Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory
Posted on | June 18, 2010 | No Comments
I know I have a backlog of posts to do, but today was fun so I have to start off with that.
Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory: whodathunk it? When I asked some moms if they’ve heard of bird observatory/water treatment plant in Austin they’d never heard of it. I’m not sure I remember where I heard of such a thing either. Thanks to Google, we found it and got directions to boot.
We brought our binoculars, a bag of Pirate’s Booty, bottles of water and our quiet voices. You’re supposed to whisper to keep the birds from flying off, they say. I think someone yelled before we got there, though. But that’s ok, it was fun anyhow and for several reasons.
1) The drive.
How can one not be tempted to take a dirt-ish road? Especially when one is in a truck. This is what the whole drive was like: literally one lane, narrow and at times bordered on either side by water. “Mom, don’t turn too much to the right!” was something heard often from J in the back when we were driving. It didn’t take long for them to realize that mom was driving something like 5 mph and it was fun to stand up and feel the bumps and dips as we went along. Actually, I could end the list with that. That was too much fun!
Wait, what, no hike? No hike. You’ll see later.
2) The scenery.
It’s not every day you get to drive through a water treatment facility. Well, unless you worked there, I suppose.
The water was pretty and bordered by lots of trees and pretty plants which is probably what attracts the birds in the first place.
This plant looks almost like that wild plant that grows in the Philippines that people would cook and eat:
3) The birds.
Well, we didn’t get to see the endangered black-capped vireo. We did manage to see a few of these guys which are new to us:
Grackles, but female ones only (not sure why):
They seem to be yelling at each other (yes, shot through a window, I’ll explain later):
A few sparrows (didn’t catch on camera) and lots and lots and lots of swallows!
The swallows (I think that’s what they are) were all over the place, swooping across the little lane we were driving/bouncing around on.
They made sure there were lots of homes for birds…
…and bats!
It didn’t take long for us to get to a structure that was built for bird observation. My youngest noted right away that it was seldom used owing to the fact that there were spider webs all over the place.
There was no way that I was going to stick my finger near this orb weaver so you could get a good sense of scale. While I know they’re not aggressive, believe me when I say this thing was huge and so apparently well fed.
There was no shortage of predatory insects at all.
This guy wanted to hitch a ride. I think he knew the yellow jackets and giant spiders were waiting to get him.
Incidentally, this was Joshua’s door and I didn’t flick it away for him (he used his brother’s door instead). I used to be a lot less afraid of bugs but the bug-fearing people in my life have rubbed off on me. I mean, I know these spiders rarely get people but when you see them having a family reuinion it’s hard not to shake the camera as you snap. It’s a symptom of the heebie jeebies.
So. Why no hike?
1.) Snakes. Alright, admittedly just one snake. But this was a water treatment facility and as soon as I see a snake skitter into the water across our little driving path, my first thought was “water moccasin” and “aggressive” and “no more hike for me today.”
2.) Bugs, bugs, bugs.
No, these weren’t biting bugs at all. The shot above was taken just a couple of minutes after we got back in the car when we realized we didn’t feel like sitting in the bird observation structure with the nasty bugs (and possibly snake but I didn’t want to draw the boys’ attention to the big hole in the ground). We rather liked sitting in the truck and bouncing at 5 mph.
But we opened the window at some point and a whole bunch of these bugs flew in. It quickly became obvious why the insect-loving swallows, grackles, bats and dragon flies were hanging out in major population numbers. This place was a massive buffet! They just had to fly around with their mouths open and they were guaranteed a full belly. As soon as our windows opened, those bugs saw their ticket to living a full life expectancy (probably a matter of just days, though).
The boys didn’t enjoy that part much at all. I did obligingly open the windows once more to “let the bugs out” only to let in their extended family. What’s on our truck interior fabric is no fancy pattern, those are bug guts.
That being said, we did have a good time. The boys got a tiny thrill when they realized that we would have to back up a long way if we ever met oncoming traffic. We even ran into a group of homeschoolers we knew while we were there. I’m sure we’ll head back there just for kicks since it’s really close to the airport and it’s free.
Oh, here’s stuff we wanted to see but certainly didn’t get to:
Maybe next time 
Spiderssss
Posted on | June 17, 2010 | 2 Comments
Ewwww.
Taken while on a walk at Circle C park (pics later). The boys are calling for me to hurry; they see a way to cross the creek and I better hurry. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice movement and see the inside of this tree hollow just moving.
Fredricksburg
Posted on | June 12, 2010 | 2 Comments
So two weekends ago we headed out to Fredricksburg to see if we could find some peaches to bring home. It would have been a waste of a few good hours to stay at home and sit in front of the computer, know what I mean?
Texas Hill Country is just awash with wildflowers right now.
You just have to deal with this when you wade through the wildflowers and grasses:
We stopped for a moment at this place and found it’s very dog-friendly.
The Wild West isn’t complete without a prairie schooner, is it?
They had several fields of wildflowers being cultivated. But if you cultivate them are they really still “wild”?
We drove into Fredricksburg, grabbed a lunch to go then headed back out. We found a spot where we could eat outside but Sprocket found something…
She has good reason to look worried. The picnic area was crawling with these guys:
They are HUGE. I wasn’t about to put my hand or toes near them so you could get a sense of scale. They were all over the place and had even worn a path in the dirt with their comings and goings. There was also this, which I got by judiciously avoiding the ants:
And I finally remembered to get a picture of these guys, drive-by-shooting style:
After lunch, we hunted for peaches in earnest. We were trying to find a certain peach stand. We couldn’t find the right one, but there was no shortage of peach stands this year. We even had the bonus of ice cream!
Brotherly Love
Posted on | May 21, 2010 | 1 Comment
No, it’s hardly the most technically accomplished photograph but the emotion speaks volumes to me. I’m kind of partial to these boys, you know. I hope they remember times like this when they’re older and we’re having hummus and chips at a family reunion. I hope they still like hummus and chips when they’re older.
“Remember when mom would make me hug you so she could take pictures?”
“Oh yeah! That was annoying because it was so hot and boring.”
The Unexpected
Posted on | May 14, 2010 | 1 Comment
The Lord often protects me from some of the more difficult facts of life because He knows how weak I really am. Weak? More like wimpy, wimpy, wimpy!
Last Thursday, I was helping to set up and decorate for our church’s women’s retreat. This was my third in a row with CSA, second year helping and each year it is a huge blessing.
Normally, I call the boys at home so I can say good night, but that night I had called pretty late so when I got hubby’s voice mail I was a little disappointed but not surprised that I didn’t get a hold of him.
The next day, I did notice at some point that there was a voice mail waiting for me, but it wasn’t a convenient time to call back. Later on in the day, I tried to call but my phone either couldn’t find a connection or needed the SIM card re-installed. Oh well.
Turns out that on Thursday night, they were all at the ER! NM and J were riding their bikes on our street while hubby was doing some DIY work inside the house. A boy from our neighborhood had thrown his scooter in front of NM’s bike causing him to flip over the handle bars and “face plant” as he puts it. His lip had split, he had a huge bump on his head, a tooth was chipped and he thought he’d done something to his leg. We don’t know if that throw was intentional or who did it, but no doubt that poor boy didn’t expect what resulted!
From what I was told, the ER staff at the hospital were wonderful to him. They checked his leg for a break and for a concussion but he didn’t have either, praise God. The doctor took his time and carefully stitched him up. When I got home on Saturday afternoon, hubby prepared me by telling me “it’s not as bad as it was” which of course made no sense to me but he proceeded to explain what happened. I had to mentally prepare myself so I kept unloading my friend M’s car. When I did see him, his face was so swollen and his lips were even worse.
I’ll spare you from photos that hubby did take…I have a hard time looking at them!
But, thanks to answered prayer, his healing was so rapid. On Sunday, he and I stayed home from church. NM, Sprocket and I snuggled in his bed and I read to him from Psalms then he requested Deuteronomy 1 because “Abba read that to us” and I guess he was struck by it and wanted to hear it again. So I also read the next chapter for good measure. But the swelling in his face was practically gone by the end of that day.
This past Wednesday, we headed to the doctor to get the stitches removed (that smarts!) and then to the dentist to get the tooth capped. Stitches? Not so much a problem but the dentist was another story. I’d forgotten how long that process takes and if you’re sensitive, it can really hurt when the local anesthesia wears off. Poor baby!
It was hard to wait and sit, sit, sit.
The dental technician was very gentle and careful when she made the molds. They had made a total of three of them, I think.
I wish I could remember what he was telling me. He was SO good and so patient waiting with me for his brother to be done.
It got cold in there and he finally accepted a blanket that was offered to him. He got really good at handling this suction thingie.
J found ways to keep occupied. Hehe.
So NM now has a temporary cap for his tooth and in three weeks we go back for a more permanent one. The doctor hopes it will last him at least 10 years, but says he can guarantee that he’ll need a root canal for that tooth one day, probably when he’s around 20. I am so grateful to live in a time when we have the technology to even fix his tooth!
A New Thing
Posted on | May 5, 2010 | No Comments
Just so you know, this is what I’ve been up to for the last couple of weeks: http://www.mercedesmorgan.com/
But this weekend? Ahhhh…this weekend I will be at our women’s retreat, enjoying studies on intimacy with God and fellowship with my sisters. I love having a big family!
Last weekend
Posted on | April 29, 2010 | 2 Comments
Just a very brief update so Lola knows what’s happening.
The soccer game: the boys lost again. However, the number of goals that they lose by has been shrinking noticeably. NM has been strongly commended at each game for doing a great job as goalie (wow I am proud) and even as striker. His confidence has been increasing so that he’s even been making a significant number of attempts at goals when he’s played striker. Other parents have commented on how well he’s doing and also his coach keeps making a point of telling him what a great job he’s doing (even emailed NM and made his day).
J has been doing a great job at learning to read. I think he stares at all the books he wants to read and doesn’t get frustrated, he just tries to sound them out. He doesn’t nap in the afternoons, just takes a chapter book to bed and reads it and tells me what each chapter he read was about. He’s been reading out of the NIV bible he has and I’m really surprised he doesn’t get frustrated when he can’t read something, he just tries or waits for help. He recently inherited a lot of his older brother’s Legos and has been making cars again. I guess I won’t be putting NM in a Lego robotics class in the fall, maybe beginning engineering instead. We still need to put J in some kind of sport but are waiting on Abba for the ok.
Speaking of Abba: we are also very proud because he got a promotion (literally waited years for that). It’s a one-word change in his title but it’s still a big deal. He was supposed to get one several years ago but perhaps our move delayed it; we’re not sure. God’s timing is good though and he finally got it! He has to travel down to Monterrey, MX in June so we need to keep that trip in prayer.
Me? A friend had recently blessed me by asking me to take photos of her girls. That was fun! I learned what *not* to do about where to take the photos and how much fun the girls were! They were real troopers and had fun with me even though they had to walk through grass with prickly thistles and wait in a bunch of flowers before we went to see the ducks in the water. Actually, they were geese so we ended up not having as much fun seeing them as we thought. Geese are very territorial and they didn’t really want anyone around! When you’re 6 and 7 they also look a whole lot bigger than ducks! Hopefully I’ll have some of those photos up when I get her written permission to use them.
Mr. Valiant Fortruth
Posted on | April 23, 2010 | No Comments
The boys and I have been reading through John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress—both parts—in lieu of our post-WWI history studies. So sorry…”The Great War” kind of burned me out for a while. It was senselessly dealt with and that’s all I’ll say about that. History is fascinating but most of the time emotionally draining (watching Sgt. York was a highlight, though).
So here we are with an even more emotional book!
I did have to give in and get a more “modern” English version because translating “from whence did thou come and wither goest thou?” became too laborious. And I kept saying the opposite of what the text meant. Think Yoda but with ideas rather than English.
Anyway, while I really identified with the character of Mr. Fearing, it’s his antithesis in a loose sense, Mr. Valiant Fortruth was someone to aspire to be like. Very Paul-ish.
This is one of my favorite poems in the book so far (and the most approachable in terms of the language), about Valiant Fortruth:
Who would true Valour see,
Let him come hither;
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather:
There’s no Discouragement
Shall make him once relent,
His first avow’d intent
To be a Pilgrim.
Whoso beset him round
With dismal stories,
Do but themselves confound,
His Strength the more is.
No Lion can him fright;
He’ll with a Giant fight,
But he will have a right
To be a Pilgrim.
Hobgoblin, nor foul Fiend
Can daunt his spirit;
He knows, he at the End
Shall Life inherit.
Then Fancies fly away,
He’ll fear not what men say,
He’ll labour Night and Day
To be a Pilgrim.
I think this was a good choice for a book for us. My NM isn’t a big poetry fan at all but he hasn’t complained about any of these verses. I absolutely love how engaged both the boys are with the story at a degree that I didn’t expect. It did really help that there were questions for each chapter in our edition but beyond those, we do have dialogues about the characters and their experiences. The boys have been touched by the book and I really don’t want it to end (it does tomorrow). Some of what we’ve experienced so far will be indelible for J at least, since he’s named two of his stuffed animals in the manner of Bunyan. His robin is named Peaceful and his okapi is Love.
Last thing about the book…I have to re-read some parts for my own benefit. There is a point where Christiana and Christian’s boys are questioned by Prudence during their stay. Prudence gives very direct and simple object lessons when the boys ask her questions. My favorite:
“Why does fire fasten upon the candle wick?” [Matthew] inquired.
“To show us that unless grace kindles upon the heart, there will be no true Light of Life in us, ” answered Prudence.
“Why are the wick and tallow and everything spent to maintain the light of the candle?” he asked.
“To show that body and sould and everything should be at the service of and spend themselves to maintain in good condition that grace of God that is in us,” she answered.
Am I completely spent? Or am I still asking “how much”?
Town Lake Walk
Posted on | April 19, 2010 | 2 Comments
Really, I had no idea how much I missed walking around Town Lake/Lady Bird Lake. We went yesterday afternoon and walked for several hours.
Austin was wearing its Sunday best, the temps and humidity was perfect, the blooming flowers perfumed the air and it was just gorgeous. Just gorgeous!
And I had the camera the whole time…woohoo!
No, I don’t remember what he was yelling.
Green had exploded all over Austin.
We saw funny things…that’s just Austin.
I love my boys. They’re handsome. Yes Lola, that outfit was money well spent.
Of course, Sprocket came too.
The boys had to do their own thing now and then.
I just love this: happened upon four modes of transportation in one frame:
Wow, they wanted me to take their picture!
We happened to see a whole troop of cedar waxwings eating berries off a tree.
They suddenly took off because of this guy:
I told you it was gorgeous, right?
And yes, there’s more on Flickr.
Updates
Posted on | April 14, 2010 | 2 Comments
(Seems like they might be needed)
The Cardinal Saga
It continues! Today, while Mama Bird was away, I saw what I think were three eggs. They’re tiny and speckled. I guess I never thought about what they might look like, but there you are: tiny and speckled, not unlike quail eggs only not as speckle-y. She came back too quickly for me to take a photo. I think I’ll have to just be prepared in advance with the camera because she doesn’t seem to be gone for very long at all. We did get to see Papa Bird come and feed the Mama something that looked worm-ish.
When did she lay her eggs? We’re not sure. She’d been spending the better part of five or six days just sitting in the nest and rarely leaving.
The Soccer Saga
The boys had another loss however, the team as a whole has been working on their skills. The kids are noticing their improvements, too. Very good! We enjoyed watching this past weekend’s games. NM made so many attempts at goals! It was also pretty cool how they worked hard at keeping the balls and getting them from the other team. Fancy footwork, that!
The School Saga
Well…I guess not so much “saga” is it? Heh. This Friday NM gets to go with his Abba to participate in Teenpact at the State Capitol. They will go through a one-day class, led by teens, that introduces them to the legislative process and how this relates to us as Christians. Sounds fun, right? NM had to write draft his own bill, too. He originally thought it would be a good law that all children should wear only shorts (bills could be silly or serious) but he ended up writing a bill requiring gas stations to install filters on gas pumps to minimize the smell. I like it!
J has been surprising me with his reading. It seems like I really don’t raise the bar high enough for him, to his detriment. I delayed potty training for him thinking it would be too soon but it was Mom who was too slow. Same with reading! I insist he read his “beginning reader” bible when he is practically begging me to read his older brother’s NIV adventure bible. While some times he is “filling in the blanks” when reading some longer words, he *is* actually reading most of it. He’s the one who is such a strong auditory learner that he memorizes the scriptures we read so much faster than NM and I.
Speaking of memorizing scripture, I think the boys waited long enough for mom to (mostly) have Psalm 46 memorized so we’re looking into another Psalm. We might do Psalm 1 next since that was NM’s request at the beginning.
And just so you don’t forget what they look like…
I honestly have no idea what was going on in that last one, I wasn’t there. That is all.
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