June and July 2014

Morning of June 10, not long after a rood rise on the Creek,
as evidenced by the fine drift-log on the boulder.

Damsel.

Incomplete clutch of turkey eggs found between gate
and house. Three days later, they were gone.

Juvenile red-shoulder hawk at the edge of its nest (June 10). 

  A couple days later on June 12 a nice storm tore of the tops of many cedar elm trees, but not this one. The hawks never returned, though.

  Beneath the nest, I found these items:

Red-shouldered hawk kitchen midden.

Toppled over in the July 12 storm

Dogs' graves beneath the fallen elm.

June 13 after a fair rain and wind.

Field leading up to our place. Most beautiful field in the world.

Turkey chick ("Tennessee") among chicken chicks.

First week of June harvest from the greenhouse

Heirloom. June 6.

Fresh from the terraced pesto garden against the hill.

Dead. Desiccated. And still beautiful.

  Now for a short button-bush series:

Middle October

.

Redstripe ribbon snake (Thamnophis proximus rrilineatusub)
belly is bigger than its mouth.  The leopard frog (Rana) got away
after a half-hour struggle.

Ah, yes.

Those blue eyes....

Fox scat on the trail down to the Pond.

Palafoxia (Palafoxia callosa) is the most ubiquitous flowering plant
 down in the stone-field of the dry creek bed. 

Zexmenia (Zexmenia hispida)

Golden-Eye (Viguiera dentata)

.

Golden-Eye (Viguiera dentata) in big-bloom all over this country now.

Velvet-Leaf Mallow (Wissadula holosericea)

Velvet-Leaf Mallow (Wissadula holosericea)

Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis Drummondii)

Common Wild Petunia (Ruellia nudiflora)

Tube-Tongue (Siphonoglossa pilosella)

Texas Lantana (Lantana horrida)

Curlytop Gumweed (Grindelia nuda) with its sticky
leaves (growing mostly in the stonefield). Indians of the
Southwest would treat ant bites with a poultice made
from this flower.

Sometimes its tops are white instead of yellow.

Spittlebug (see 4 April, 2012 entry)

Snow-on-the-mountain

Tropical Sage (?)

Frostweed

     So, daughter K. arrived last weekend with the solution to my paradox-of-choice.  I wake in these cool mornings with too many projects, large and small. Stone walls to build. Stones to find. Stones to haul. Juniper to cut and burn. Soil to turn. Scrap to haul away. Pens to build. Steps to complete. Paint to paint. And because the list is so long, I am always paralyzed with the many options and then regretful into the first few minutes of the project because I can't forget the other projects I probably should have chosen instead.

     That's when K. suggested that we write on slips of paper the individual projects and label them as "7-hour," "3-hour," and "1-hour" projects.  We wad them up and stuff them into an empty cashew jar.  Then when I have, say, a full day or most of a weekend's worth of time, I reach into the jar and blindly pull out any one of the 7-hour project sheets and get to work.  This process eliminates the paradox-of-choice.  I have no choice but the one slip's assignment.

     Thanks, K.