Autumn East Texas Trails

Leaving My Mark

Tiny Treat

Hangin Out in the Woods

Windy Day

 

Spring

 

Living a Dream

Alone in a Crowd

Dear Mike,

38 years ago we were living a dream

now you’ve been gone for 23

tears still form when I play your songs

now I’m old and still alone

sometimes I feel life has passed me by

but I’ve lived long enough to know

I’m not missing anything…

except you

remember the time you wanted to leave everything behind?

I made you promise to take me with you

many nights I wish you could have

but that was not your call

I haven’t done much since you left me behind

18 years in the health and fitness industry

and I’m so sick, I’m bad for business

remember how no one knew what was wrong?

well, I have a long list of diagnoses now

seizures, autism, Lupus, PTSD with flashbacks, 

migraines, vertigo, and severe anxiety disorder

only half are true, but I don’t know which half

on a brighter side, my faith finally feels real

yes, I knew it was real when you were alive

yet I never felt like I belonged

things got awfully dark before I could see

you’ll feel it too when you come back

although I might seem a little different

I’ve lived 14 years longer than you so far

but we’ll be living a better dream then

I live in an RV now, which you’d enjoy

although, you’d make the bed bigger

ok, and the bathtub too

remember that night we froze in our tent?

we could be warm cozy glampers instead

traveling wherever, planting gardens along the way

we’ll stay a few years in each place

making friends everywhere we go

that’s what I’ve been doing since you’ve been gone

no real place to call home

even our house felt estranged

a place for roommates to land

the RV makes moving so much easier

I can take my home with me

6 years with a PO Box address

is as close to home as it gets

the latest PO Box is shared with some wonderful friends

I can’t wait for them to meet you!

this dream feels so real now

I just want to share it with you

Love always,

your Happy Camper wife

 

Spiders and Decay

 It’s weird. Spiders climbed all night, but their trajectories kept missing the desired lamp lit window, landing instead in a tangle of crystal clear wind chimes lost in the shadows. Iridescent tones gave away their location. No outline of the glass tubes was visible, only the distortion of moonlit silver threads as it magnified the web and then disappeared.

In contrast to their gentle music, the breeze that helped weave this curious scene, was anything but light and peaceful. Heavy with the stench of decay, it carried the story of dead swine laying in the ravine below. Turning to climb the steps back into her RV, she wondered if the spiders were trying to escape it as well. The air inside seemed more sane once she closed the door.

What drove those wild hogs to their death? She knew the locals wouldn’t miss them. Their population had exploded in recent years, causing damage to property and crops. Hunters were having little success culling the herds. The sharp contrasts of the night echoed the imbalances of the world today.

Solitude, peace, clear sky, shadowy music,… decay, sickness, pandemic, mental illness… The howl of a feral cat outside the door sends ripples through randomly drifting thoughts. Wild life is trying to clean up a mess that is too big for all of us. 

After the Rain

Cedar needles

Juniper berries

Spider web

Palafox

Yaupon berries

Yaupon berries

Dirt road in a rain drop

Wild Berry Jelly

Beauty berries 

Beauty berries 

Black gum berries 

Greenbrier berries 

Greenbrier berries 

I made jellies out of these last fall with stevia, local honey, and arrowroot.

 

Foraging

I've been trying to learn about and identify all the local edible flora. 

This is a salad that I made today with some of the plants I found on my walk this morning. I'm really enjoying the new flavors I'm finding. Salads were starting to get really boring. That motivated me to look into foraging. The woods where I'm collecting has never been sprayed with pesticides or fertilizer, and the soil has never been farmed. My hope was to get a more diverse variety of phytonutrients than what I can get at the grocery store. The interesting flavors are turning out to be an added bonus.

This is spiderwort. The flowers have a really light flavor that seems like a blend of fruit and anise. The leaves have a stronger flavor like kale or broccoli. I've read that spiderwort is supposed to help with allergies.

 This is greenbriar. The leaves taste like a cross between green beans and asparagus. It's supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties.

In addition to spiderwort and greenbriar, I put cucumber, onion, spearmint leaves, and sunflower seeds in this salad. For dessert, I put strawberries, blueberries, and juniper berries (also foraged), and local honey in a blender, and then poured it over pecans. Juniper berries are a great anti-inflammatory. I could tell right away after the first time I tried them.

These are juniper berries with yaupon in the background. Yaupon is the only naturally caffeinated plant in North America. The leaves can be used to make tea, but don't eat the berries. Yaupon tea used to be a very popular tea generations ago.

A Peaceful End...

 ... to a crazy year.

It hailed three times, two tornadoes, and one month straight of 100+ degree weather during a drought that brought an onslaught of aphids and their sticky excrement. No rain to wash that syrupy poop off my camper, car, and door steps where it got tracked indoors in spite of hosing things down. Then came the stink bugs to feast on the aphids. They invaded all the campers here in this campground like something from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. They were followed by the Asian Beetle that shouldn't even be on this side of the planet. After a two month long Bugaggedon, my camper was splattered with little yellow stains (from the Asian Beetles) and smelled like a sweaty metal work shop (the stink bugs). I'm not sure who won. I'm still finding their carcasses everywhere. 

For the first time in my 3 years of being a full-time RV-er, I was not a happy camper. But, I'm over it now, and these pic show why. They were all taken walking distance from my camper door.

Outsider

 Today, being the outsider is a good thing.

Happy Camper

My life is changing dramatically now. I've left everything behind, bought an RV, and moved to a campground in the middle of the East Texas woods. There are some kinks in my plan that still need ironing out, like internet connection problems and no phone service, but I'm so happy to be away from Houston that these things don't bother me.

I have no address now, though. Does that make me a homeless person?