Thursday, January 30, 2014

For the Love of Winter

Almost daily now I am getting phone calls and messages from my daughter about her distaste for winter. She thinks it is because she lived in South Texas a little too long--a place where a forecast of temperatures dipping below thirty-two degrees clears the grocery store shelves of bread and milk, and keeps all the schoolchildren inside during recess lest they succumb to hypothermia. When I was her age, I did not love winter as I do now. At that time I was living in a place where winters were perpetually cloudy and dark and that, along with the short days, caused significant depression for me. 

But now I live here in Spring Creek, where we have a good balance of grey, cloudy winter days and sunny, bright winter days. I cannot say winter is my favorite season, because autumn and spring are my favorites also. In one of these conversations with my daughter, I finally had to admit that I loathe summer. I have often said that when I am wealthy (not sure how or when this will occur), I will spend summers somewhere besides Texas. I could be persuaded to spend my summers high in the Davis Mountains, but that would be the only way I would stay in Texas. 

Just as I hit the return key to begin this paragraph, the sun came out from behind a bank of dark blue clouds and is shining brightly right into my eyes. I stood up to adjust the blinds and saw the most beautiful scene of the blue clouds in the background, the sun shining gold on the hayfield, and the light filtering through the mesh of bare tree branches. I love winter. I love the low angle of the light, the sunrises and sunsets with their impressionistic colors and patterns, the sculptural quality of bare trees, the warm colors of the dormant grasses contrasted with the cool colors of the sky and the clouds. I love the way the ice makes everything look like it is coated in glass and makes it sparkle in the sunlight.

My almost complete Kiki Mariko Rug from
 "Mason Dixon Knitting Knitting Outside the Lines"
I am a fiber/textile/sewing/knitting/quilting person, as you may have noticed. I love wool and I love quilts. There are projects that I have to put away when the weather warms up because it gets too hot to have any more fabric touching you that is absolutely necessary to maintain modesty. A few years ago I started knitting a wool rug. It is thick and heavy and quickly became so long that it had to sit on my lap, then it had to trail down my legs, then it hung to the floor. By late in the spring, I had to put it away for the season. As soon as we had that first cold weather in November, I got it back out and finished it. I will post a picture on my blog--it is beautiful. I quickly moved on to wool socks and wool cowls so I can take advantage of of wool-wearing season. This time of the year, I can be found every evening dressed in a flannel nightgown, sitting on my couch with one dog or another right beside me and a quilt over my lap, knitting away on something warm and snuggly. 


Yes, I am aware of the treachery of winter, particularly for people who live in snow country. I lived in South Dakota for awhile. And I am very aware of the disruptions winter weather can cause--my daughter is sending me pictures of the icy conditions through which she is driving to work this morning. But here on the ranch, winter is good. I hope you can find the beauty in it, too.
I love pecan orchards in the winter with their neat rows of trees and green winter grass. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Like a Whole "Nother State

Way down below is the Pruett house where we stayed in the past.
A couple of years ago I wrote about spending some time in the Pruett house on a 90,000-acre ranch in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. We returned to the ranch this year, but this time we stayed in the main lodge as the outfitter and all of his hunters and guides were off for the Christmas and New Year holidays. 

I grew up in the Southeast where most people think that Texas is all hot, dry desert year-round. You cannot blame them for this misconception as that is the way it has been represented in movies and television shows. There is a new show about a female Texas Ranger that has been advertised and guess where it is filmed…..in Albuquerque. But I have found a remarkable number of people right here in Central Texas that have never been to far West Texas, or have only been along interstate from here to El Paso. If that is you, do yourself a favor and go visit the western part of your state. 

The ranch we visit is in the Davis Mountains. According to geologists, the Davis Mountains were formed by eruptions of the Trans-Pecos volcanic field. Anyone who is even slightly interested in geology—otherwise known as being a rock-hound—would surmise that these mountains are volcanic just from the looks of the landscape, particularly if you get up on top of one of the mountains and look across. Some of the contour looks like waves or ripples on the ocean, while others look as if they were pushed up from below. Many of the taller mountains on the ranch are made up of columns of red stone, which have broken away around the edges and sent house-size boulders tumbling down. The soil in the flats below the mountains is fine and powdery, and is a light grayish color like ash, which it likely is considering it is in a volcanic field. 

My son wishing he could find a way up
to that eagle nest on top of the rock.
Further west from the ranch, northwest of Fort Davis, the mountains are much higher and are bunched up, without the flats below and without the giant mesas that are found in the foothills. These mountains are covered in trees like piƱon and ponderosa pines. The average altitude in the Davis Mountains is right at one mile, so the temperatures tend to be a cooler, especially at night. 

Some of the plants are the same as here like juniper (cedar), agarita, whitebrush, prickly pear, and tasajillo. The yuccas that grow wild tend to look like miniature palm trees with long trunks topped by a crown of blades. I found loads of blackfoot daisies in huge clumps all over the ranch. I would love to be there when they are blooming! There is one plant called Allthorn—because that is all it is. Seriously, you look at it and all you see is green thorns. 

Once you are that far west, you are in mule deer country. Once upon a time, you would also be in pronghorn antelope country, but their numbers are diminishing due to a parasite. There is the occasional elk in the area but I have not seen one with my own two eyes. I did see javelinas and aoudad sheep, and, unfortunately, some feral hogs. Near the springs that are on the ranch, we saw a nice flock of Rio Grande turkeys and we saw Blue Quail throughout the ranch. There is a quail feeder in the front yard of the lodge that is frequented by blue quail and a large flock of white-wing doves. I am told that the occasional Montezuma quail shows up so I watched it like a hawk, but never saw one. 


Of course there are lots of things to see and do in the area, such as swim at Balmorrhea, trying to see the Marfa lights, visiting old Fort Davis or the McDonald Observatory, or heading down to Big Bend. It’s enough for me just to get out and “be” in the Davis Mountains. I will post lots of pictures on my blog so you can share a bit of the experience. And if you are interested in booking a hunt on this beautiful place, send me an email and I will share his contact info with you. 
A little mule deer buck and the object of his "affection."


Cholla fruits
The aptly named allthorn



My son, Wade.
Beautiful West Texas sunrise.