Binging on the Ladybug Farm series

A Year on Ladybug Farm,
At Home on Ladybug Farm
Love Letters From Ladybug Farm,
and
Vintage Ladybug Farm


I loved Donna Ball's Raine Stockton dog mysteries so much, I ventured to try one of these. And, as you can see, I was hooked. The first three were available at the library and I even made a special library trip to pick it up.

One of them even made me cry--it was so touchingly wonderful, like real life is when a dark cloud is hanging over your head for months and suddenly it is lifted. Obviously I can't give the details. But I can say this: these books are sweet and charming and very much not for everyone. Nothing really awfully bad ever happens. There are no villains although there are a few extremely incompetent repairmen who ought to get the boot. It's a sweet, simple story of three women who bond together over a lifetime of shared experience. And end up buying a farm. And what a farm!

Goats appear. Roofs collapse. A mysterious nighttime marauder steals vegetables. Neighbors help out when least expected. Storms wipe out crops. Sheep wear clothing. And after many strange discoveries, they learn that it's not just a farm, it's a farm with a history.

Would I love to live there!

Willis Creek Last Day and Home

 Saturday, January 16, 2020

Written at the time:
So here we are for our last day at this Willis Creek COE campground. It's not so bad but I wanna go home. If I were driving I'd be home now. But I gave Ed the choice of staying or going and he opted to stick with the plan. So I will get some contract work done this afternoon and not fret. If I were home, I'd be playing in the garden or cutting trees or doing all kinds of junk. Here there's nothing else to do but work.  [yucky]

(Of course I could read or knit or type up my trip notes. But I ought to be working.)

I don't like this place much, even as a stopover for the night. It's too far away from Georgetown to be convenient to stores; it's no closer to our route home than Cedar Ridge would have been, and the look and feel of the place is like camping in our back field. I went walking with Molly this morning, up to the fishing access point and then along the river back to the campsites. 

At first I was following a trail, but that petered out and I had to bushwhack the last couple of hundred yards.

Birds for the day: Three hawks, an owl, a cormorant, a couple million butterbutts; phoebe, cardinal, mockingbird. 

On the upland Meadowlarks, killdeer and sparrows abound. Best I can tell they're Savannah sparrows and chipping sparrows.

 

Savannah Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Sunday 1/17

Home home home! The neighbors next door probably didn't party all night, but we don't know because the noise from our fan blocked them out. Luckily it was too cold to want to open the windows because we wouldn't have been able to.

It was a fine, cold morning. Little wind and even fewer clouds. We left "early" but by the time we dumped, hooked up the car and headed down the road, it was eleven-ish.  Heading straight up I-35 would have taken under three hours, supposedly, but we exited at Robinson (just before Waco) and headed east on US-31. There was an awful lot of traffic for a Sunday afternoon, but we made it in without incident by three-ish.

 

 

 

 

 

NOTES:

1. If you must pick a spot for an overnight stop and you suspect it's going to be crappy, don't reserve two nights. A single night stopover would have been fine.
2. Lake Bastrop South Shore Park is great for an overnight on the way to the beach. Willis Creek, not. Avoid unless inevitable.
3. Consider avoiding US-77 south. It's four lanes, but they're four very narrow lanes without more than a yard's width of shoulder. And at some of the bridges, no shoulder at all.

Leaving Goose Island with a sigh

 Friday 1/15/2021

When I removed the front window shades to prepare for traveling, the ocean was back and it was glorious!

Ed was getting ready, with the ocean peeping behind him

And then we were leaving. Sob.

 

We arrived at Willis Creek, which was just a stop on our way and not a very nice one. Below is my review of it. It's a COE campground and well kept up, but there's not a thing to recommend it. I wished at the time, and wish even now, that I'd scheduled it as a one night stopover.  

Willis Creek review:
Okay as a overnight stop on the way to South Texas, or, on weekdays, a quiet place to hang out and get some work done. Terrain is very level; right in the middle of hayfields and grazing land. The lake is visible from most sites but not especially scenic. It might be a good spot for spring bird migration--there are low woody thickets around the lake shore, smallish trees and mud puddles in the lake.

Very level asphalt pad, plenty long enough for our 32-foot RV and toad. Hookups are 30-amp only; water pressure a little low but okay. Sites have no shelter from wind or sun but there are covered picnic tables at each. In summer it would be unbearably hot. Our site felt "backward"--situated such that the RV door and picnic table were on the opposite side from the lake, so our RV mostly blocked the lake view.

No vegetation around the sites, just mowed grass with a few small trees here and there; we could see our neighbors clearly although it didn't feel crowded. We were there on a Friday-Sunday and had the bad luck to have a next door neighbor whose music could be heard inside our RV, but most of the campers were quieter. A weekday would be fine.

The killer for me was the freakishly bright street light placed right beside our site 11. For once the stupid lights that RV'ers insist on burning all night didn't bother us because we couldn't have seen any stars anyway with that street light making it bright as day. The sites at the west end of the loop had a little natural darkness; at the east end there were bright lights at the boat ramp.

Families with small kids could have a lot of fun here--plenty of paved roads with no traffic for kids' bicycles and plenty of big fields for ball playing.

Note that I gave it 4 stars for cleanliness but I didn't use the restroom so I'm not sure. It looked fine outside and the campground itself was very tidy. But the area around the lake was full of litter and trash, which is normal for Texas.

Mammoth Alone at Goose Island

Thursday 14 January 2021

On Thursday Bob and Theresa packed up to leave, so we left at the same time for a little road trip of our own.  We went around the long way to get to Mustang Island State Park, near Corpus Christi.  The "long way" was to circle Corpus Christi. It was a much larger city than I remembered, not that I remembered it at all. I know we went there, long ago, to visit the USS Lexington aircraft carrier and the Texas State Aquarium. We had the kids with us, so my memories of those days are tainted by loss. Best left unexplored.
 

The campsites at Mustang Island State Park weren't nearly as nice as the ones were were staying at, but still very worth a trip one day. They were way too close together, situated in pairs mostly, with the two picnic tables of each pair practically side-by-side. If we were sharing the place with friends, it would be great. If alone, not so good. I need to remember to pick out one of the pairs which isn't so close together.

 

 

The beach is just a short walk, and it's a little messy.

And a whole lot lovely

 And a whole lot wavey

On the way back we stopped and let ourselves get ripped of for a dozen of these:

Which we shucked using a Swiss army knife and a multitool. It's not difficult once you get the hang of it, but there always have to be a couple that resist opening.  We had the oysters as the appetizer to our sushi dinner with tempura vegetables. A lot of work but worth it!

And then goodnight and on to bed.

Gardening in my Roots Not

 There are a few little pots under lights in the bedroom, but the plants in the garden are under a half-inch of ice.  I put out a frost blanket yesterday, over the little spinach and lettuce seedlings, but I doubt if it will help with weather like this.

 No gardening until further notice!

Road Trip at the Beach

  Wednesday 1/13

The plan for the day was to follow Bob over to Port Aransas and check out a beach he knew of there. So we followed...but soon we noticed that he was missing all of the turns that our google maps indicated we should be taking. Did he not know the way?

He did--he was taking a detour to Big Tree. It is indeed big--around--and would make a great place for a fairy tea party in the branches. I don't think the park service wanted people climbing on the tree, though. A lot of little flitting birds were hanging around it, but before I could get a good picture I was distracted until the unmistakable honk of cranes shot out and a group of them wheeled over. Whooping cranes? So we thought, but when I looked at these pictures afterwards, I deduced they were probably Sandhill cranes

While we admired Big Tree, Bob went around the road to check out a beach he might want to launch his kayak from. He came back and took us over there, and right there in a pasture was a number of sandhill cranes and a couple of whoopers.

Then we went on to Port A, across the ferry. It was very fast getting onto it--less than ten minutes--and the ride seemed instantaneous. My memory of taking it long ago had been that it was long enough for everyone to get out of their cars and that we saw dolphins. Not this time--no one was getting ot of their cars, so I asked the attendant if we were allowed to get out. Answer: not. Coronavirus, of course.

At the beach we took a long slow walk, looking for shells. I got my feet wet and found the water was pretty cold, of course.

 

 

And we saw a boat.

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon, having not gotten much exercise, Theresa and I took a fast walk out and around. I'd seen Roseate Spoonbills in a lagoon on the first day, but I never saw them again and wasn't able to show them to Theresa.  Instead we saw rocks

A Royal Tern

 

And a redhead [redhead]

The Whole Reason For the Trip. Sort of.

 Tuesday 1/12, 2021

The much anticipated boat tour to see Whoopers! Yahoo! Only it was severely cold, as in: shirt, sweater, hoodie, heavy jacket, hood, knit cap, gloves and hands in pockets, cold. Ed and I arrived at the dock in plenty of time but the boat captain was a little late. He couldn't find his microphone, or some such problem. Also we were supposed to have our temperatures taken but the thermometer wouldn't work.

What would work was hot coffee in big carafes. I had a well appreciated cup on the chilly ride over to Aransas National Wildlife preserve. But all the time I was wondering, is it okay to go on top now? We were below, in seats on the boat lower level. There were about ten rows of eight or so seats per row, and our visibility was halfway decent through plexiglass windows. But it was just as cold down there as it had been outside the boat, so why not go on top?

Soon the captain paused the boat and I followed the other people up. (Is it called topside?) There was a big, flat watery land out there--all mud flats and marshes and tons of white birds. We saw all kinds of birds, which the captain identified easily. Only occasionally did he have to grab a pair of binoculars for a better look.

Tricolored Heron

Since my water bird ID skills are marginal at best, all I could see for sure were Caspian Terns, ducks of various sorts, pelicans and sandpipers. Lots and lots of Dowicher, although I'm still not exactly sure what a Dowitcher looks like. My understanding is they probe into the sand like "sewing machines", but my mental picture of that had been birds with heads moving up and down rapidly. I saw lots of little birds probing the sand, but it wasn't with the methodical rapidity that Pete Dunne's books imply it should be.

Egrets, Tricolored Heron, White Ibis

 

 

I did at least catch a Harrier flying low over the marshes. It was a male, and it surprised me with the whitish appearance--the ones I'd seen in Plano were always very gray and ghostly. But this was as white as a gull, only, of course, shaped like a hawk. Cool, very.

Eventually we saw big, fluffy feather pillows in the distance. Whooping Cranes. 

 

 

We watched two of them chase off a third--the captain could tell they were getting ready to fly by how they led off with their neck, stretching, stretching, stretching....eventually, there they went! 

 

 

 

While we were watching cranes,  one of the women noticed a largish, dark bird dart out of the bushes and catch a crab, then dart back into cover to eat it. After a long, long, while of staring at the spot, my eyes finally focused correctly and I had it! But was it a Clapper Rail or a King Rail?  I don't remember what they said and I sure couldn't tell from the pictures:

After we returned, we just hung out with our friends and had a lovely, relaxing afternoon.
Our campsite from the fishing pier:

 

And zoomed in:

Mammoth to the Gooses!

Monday, 11 January 2021

Time to go to Goose Island!  The morning was cold but somehow didn't seem as fiercely cold as the previous night, and all the snow had melted off the streets. The ground was mushy, of course, but we were only concerned about the streets. Fearing ice, we'd planned to take it easy and not rush away, but that wasn't necessary.

I took a quick walk with Molly over to the boat ramp, and on the way back noticed that there was a second walkway to the bird blind and this one was covered with wood chips. Very walkable and no mud at all. No one was around, so we took a quick look. They had a very nice setup and one of the feeders--a thistle feeder--had a little seed in it. Goldfinches or purple finches were going at it. If someone had only filled the seed feeders, the place would have been a winter birder's heaven.

While I was distracted by the birds, Molly managed to take a massive dump in the corner. And me without my baggies! They had baggies provided at a few locations in the park but I'd not thought to grab one. I was able to remove the evidence with some oak leaves and dump it into a dense mat of tangles outside the blind.

On the way back I was almost sure I saw a red-breasted nuthatch, one of those birds that is common as mud but I've never seen.  Back home at my bird feeder, I only have the white-breasted nuthatch. I wish I'd gotten a better look--I saw the striped head, the heavy bill, and the rusty-pinkish breast. And, of course, the nuthatch behavior. But it was in the trees at the edge of the road and the dappled light obscured my view.

If we come camping here again, remember that #12 is a great spot. #14 is okay but right beside a little boat launch and fishing pier, so it might have a lot of traffic in summer. Right now, of course, it was beautifully deserted. # 16 and #17 are close to each other but would be okay, especially #17.

At about 11:18 we were unhooked and headed to the dump station, and by 11:36 we were on our way to Goose Island.

We took only a quick stop for gas, sour cream and candy bars at a very nice truck stop with a very bumpy driveway. Sorry I didn't make a note of the name of it, but it will be easy enough to find again. And by 3:47 we had arrived and completed our hookups.

Bob and Theresa had arrived just before we did, and they'd parked their little Casita sideways so as to block the (very strong) wind and turn their shelter into a cozy little home. This is an odd park--right on the bay, with little concrete shelters at each campsite. Inside the shelters are the electric hookups and, oddly enough, a very bright light you can turn on.  I don't think we used ours even once.

The parking for the shelters was indeterminate--it was mostly gravel and sand all around, and it was up to the camper to decide whether to park in front of their shelter, behind it, or beside it. We chose to park beside it because our rig is a little longish and if we'd parked "crossways" (in front or behind) we'd have taken up more than our share of the graveled space.

The end result was that out our windshield was a magnificent view of the water. But soon we put up the sunshields and curtains and cloaked our view. With the strong wind it was very chilly, so our curtains were acting more like a heat shield, keeping it warmer inside.

Since we were bayside, not oceanside, the water was calm and we didn't have the crashing of waves to enjoy. But there were the usual ocean birds--pelicans, gulls and a tern or two. And several boats out there. When night fell, we could see lights all out the long causeway (is that the word?) and out on the barrier island. And there was a long fishing pier just a few hundred yards from us. It looked brand-new and I'm guessing it was built after the last hurricane. Wonder how long it will last?

Snowy Sunday at Lake Bastrop

Sunday 10 January 2021

Rain, of course. When Ed went outside it was "hard" rain, aka sleet or hail, but that didn't persist since it was 45 degrees at the time.  We expected the rain to continue all day until the temperature dropped and it turned into sleet, but that didn't happen. It turned into snow right away.

After the usual morning activities--walk dogs (in the rain!), fix breakfast, eat--I wrote on the computer for a while and then decided I would take Molly for a long walk. In the rain. So I suited up with long-sleeved tee-shirt, flannel shirt, sweater, hooded sweatshirt, and rain jacket. I didn't put on my flannel-lined jeans but I did at least wear the boots, which are warm but not waterproof.

And off we went. We circled the campground and took note of all the people leaving, which was pretty much everyone. The forecast called for rain all day changing to snow in the afternoon, then lows below freezing. On Monday it was supposed to get up to mid-forties, so our best guess was that we'd be able to leave around noon when all the ice had thawed off the roads. But we were very worried that might not happen in time for us to drive, even to drive south.

After our circle, there was no feeling in my toes but I still had the use of my fingers, so we stopped off back to get my binoculars and my phone and keep on going. We took the little trail that started at the campground and circled around the finger of the lake behind the campsites, ending up in a field sort of place where the trail branched into two or three named trails. I tried to take a picture but apparently my fingers were too cold because no pictures were found on my camera later.

So we came back. At that point the rain turned to chunks of ice, then big fat snowflakes, then back to ice and finally rain again. Once again I failed to take a picture--I wanted to get Molly with snow on her back.

The snow continued falling until dark, but it was melting pretty well on the ground when I took the dogs for their pre-dinner walk. Of course my feet turned to ice, but the end was in sight. So long as the sun came out next day and thawed this mess out, we'd be okay,

Back in our warm and cozy Mammoth's belly, Ed and I continued our Harry Potter movie marathon. It had taken Ed a while to figure out how to play DVD over the complex mess of stereo systems that was installed, but when he finally did, the sound system was excellent. Apparently there's a some sort of surround sound going on, because different noises were coming from different locations behind our heads. It was disconcerting, when you weren't watching the screen, to suddenly hear a crash! or a scream.

Mammoth Goes to Goose Island

Saturday January 9, 2021

Home to Lake Bastrop South Shore Park

We headed out, bright and LATE. I had mentioned leaving no later than ten o'clock, but since we were having to use the car dolly and all, we were lucky to pull away at 10:40. It was a pleasant drive. Not too trafficky, mostly cloudy so we didn't have the setting sun in our eyes, and not a lot of wind.

We took the usual Sam Rayburn Tollway/I-30 west/I-635 South jog around Dallas, then headed south on I-45 toward Corsicana. Yes, we know I-35 is a whole lot shorter, and probably even faster, but the construction between Dallas and Waco is still a huge mess and it's best to just avoid it. After Corsicana, I overrode the Google Maps choice with a route of my own which preferred the roads that looked straighter on the map. I still don't know if there's a difference between the "US" highways and the "TX" highways, so far as maintenance or upkeep goes, but my experience so far is that the lower number "TX" highways are really good. Usually four-laned or two-laned with a shoulder.

But the "US" highways looked shorter, so that's what we did: exiting I-45 at Buffalo, we went south on US-79 to Herne and stopped at the Love's Travel stop just outside of Herne. It was very nice and had a little dog park with free poop bags, so my doggies both "took advantage of the facilities" to drop a plop of poop for me to dispose. Very nice place to stop.

Then we continued on US-79 / US-190 toward Rockdale, then took a left turn on US-77 south toward Lincoln.  It wasn't far until we hit TX-21 west and soon after than, the turn-off to the park road.

TX-21 takes the route of El Camino Real through Texas. "The Royal Road" ran from Nachitoches, Louisiana to San Antonio, then on to Guerrero Mexico or Laredo. You can "visit the towns that dot this historic trail and learn more at elcaminorealdelostejas.org if you wish. I'll do so when I'm back in wifi range.

All the little historic towns on the route were little more than annoyances to us--50 mph speed limits or less--but I did regret (once again) not being able to stop at the Corsicana location of the Collin Street Bakery and buy a fruitcake. We've passed it several times on the way to Belton and Cedar Ridge Park, in the middle of downtown Corsicana. But it appears they have a restaurant on the Interstate, too. I need to check on this and plan an overnight stop near there. After Covid-19.

We arrived at the park at 3:35, after 290.2 miles.  It was an LCRA park, like the one we stayed down at Matagorda  Bay only a lot less expensive. It was only a little more expensive than State parks. I should probably write a review of this one...and here it is:

 Site 4, Camping Loop. Really nice site in a well-maintained, wooded area near the southern tip of the lake.  A short walk (maybe 200 yards) brought us to the weedy edge of the lake, where coots and a few ducks abounded. You couldn't see the water from the campsite--too much undergrowth, but the path to the lake made a nice walk for the dogs.

Site was very level. 50-amp electric hookup worked fine; water hookup fine. The sites are a little close together but they're separated by trees and brush so you feel like you have your own little private niche. You can hear your neighbors but not see them. We heard no road noise at all, but a slight distant hum from machinery--probably the power plant. No scenic view, of course, but nice.

Signage was good and the roads were plenty wide enough for our 32-foot RV. Dump station fine. It's a small park, but there are plenty of trails; a store; a boat ramp with fish-cleaning station; a lighted fishing pier (but the lake was grown up with weeds underneath--in spring you might luck into a bass or two. The day use area had a big shelter, canoe rentals, and a mini golf course.

I got in a quick walk with Molly, despite the cold. She saw a few deer over by the dump station. I got a chance to see the lake (southern tip only, of course) and enjoy the peace and quiet. And I found this lovely trailhead with bird pictures:

Brooklyn Legacies

by Triss Stein

Despite the 4.1 star rating of this book on Goodreads, I failed to find the heart. There was nothing "wrong" with it, but I found myself feeling grateful that it was short and quickly over or else I wouldn't have finished it.

What was the matter?  I can't explain. I just didn't care that much about the protagonist and there weren't any secondary characters I really wanted to spend more time with. It was just a straight up-and-down whodunit to me. Even the Whitman plaque fell flat.

I notice that the people who loved it were much more invested in Brooklyn and the history of the area than me. So if that's your thing, you should love it.