walked down to the creek on Saturday morning, a sunny day after a heavy rain. The water was chocolate-colored like Willie Wonka’s river, and dotted with more turtles than I ever remember seeing at one time–Texas River Cooters, Red-eared Sliders, and huge Texas Spiny Softshells. I love the turtles–the way they pile onto logs and plop into the water when they sense they are being watched. Here are some photos of the Bastrop, Texas turtles we see at Little Piney on Piney Creek.
Category: Lost Pines Life
The Lost Pines Life is about living respectfully with wildlife, protecting the environment, thriving on the peace, healing with nature, and following the creative path.
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Turtles!–Turtles in Bastrop, Tx
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Painting Little Piney Lost Pines
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Little Piney Landscape painters are often known for painting a particular setting–one that is deeply familiar and well-loved by the artist. For quite awhile, I only wanted to paint Little Piney. In the last year or two, I have also painted landscapes from other Central Texas locales and from travel to places like New MexicoContinue reading
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March Magic–Wildflowers, Wood Ducks, and a Beautiful Hawk
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March is the magical month at Little Piney! In a few short weeks Little Piney transforms from a gray and brown world of bare branches and dry grass into a bright array of greens almost shocking in intensity. Within this green world are little seas of bluebonnets, hot pink phlox, baby blue-eyes, orange-red paintbrush, andContinue reading
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Listen to Nature: What’s Coming and What We Can Do About It
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At Little Piney, I hear the wind coming before I feel it on my face. Of course, if I choose not to listen, the wind comes anyway—I just get surprised. It’s the same way with rain. The damp air, the slight drop in temperature, the changing light all signal coming rain. If I ignore theContinue reading
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Installing a Pondless Fountain for the Birds
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Pondless Fountain Burbling water in a rocky stream, light bouncing off drops and splashes–we are all attracted to flowing water. In addition to the pleasure of sight and sound, fresh water attracts birds and wildlife. Fountains and bird baths provide a water source any where you want to have one but most require frequent cleaningContinue reading
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Bobcat Surprise! Bobcat Bastrop TX
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Nothing is more surprising and entertaining than what happens outdoors in nature, but unfortunately most of it happens when we aren’t looking. I like to be outside as much as possible to increase my odds of seeing something wonderful! I’ve enjoyed many moments in nature that are ordinary but that I don’t see every day.Continue reading
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Fall Light at Little Piney
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Fall Light at Little Piney I love the light of late fall and winter when sunset illuminates the trees and fields with stunning color and contrast. Here are my favorite photos from this weekend. River of Light On the Road Spotlight on an Old Cedar Cool Green and Long Shadows Wildlife
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Dragonfly Pond Renewed
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Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey dumped 27 trillion gallons of water on Texas and Louisiana damaging or destroying at least 185,149 homes and taking at least 50 lives. Just minutes away from Little Piney dozens of homes flooded in Smithville. Whole neighborhoods were devastated thirty miles east in La Grange. In spite of 18 inchesContinue reading
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Reflections: Spirits in Nature
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Reflections: Spirits in Nature This project began with a late afternoon canoe trip. As the light changed and the breeze died, the surface of the creek grew smooth and reflective, and I directed my camera to the mirror images of the shore and its reflection. That night when I downloaded the pictures, glowing eyesContinue reading
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Adventures with Arthropods and Photo Reflections
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Our heavy canoe is tied to a large pine tree right down by the lake so it’s always available but it can’t float away when the creek rises. The oars are shelved on a branch above. Saturday, we walked down to the lake with late afternoon canoeing in mind. However, when Ken flipped the canoe over, up poppedContinue reading