A walk in the woods

Today we took a stroll through our woods to see how Spring is treating our little part of the world.  We have a little over 10 acres of land, about 9 of which are fully wooded.  When a lot of people think of Texas, the images that come to mind are of cacti and deserts and oil wells. And while Texas does have these features, our part of Texas is in the Piney Woods.  We do have oil wells and a few cacti here and there (as well as yucca), but this part of Texas is full of trees.  And our little piece of the land is full of pines, oaks, hickory, holly, buckeye, and cedar (to name just a few) with a creek and some drainage features that criss-cross behind our house.

Moss and clover

 Lately I have become infatuated with the mosses that grow along the creek and drainages.  These small worlds stay green all year long.  In the above photos, moss and clover grow side by side and throughout.  Aren't the colors spectacular?

Sporophytes extend from the moss

I love the feel of moss and would gladly trade a grass yard for moss.  When we lived in Seattle, one of my favorite parts of the tiny postage stamp-size yard was the large space given to moss.  It felt so good under bare feet, and I never understood why so many people fought off such lusciousness.

Exposed sweetgum roots in the creekbed

When we bought our house, I came to the top of the ledge of the creek here and fell in love with the beauty of the land we were fortunate to find.  At the moment I reached the ledge, a couple of butterflies flew into the area and began to flutter and dance as if they knew I was their audience. It was almost magical.

Fallen tree over the creek

The drought has wiped out so many of our large trees.  It's heartbreaking to see so many large trees felled by something out of our control. We are hoping that no more trees will fall in our woods.  This tree fell not too very long ago, providing a little bridge for animals to cross the creek.  Based on the scat we found along the tree, raccoons are especially fond of visiting this felled giant.

Mayapples

This year we are seeing more mayapples than ever before.  Perhaps this is due to the drought that has knocked out some of the canopy above that would have shaded the ground where we are finding them in full force now.  The forest animals always find the fruit long before we do, but maybe this year we will stand a chance since there are just so many more plants.

Greenbrier vines tangled up

You can't go very far in any woods in the Piney Woods without getting tangled up in vines.  Soon, the greenbrier here will have little berries that my husband has told me are edible though I have never tried them.

While I look forward to Spring each year, I can do without the heat that will come all too soon afterwards.  For now, I will just enjoy the respite of cool temperatures Spring provides and hope that Summer will treat us and our woods kindly. 

Step Outside

Okay...so it is April 1 today and I can already tell that this summer is going to be H O T in my part of Texas.  A scorcher.  It is 84°F right now, and this is just the beginning of Spring. EEK.  Already time to break out the sunscreen and shorts!

While I did some work inside the house...okay...while I watched the pilot episode of Twin Peaks (I had never seen it and was curious about the cult following it has...I am still not sold on it yet), my husband worked outside in the yard, making it pretty.  To be fair, I did make blueberry pancakes and eggs this morning so I was not COMPLETELY lazy.  After he mowed the yard, I ventured outside and snapped some photos of the flowers and woods around our house.

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Sweet little roses in a flower garden by our house.

View from the edge of the woods.

Tree canopy on the edge of our woods.

This pine tree looks to be a victim of last year's drought.

A grove of mayapples.

This anole thought he could not be seen...

but I could see him! :)

From my dining room

 I have been working on adding some new designs to my shop lately...about time!  Trust me, I have been itching to add even more, but life has a way sometimes of making other plans for you. But the important thing is that I am finally back at it, and, oh boy, am I having fun with this!

I carved this latest white-tailed deer as I sat at my dining room table on a gorgeous sunny day.  I have a room devoted to my Etsy shop and other crafty endeavors, but my dining room has wonderful windows that let in loads of sunlight - a perfect spot for carving if you ask me! Listening to Daytrotter (loving The Lumineers!), carving stamps, and letting the Spring sunshine in...what a perfect day!

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Check out the notebooks (lined and blank) and notecards!

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See what I mean by great light?  Of course, in the summer, this little area gets a wee bit warm (this is Texas, after all). But right now while the temperatures are still fairly mild (well, mild for here anyway - it was 91 degrees today and it isn't even April yet), this is the perfect spot for working!  Heck, I am sitting in the dining room now!  :)

On a spring evening

Spring comes early and leaves quickly around here.  Just last week, I was telling my co-workers to not complain about the abnormally cool weather when we all know that soon, very soon, the great outdoors will feel like a soup kitchen! People tend to think that all of Texas is like what you see in the movies--desert, tumbleweeds, cacti, cowboys, dry heat--and, there is a large portion of the state that is just like that.  We lived in Amarillo (in the panhandle of Texas, "near" New Mexico) for four years and, when we first moved there from east Texas (a full 11-hour drive from our hometown), we were elated to know that 100 degrees could actually feel "pleasant" if the humidity is only 10%!  Here in the piney woods of east Texas (sorry, no tumbleweeds, but plenty of folks in cowboy clothes), we often find ourselves sweating from the short walk from the front door to the mailbox in the summer because the humidity is 90% at 95 degrees.  Soupy, soupy days are ahead.  Already, the temperatures are peaking into the mid-90s.   Ugh.

To keep myself in full Spring mode, I dug through some of my favorites and found a few more along the way to put this little treasury together.  And if you don't instantly fall in love with the little Bambi in this treasury, well...I just don't know what to say. :) 

The lightness of being

My latest treasury is inspired by the sweet subtle colors of spring.

New design at Subtle Acts Etsy shop!

I am very happy to announce one of my latest designs I just listed in my shop - the Studious Owl Resin Pendant Necklace! You might notice that it is actually the design from my hand-carved stamp design on one of my cards in the shop. It takes a little work to go from the stamp to the necklace, but I love the idea of using the same design on multiple items so it is well-worth the extra effort.

Thank you to Mrs. Peterson for the little extra kick in the pants I needed!  More designs are on the way!

Our own Charlotte

Yesterday, my husband and I took advantage of a lovely Spring day, getting the front garden in order (no small task), getting the automatic sprinklers in tip-top shape, and basically sweating our tails off (it was in the upper 80s).  As I brought up in an earlier post, my husband comes across skulls from time to time as he roams the woods throughout the area.  He currently has a wild dog skull sitting outside on the porch letting the sun bleach it a little more before it is added to his curio cabinet.  While I was working in the garden, I caught a little jumping spider meandering throughout the skull, and it was calm enough to stop and pose for some pictures.

I was not brave (crazy) enough to take a picture of the red wasp investigating the skull.

We are mostly finished with the front garden - hopefully all of the new plants grow.  I planted a peony, two camellias, petunias,  Mexican heather, lavender, basil, oregano, and snapdragons. 

Updated photos for Etsy

With Hubby out fishing for the day with his dad and uncle, I stayed behind and took full advantage of a gorgeous, sunny day.   I re-photographed a couple of my pendants for the shop using that beautiful natural sunlight, and I think that the new pictures are so much better than the previous ones!  I have posted the new pictures to the shop, made sure that they fit in the window for a treasury if selected (hint, hint, wink, wink ;) ), and hit Save. 

 

 

 

View from the kitchen window

One of my favorite features of my house is the kitchen window.  While our last home in Seattle had a nice large window above the sink, our view was of our neighbor's house.  Their house was lovely enough, but I prefer to see a little nature outside my window.  Now, our kitchen window looks out into our woods, not a neighbor in sight!  On certain days, I can watch squirrels run around in the trees as I wash up the supper dishes.  Once, Hubby saw a deer outside this window, grazing in our yard.  The craziest thing I have seen through this window, though, has been a turkey!  I am not certain where the turkey came from.  Various neighbors raise chickens, goats, cows, and horses, but I don't know about turkeys.

Here is the view from my window:

As you can see, the trees are still bare, but they are working on it.  

Is that Spring I am seeing?

The flowers are blooming, the flowers are blooming!  Most of the trees still have a ways to go, but the early Spring flowers are up and running!  I picked some flowers from along the road in front of our house and tried to capture their loveliness before their inevitable wilting. The white flowers are from our pear tree, and yellow are daffodils. Aren't they just gorgeous?

Unbroken circles

As part of a Team Treasury Island spotlight for Dot Stitch and a way to show off the great items to be found from sellers in my Circle, I put together a treasury featuring items with a circle theme.  Aren't each and every one of these items just gorgeous!

finds for spring

Check out this wonderful treasury by Sonia of Catchall-Jewelry featuring my Hello Fox card! Gorgeous!