Prairie Notes #145 - Pics & Proverbs 2018
Prairie Notes are monthly photo/journal observations from Tandy Hills Natural Area by Founder/Director, Don Young. They include field reports, flora and fauna sightings, and more, mixed with a scoop of dry humor and a bit of philosophy.
They are available free to all who get on the FOTHNA email list.
Pics & Proverbs 2018
Prairie Notes #145
January 1, 2019
01) Pics & Proverbs 2018
02) Your MEMBERSHIP Matters
03) New Species - December
04) AttaBoy of the Year: Sam Kieschnick
05) AttaGirl of the Year: Debora Young
06) MM&WW HIke the HIlls is TODAY
07) Videos of the Year
08) Painted Prairie Skies 2018
09) Prairie Proverb
01) Pics & Proverbs 2018
With Tandy Hills more or less at rest, January is a good time to review and reflect on the past year via 2018's Prairie Proverbs and a few of my favorite pics from each of the past 12 issues of Prairie Notes.
2018 quotations included a quirky mix naturalists and environmentalists from the distant past to the recently deceased, artists, poets, musicians and philosophers. Each quote had a particular fit for the issue in which quoted. As usual, there were a few surprises. (I'm especially fond of Aldo Leopold's quote in issue #138.)
Herewith, Prairie Proverbs I - XII from, Prairie Notes 2018, with a photo of the quoted author and a favorite pic from the same issue. Thanks for reading and for your continued support!
DY
Prairie Notes #133, (PIcs & Proverbs 2017) January 1, 2018
“Mr. Thoreau dedicated his genius with such entire love to the fields, hills and waters...that he made them known and interesting to all reading Americans...The country knows not yet how great a son it has lost.”
Joseph Lippert rescued a Texas Spiny Lizard during a January Prairie Posse.
The much-celebrated, Blue Moon over Tandy Hills, January 31, 2018. Photo by Patrick McMahon
Prairie Notes #134, (Good Bone Structure) February 1, 2018
“I prefer winter and fall, when you can feel the bone structure in the landscape - the loneliness of it - the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it - the whole story doesn’t show.”
The good bone structure of Tandy Hills is evident in winter.
Manly Men & Wild Women laugh at 17 degree temp.
Russet colored Little Bluestem grass in Febrruary 2018. (The same area was burned in December.)
Prairie Notes #135, (T.L. Time) March 1, 2018
“Wee have had from Virginia a roote sent to us, which the naturall people hold not onely to be singular to procure lust, but hold it as a secret, loth to reveale it.”
Trout Lily magic, 2018
Big Root Cymopterus (Cymopterus macrorhizus) aka: Big Root Springparsley. This early spring plant is easy to miss, at 3 - 5" tall.
Our new Wildlife Trail signs were installed along I-30 in March 2018.
Prairie Notes #136, (No Place Like Tandy Hills) April 1, 2018
“The discovery of spring each year, after the winter’s hibernation, is a discovery of the universe. This recollected smell of fresh loam in my nostrils is the smell of eternity itself.”
Prairie Notes #137 (Ah, Spring!) May 1, 2018
“Ah to be a buzzard now that spring is here.”
Prairie Notes #138, (Happy Trails to Tandy Hills), June 1, 2018
“The prairie was built by prairie plants, a hundred distinct species of grasses, herbs, and shrubs; by the prairie fungi, insects, and bacteria; by the prairie mammals and birds, all interlocking in one humming community of cooperation and competition, one biota. This biota, through ten thousand years of living and dying, burning and growing, preying and fleeing, freezing and thawing, built that dark and bloody ground we call prairie.”
Prairie Notes #139 (Summertime Bluebells) July 1, 2018
“All the world is beautiful, and it matters little where we go. The place where we chance to be always seems the best.”
Prairie Notes #140, (Feelin' the Flames) August 1, 2018
“We should care about monarchs like we care about the Mona Lisa or the beauty of Mozart’s music. To me, the monarch butterfly is a treasure like a great piece of art. We need to develop a cultural appreciation of wildlife that’s equivalent to art and music.”
Prairie Notes #141, (Citation of Honor) September 1, 2018
“August rain: the best of summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
Prairie Notes #142 (Second Spring) October 1, 2018
“I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all daylight hours in the open air.”
Prairie Notes #143, (Aster-nauts) November 1, 2018
“I feel a wonder and comfort on this prairie similar to when I was a child, when prairie was once backed up to my house and the creek next to it. Civilization eventually tore it down to make way for subdivisions and strip centers but this place (Tandy HIlls) brings the wonder back.”
Prairie Notes #144, (Rear View Mirror) December 1, 2018
“We learn by doing when we reflect on what we have done.”
02) Your MEMBERSHIP Matters
2018 was another productive and award-winning year for Friends of Tandy Hills. We hope these accomplishments will inspire you to help out with a donation:
> Texas Society of Architects awarded Friends of Tandy Hills, 2018 Citation of Honor
> FW Weekly awarded Tandy Hills, Best Greenspace of 2018 Award
> Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission awarded Friends of Tandy Hills a $28K grant to improve the entire trail system
> Brush Bash and Prairie Posse brought out the best in our crew of volunteers who restored key sections of Tandy Hills
> Our outdoor education program, Kids on the Prairie (KOP), notched year #8 hosting or sponsoring school field trips
For 2019 FOTHNA has specific goals for improving the trails and restoring prairie pockets in key locations. You can show your support for these and other initiatives with a 2019 Membership donation. Go HERE to become a Friend of Tandy Hills: http://www.tandyhills.org/donate
> > > FYI - Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting Tandy Hills.
03) New Species - December
Only one new species was recorded in December. The Genus is, Cerebella, a tiny and very unusual looking fungi that grows on the tips of Indian Grass and, yes, it resembels a brain. It was first spotted by Sam Kieschnick and recorded on iNaturalist as the 1067 species at Tandy Hills. Check out the cool photo below by Michelle Villafranca.
Photo credit: Michelle Villafranca
04) AttaBoy of the Year
Speaking of Sam K, he's the Friends of Tandy Hills, 2018 AttaBoy of the Year! Sam Kieschnick earned this high honor by leading the Trout Lily Hike in February, spending many hours at Tandy recording many new species. He also helped ID plants for me and wrote a support letter for our Trails grant. And like everything Sam does, he did so with ENTHUSIASM. Thank you Sam!
05) AttaGirl of the Year
The 2018 AttaGirl of the Year is Debora Young. Her dedication to Friends of Tandy Hills goes back to its founding in 2004. Whether leading the charge or behind the scenes, her attention to detail and passion for doing things right has made FOTHNA better. She keeps meeting notes, greets visitors warmly, organizes events, makes monthly volunteer reports to FW Park & Rec, keeps an active archive for the organization, does the hands-on work of brush cutting, seed dispersing and trail marking and so much more. She also reguraly hikes the hills and creates artwork from her experiences at Tandy Hills. Thank you Debora Young!
06) MM&WW Hike the Hills is TODAY
Baby it's going to be very cold outside today but don't let that keep you from participating in the 10th annual Manly Men Wild Women Hike the Hills on New Years Day. Get your details here:
http://www.tandyhills.org/events/manly-men-and-wild-women-hike-hills
07) Videos of the Year
Five short videos showing the amazing diversity and wonderment of Tandy Hills were recorded throughout 2018: Texas Bluebells on a Summer Solstice Eve, High on Hyacinth, Pollinator Frenzy, Monarch Butterfly fresh from Chrysalis and Prairie Fire at Tandy Hills can be accessed from this page: http://www.tandyhills.org/video
High on Hyacinth in 2018. Check out the short video at above link
08) Painted Prairie Skies - 2018
On some days of the year, the sky is THE most interesting feature at Tandy Hills. The variety of color and texture is always astounding. Here are my best sunset shots from some magical days on the Tandy prairie in 2018.
09) Prairie Bookshelf
Two wonderful books for nature mystics recently came to my attention. I was lucky enough to get both for Christmas. Check 'em out!
The Lost Words, a beautifully written and illustrated oversized book originated in 2007 when a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary -- widely used in schools around the world -- was published. A sharp-eyed reader noticed that around forty common words concerning nature had been dropped. deleted words included, acorn, bluebell and dandelion. (WTF?) This book will appeal to both kids and grrownups who have a passion for language, art and nature. Reading it is a revolutionary act.
Desert Cabal: A New Season in the Wilderness, by Utah native, Amy Irvine, is both an appreciation and a taking to task of Edward Abbey, whose masterpiece, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, turned 50 in 2018. Irvine uses Abbey's book as a jumping off point, directly addressing the man who influenced her life and work while challenging all that is dated—offensive, even—between the covers of Abbey’s environmental classic.
10) Prairie Proverb
“The name, given to the month of ‘January’, is derived from the ancient Roman name ‘Janus’ who presided over the gate to the new year. Janus is symbolized by an image of a face that looks forwards and backwards at the same time. This symbolism is associated with the month as the start of a new year which brings new opportunities. It is the time to reflect on events of the previous year.”
Prairie Notes© is the official newsletter of Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. All content by Don Young except where otherwise noted.
