Texas wildflowers

The first explosion of native wildflowers has begun, the first I found up close being the blanket flowers growing on a street corner in Somerville, Texas. Yesterday I stopped to get a closer look at the bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and tickseed blooming near highway 36 and FM 1948. Washington county will soon be covered in glorious color — this year, the peak bloom time is expected on Easter weekend, though they will continue through next month. And summer varieties will soon follow . . .

a fallen jewel

Hummingbirds are the hardest bird to draw from life --- they just move too fast! The bird drawings in my previous post were sketched from a couple of field guides.

Unfortunately, this sketch was sketched from 'life'. Bill found this dead hummingbird in his woodshop. We aren't sure why it died.

The colors are iridescent green or black, depending on how the light hits it -- very hard for me to depict in watercolor! This is a female black-chinned hummer; the black chin or hood appears only on the males.

an oak tree burl

Walking the circle road we live on, we pass an oak tree with a large "nose" . . . at least that's what the burl looks like. Burls are common in this area --- there's a tree in one of the lake's camping grounds with up to ten of these growths, some on top of others.

I drew this with a Kuretake brush pen filled with Noodler's Lexington gray, a Lamy Safari pen with Platinum Carbon black, a Pentel Pocketbrush pen with black ink, and Pentel Aquash brush pen with light black ink. The whites are a light zinc white gouache wash and a white gelly roll pen.

more Autumn leaves

Most of our circle's trees are still holding on to their leaves and green. In fact, recent rains seem to have given them fresh life. But I was able to find these interesting leaves yesterday during a morning walk.

an Arkansas rock

I brought this large rock home from a recent trip to Arkansas, loving the variety of colors and textures. While drawing it last night, I kept seeing visions in my mind of the Grand Canyon which I saw in person 29 years ago.

a painted bunting's visit

I knew that there are painted buntings in central Texas but we had never seen one. Until yesterday. I was standing at my kitchen sink when I looked up and there he was at one of our bird feeders. His colors are amazing! I couldn't see him close enough for details so I did the larger sketch from a field guide photo.

gifts from Bill

Some women love when their husbands bring them bunches of flowers. My own dear man knows me well . . . He brings me interesting bits of nature to sketch! On two occasions last week, he found more unusual mushrooms while mowing and brought them to me.

The first one was brilliant yellow with an earthy-red top but I grabbed a pen loaded with water-soluble ink which darkened my first sketch. The second find was extremely fragile and translucent, something very hard for me to capture.

a bit of lichen

With so much excess rain we not only see fewer mushrooms --- there seems to be less lichen and moss. Which seems curious to me. Fewer dragonflies, with their normal habitat under the flooded lake, but we are seeing a few of them return now. Which is lovely since they eat mosquitoes.

Yesterday was Virtual Sketchcrawl Day and I had planned on going out to sketch something "urban". But we were busy getting ready for another road trip so I only managed to draw this bit of lichen.

some baby oak leaves

While on a morning walk with Ceilidh this week, I noticed these very small leaves on a new branch of an oak tree. They were beginnjng to green up nicely, but first they had a burnt orange-red tinge . . . a hint of autumn color to come.

This small sketch is Noodler's red-black ink (water-soluble) and watercolor on blue Bockingford Tints 140 lb. watercolor paper.

some late spring wildflowers

Yesterday we took a drive along the eastern shore of Lake Somerville . . . at least as far as one can drive before reaching water. Texas flood conditions continue with many lakes beyond capacity and overflowing. This lake is closed for at least the next two months --- water is well over campsites with their electric hookups and boat ramps. Many hidden obstacles out there to run a boat into.

We were able to drive to the overlook next to the spillway to take a look. Even the wildflowers are stressed from too much rain, though I found a few to draw anyway.

This is Corpus Christi as seen from the Texas State Aquarium. An artificial barrier has been built along the sea wall with mangroves and other plants, much under water from recent heavy rains. Waves wash over this barrier, sometimes trapping fish and other sea life. Usually there are plenty of seabirds taking advantage of easy fishing, but this was a particularly stormy day.

from Ingleside on the Bay, Texas

During a recent trip to Ingleside on the Bay and Corpus Christi Bay, we were able to watch some beautiful herons as they enjoyed the gulf region as well. And the gulls were just comical!

seashells everywhere

We just returned from a trip to Corpus Christi Bay. There were lovely sea shells everywhere we turned at the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at in Ingleside on the Bay, some at least 12" across. Shells on tables, in baskets, on railings, sitting on top of posts in the parking area . . . Literally everywhere! Upon returning from eating out one day, I grabbed these three from one of the decks to sketch. 

These orange mushrooms / fungi growing in the corner of our lot. So far, I haven't been able to positively identify them.

I drew them from a photo I took last week --- with a bit of a mishap adventure at the time. (story on my own blog)

more Texas wildflowers

In the spring I began filling this wee sketchbook (under 3" square) with Texas wildflowers found near our new home. Then throughout the hot, humid summer, I sort of ignored it . . . . There weren't as many wildflowers seen then anyway.

But now lots of new ones have filled the local pastures, mostly yellow. So I added them this past week.

another mystery tree

On our property there are 9 of these unknown trees, 3 more mature than the others that were probably planted just a year or so ago.  Bare in the winter, they are full of white flowers before any leaves appear. Now a few leaves are turning color and falling; when we made an offer on the cabin last November, we saw tiny fruit on the branches. Have no clue as to what it is.

The largest one near our patio, usually filled with birds, seems confused as to what season it is: it recently popped out with a few more flowers, giving me a chance to add that to my sketch.

Browsing in a tree guide, my nearest guess is a Mexican Plum or Rusty Blackhaw.

These two trees are in the east corner of our lot, a cedar tree and a very tall, very old pine. I have counted 38 or 39 trees in our yard. Compare that to only one original tree left in our Kansas yard plus two trees we planted. This cedar tree was crammed full of cedar wax wing birds in the spring. Baby fox squirrels sometimes play in the tree house or sit on the top ladder step.

hummingbirds

When we moved here to central Texas, there was a wee wooden sign posted in one corner of our property reading "Lake Forest Wild Bird Sanctuary". It has proven to be fact!

At our small 1920 apartment building in Kansas, we saw lots of house sparrows and, rarely, an occasional blue jay or cardinal. A year or so ago an unknown raptor nested in our old elm tree, scaring away all other birds (except those silly, brave sparrows).

Here in the woods, we have identified over 30 types of birds in our yard in the past 7 months, many more in the neighborhood. And they keep on coming! Of course, when I chose to sketch as many as I could see on Thursday, none showed up except the constant hummingbirds . . . . We have both ruby-throated and black-chinned hummers.

(Who knew they actually SQUEAK like a dog's squeaky toy?!? I knew you could hear the "hum" of their wings but our hummers perch in a nearby crepe myrtle and squeak at us!)

our resident Berwick's Wren

When we moved in to this log cabin, there were two ornamental log houses left on the bookshelf by the former owners. I needed the space for books, so I moved these outside to a plant shelf in our covered patio. It sits in the corner, up against the place where corner logs meet and overlap.

Recently I was messing about with a plant on the middle shelf when I was surprised by a wee bird flying out from the larger of the two houses. (OK, Bill said I jumped and shrieked.) Apparently a Bewick's Wren has moved in! I haven't seen a wren since I was around 6 years old in Illinois.

I've now seen a pair of wrens sitting on the back of a porch swing, the female having a bit of food in her beak. So I'm wondering if there is a baby inside?

a few summer wildflowers and butterflies

 

In my wee wildflower sketchbook (3" square), I've been continuing to draw wildflowers found near our new home. Summer seems to have mostly yellows, with a few leftover white prickly poppies and orange Indian blankets. Not much difference between black-eyed and brown-eyed susans, sharing the same Latin name, but one has tiny brown markings near the base of the petals.

I also drew a few of the butterflies we've seen in our yard. Lots of black swallowtail caterpillars have been eating my parsley and dill, but I'm wondering if the birds are in turn eating them.