several pods spilling their seeds where the plants once stood.

The asters seemed to be hosting the most insects in the meadow/prairie area. I was thrilled to see Monarch butterflies; they were large ones…the ones that go all the way to Mexico for the winter. The thistles were releasing their seeds and the golden rods were the second most popular nectar plant for insects.

It was a great day to see the meadow in fall glory!

Our Missouri Yard – September/October 2024

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The chives have flowered and the seeds are almost mature. I savor these plants at the edges of some of my back yard beds since they are descendants of my mother’s plants; I harvested the seeds from her garden several years ago and will be enjoying them in my garden and in meals for as long as I live in this house.

The poke weed that I didn’t pull up is being eating by something. Maybe I should leave more of it for the insects.

There is a plant blooming in one of the areas I’ve not been mowing…letting the violets grow into the grass. I think it is sweet everlasting – which is native. Maybe I’ll collect the seeds and plant it elsewhere too.

I’ve harvested some of the American Spikenard seeds and planted them in a shady area where they might grow next spring. I would like to establish more of this plant in my yard. It dies back each winter but comes back from the root the following year getting bigger each year.

The shortleaf pine has dropped most of its mature cones but there are still a few in the tree and the terminal buds are a great color contrast to the needles….good photo opportunities!

I bought 4 native shrubs and small trees

And got them planted in my back yard the day after I bought them:

Spicebush – Lindera benzoi

Ozark Witch Hazel – Hamamelis vernalis

Buttonbush – Cephalanthus occidentalis

American Beautyberry – Callicarpa American

Digging the holes for these small plants was harder than I expected – a lot of small rocks and some plastic mesh that is a few inches under the soil surface (the previous owner had the yard sodded and they must have put the mesh down before they put the sod…I am chagrined that there is a plastic pollutant under most of my yard but can’t do anything about it).  

I’ll save the fall foliage pictures for another post!

Some New Native Plants

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This time of year, there are native plant sales at local gardens and nature centers. My daughter and I went to one last week and I got 4 new native plants for my back yard:

Buttonbush – Cephalanthus occidentalis is going in a location to extend a flowerbed out into the backyard and maybe eventually connect to the bed that is in the middle of the yard that I planted where we had a pine tree that fell over and was removed.

Spicebush – Lindera benzoin is going on the east side of the backyard that is shady most of the day and the violets are overflowing the boundaries of the flower bed. I have stopped mowing part of it and the Spicebush will go into that area (I’ve also planted some pawpaw seeds there so the area could be very lush in the future if they come up.

Ozark Witch Hazel – Hamamelis vernalis is going on the southwest side of our back yard where I have stopped mowing. I will have to make a point of walking out into the yard to see it bloom in January!

American Beautyberry – Callicarpa American is going in the bed where the pine tree was removed. It is a lower growing that the button bush so will be a nice layer in the yard from the walking trail on the outside of our fence that leads to the neighborhood ponds….in a few years.

Several of the native plants that I got last year are doing well this year. The goldenrod is blooming and the American spikenard has made seeds that I am scattering in other shady places in my yard where they might grow well. I’ll continue to plant native wildflowers…but with these 4 new ones I probably have most of the bushes that I want to add to my yard.

I am preparing a relatively narrow area between an eastern white pine and the beds on the east side of our patio by making layers of clippings; it will become a leaf pile un a few weeks for the winter. It is very shady there. I have hostas and lambs ear that I will divide in the spring (non-native but I have them already growing in my yard); longer term – I hope the American spikenard seeds come up and that that plant will add an ‘umbrella’ of vegetation.

Other Texas Sights – August 2024

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I made short visits to two other locations on my last trip to Dallas. The Welcome Center on US 75 just after entering Texas from Oklahoma always has some native plants blooming. It was about 100 degrees when I stopped so I quickly photographed the hibiscus that seemed to be thriving in the heat.

The beautyberry has more purple berries that last time I saw it.

The second place was Josey Ranch Lake in Carrollton. I haven’t visited since last winter since it is not near my dad’s assisted living home. It was about 100 degrees and very humid…so I did most of my looking from my car. The water was very low. I saw some birds in the shallows, but they were far enough away that I wasn’t sure what they were. Finally - I got the impression that one was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron although it was hard to be certain. It was so hot that it seemed like the humidity just above the water was visible! When I got back to the hotel, I loaded my pictures onto my Mac and confirmed the identification; the light was so bright that the camera could ‘see’ better than my eyes could.

I was glad I had taken pictures of the other birds that were further away too…since they were juveniles of the same species!

Savoring these two short stops for a nature fix….

Beautyberry in the Fall

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The only scenic stop I made on my unexpected trip down to Carrollton TX was at the Texas Welcome Center (on US 69/7 just after crossing the Red River from Oklahoma)….to see how beautyberry looks in the fall. The leaves on the bushes were thinning…turning yellow and falling in quick succession. The berries are still thick on the stems. I wondered how long they will last after the wildlife (birds) begin to eat them. Will they be like holly trees suddenly not having any  berries any more after a flock of birds (like cedar waxwings) come through? I’ll continue to check the beautyberry bushes every time I pass by the Texas Welcome Center.

Road trip to Carrollton TX – October 2022

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Every month I go to Carrollton TX for a week…and become more familiar with the road trip down from my home in Nixa MO and back again. These are the highlights of the August trek.

The sun was not quite up when I left Nixa. There were some clouds that made it colorful. My route is north for a few minutes then turning west (and slightly south) to Tulsa OK so I didn’t have sun in my eyes.

The drive was easy – very little weekend traffic and no active work zones. The Texas Welcome center after I crossed the Red River has a great native plant garden. This time the plants were surrounded with grass (shortage of staff, plants not quite as vigorous?) but the American Beautyberry was robust…so much so that the grass didn’t seem to be invading that area as much. I have added this plant to my list to consider for around my house in Nixa.

I stopped for gas north of McKinney TX and had a pleasant conversation with a man hauling a substantial load of hay…a little serendipity socializing along the way. It doesn’t happen every trip (usually I just nod or greet the people I walk by…just a few words) but conversations are often something unique about the trip…particularly if the person is not someone I would normally meet.

A week later, I again was starting out before sunrise. I took a sunrise picture framed by a mulberry tree. It was the only morning of the week to have clouds to catch the color.

My route heads east for the 1st 10 minutes and my timing was perfect. The color changed from red/pink to orange….and a few minutes after my route turned north, the sun popped above the horizon. The week had been full of 90-degree afternoons but the day I drove home, the temperate stayed in the low 80s for the whole day!

The OK Welcome Center after I crossed the red river was just opening when I arrived. There was a cicada on the sidewalk that sat for portraits. Perhaps it was a little too cool for the insect to be singing/looking for a mate in the trees.

It was good to be home by mid-afternoon….another relatively easy road trip.

My 2019 in Review - Photos

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I managed to pick 26 pictures that were my favorites of the year either because I liked the way they turned out or because of a memory they evoked. I noticed some themes after I had collected them.

All except one are outdoors (although two were taken through my office window so I was standing indoors when I took them).

Many were pictures of plants: bare trees, witch hazel, red yucca seed pod, button bush, joe pye weed, cardoon, sunflowers, beautyberry, and red buckeye (nuts).

7 were pictures of animals or evidence of animals (other than birds): whelk shells, horseshoe crab beginning to roll over, northern red-bellied cooter (turtle), tiger swallowtail butterflies, cicada, spider, gray tree frog.

6 were pictures of birds or feathers: pelican, ibis, gallinule, bald eagle (wet), red-bellied woodpecker.

There are two sunrise pictures: one from my front porch on the first day of 2019 and one from October when we were camping in southern Virginia.

More than half the pictures are from places I go that are close to where I live (i.e. not requiring an overnight trip).

Beautyberry as Zentangle® Prompt

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When I was at Mount Vernon in December there was an American Beautyberry growing at the edge of the bowling green. I took a picture of the bush then zoomed in on a stem with berries.

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Nature is a great source of prompts for tangle patterns…and the purple clusters of the beautyberry are one of the easier examples. There is not much deconstruction required…the pattern is just some parallel dashed lines for the stem and filling the spaces between the stem lines with the tipple pattern. Easy!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.