I used to drive by this site and not know the significance. Good news! An amazing prairie remnant has been found in Deer Park. It is called the College Park Prairie, named after an adjacent…

Temperature 97.9 °F Feels Like 116 °F That’s what it says on the Weather Underground page for my place right now. I spent 2+ hours this morning riding the John Deer around the yard today and it was…

There’s something about Texas – if I didn’t live here, I wouldn’t live here. Juanita Jean sum’s up all of my frustrations with my native state and then some… She goes on to lay out…

Yesterday the postwoman put the latest issue of Cooks Illustrated in the mailbox by the road. When I looked at the cover I was reminded of the differences in growing seasons in this country of…

To promote the importance of our state’s special sense of place, the Texas Legislature has designated October 14-20 as Native Plant Week. Local communities throughout Texas are planning events for the public to foster the…

When I was at the PRX site the other day listening to Mary Gauthier I stumbled across this “In Search of a Song” program: Enjoy!

I had Winamp playing yesterday as I fiddled around on the computer when Mary Gauthier came on playing her song “Sugar Cane”.  That led me to a Google search for a video of the song…

Heat…Heat…Heat…That’s what summer in Texas is all about. It’s 10am and this was just on the Weather Underground… the small print under the temperature…The heat index. It already feels like 108°. This time last week I…

Stupid? Arrogant?  Crazy?   Whoa, wait, isn’t that already the motto of the Republican Party? via Juanita Jean’s | Truman Demands Romney Release His Tax Returns. A drop quote to love…

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. – George Bernard Shaw The above quotation popped up in an email today and did just what it was supposed to…

Now that the Supreme Court has declared the ACA to be constitutional I find most people still don’t know what is in the law… I don’t really know. My wife doesn’t understand it. I know…

I always knew that red state Texas was stingy. Governor Perry has spent most of his decade in office turning down federal money to help the poor. But this paragraph really spelled out the extent of Texas…

Washington DC: United States Supreme Court (Photo credit: wallyg) Yes it does… Mitt Romney may have joked yesterday that the White House was “not sleeping real well” last night. But a…

The house is empty…Crank the volume up… Just a bit.   Listen to more Cowboy Junkies at Wolfgang’s Vault. I have loved Wolfgang’s Vault since I discovered it many years ago…Go check out their music. Then read…

It’s not even 9am and this is what the local weather station has to say about the temperature here: Temperature 90.7 °F Feels Like 107 °F Yesterday it hit 102° by noon on the back porch. It was…

The one thing that makes it worthwhile to continue to wade through each new David Brooks Column isn’t the fantasy fiction Mr. Brooks turns out each time. It’s the quality of the comments from the…

There was a time not too many years back when the music never stopped playing in what ever room I was in. Then for a long time it was podcasts that played all day long….

Yesterday about mid-morning, I was sitting in the rocker on the back porch with a cup of coffee. The temperature had already passed the mid-eighties. The ceiling fans on the porch were the only thing making it…

I never realized how much of my life I’ve spent on the Gulf Coastal Prairie…I found this video on line as I was looking for information on native plants. The original link fell by the…

It all started last weekend. I walked out on the back porch and did a double take at the garden…Then I back pedaled into the house and call my wife and grandson to hurry out and…

Temperature 84.7 °F Feels Like 91 °F

I wandered over to the Wunderground.com to check the extended forecast for this first week in May and here is what I saw: Thursday Mostly cloudy in the morning, then partly cloudy. High of 84F…

Now here’s a diet I can dip my strawberry in…Or maybe even a carrot and a stick of celery? Chocolate may not be as hazardous to your waistline as you think — at least in…

Video No Longer Available As individuals creating something we are limited by time, talent, energy and (sometimes) money. When we act collectively though, magic happens. via Building more than a house | OdeWire. For some…

It’s beautiful outside. It has been beautiful for a week or more. My thoughts keep turning to digging in the dirt… Planting things that are beautiful, things that taste good, things that attract birds and butterflies. This is…

There is a great dividing year in the history of coffee in America, and it is 1972. Before it, the percolator. After, automatic drip. via Here’s to Mr. Coffee, Known to Some as Sam –…

The world out my window this week has been rather busy. The hummingbirds are visiting the feeder off the front porch. That means it’s time to pull the rest out of storage and spot them around the…

Today 81 °F Rain Showers 20% chance of precipitation   Tonight 66 °F Mostly Cloudy   Tomorrow 86 | 64 °F Rain Showers 20% chance of precipitation   Just saying…

Today’ Weather81 °FT-storms 20% chance of precipitation So, we sprang forward again yesterday. And here we are with what much of the country would consider  a summertime forecast. It’s already 62° out and the sun isn’t…

Spring Sitting here with my first cup of coffee, looking out my office window, my morning muse turns to the predominance of spring green. Even the scar left with the demolition of the old house is showing…

Why we celebrate Texas Independence Day I grew up here in Texas. I have never thought much about the why’s of Texas Independence Day. I was surrounded by the Texas myth from birth. Some of my ancestors were…

https://youtu.be/KSkF2wGAVdA Ever since I heard her for the first time…There is some thing in Mary Gauthier’s voice that I just can’t get enough of. Tania Elizabeth adds another dimension. I have loved her playing since Paste…

It’s been a bit over a week since the Great Backyard Bird Count came to an end. This was my first ever participation in the nationwide (continent-wide) event. I have to wonder though…Who told the…

Set up a Google alerton your own name and have it emailed to yourself each day. Then you’ll see how you make the news each day. You’ll see arrest reports, obituaries, retirement notices, political reports…In other…

Thinking creatively has been a goal in my life for as long as I can remember. Now I’ve run across this article…Who would’ve  thought it could be this easy?

Federal scientists confirmed Friday that Texas had its driest year on record in 2011. The statewide average rainfall for the year totaled just 14.88 inches, according to the National Climatic Data Center, beating the previous low…

As everyone who lived along the Texas Gulf Coast in December of 2004 will never forget, a white Christmas isn’t just a dream for those living north of the Mason-Dixon line…Miracles do happen. And when…

This is what I see every time I look up from the keyboard for the past couple of weeks. It’s almost enough to have me singing along with the “Boss”… Listen to more Bruce Springsteen…

Last week my backyard looked like this as the sun came up…   This week, under overcast skies, it looks like this… We are still seeing more green out back than most places around here….

In Texas in recent years, the summers have been blazing hot and very dry. We haven’t gotten the usual spring and fall rains. 2011, in particular, was an unprecedented year of drought and wildfires. The…

I was wandering through the kitchen just a bit ago and glanced out the back windows. There in the yard I saw my first flock of Robins of this winter season…On the very first day…