The Caregiver’s Tales
Tiny essays on life, nature, grief and other things that catch my fancy in the Texas Hill Country. Here’s how it all got started.
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Let It Snow
First, I am eternally grateful we still have power. Second, we’ve turned the thermostats down to 58, which isn’t something we do even in the dead of summer.
Gray Days
I hate to make a big deal out of something a lot of people experience all the time, but it is getting really cold. It’s going to be a where-were-you-when event.
The Brightest Flower
Last spring, I transplanted all my schoolhouse flowers. Moved them from the bed in the southeast corner of the yard to new spots around the house. There were enough bulbs that I was able to start three new beds.
Calves at the Fence
The other morning the heifers gathered along the back fence to eat dead cactus and lounge in the winter sun. It was cool but not cold.
Vac Day 2.1
Drove into town yesterday, Austin. Queued up. Got my shot. It was the second of the two dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Drove toward home.
Counted Blessings
It’s a frosty morning here at the homestead. It feels like flea killing weather, although since I disposed of all my outside thermometers, I have no way of knowing. It’s just cold, a crisp winter cold.
A Country Day
The ranch that butts up to our property has cattle roaming the range. Not many, five or six heifers with their calves. The ranch is a fair size, so I mostly see them when they come to drink at the windmill or wander by our fence grazing fresh green grass.
Day Trip
What a nice surprise. Eight hours of sleep. All at once. Straight through. One tiny wake-up, I think, it may have been a dream. Feels like the old days. Go to bed, wake up to the alarm. Can I repeat the feat tonight? We shall see.
Vac Day 5
Information traveling at the speed of light is the blessing and the curse of the internet. Arcane scientific debates get played out in full view and people woefully ignorant of any facts get to have opinions.
Snow Day
What a day. It started snowing mid-morning and continued snowing through early evening. When it was all said and done the ground was covered in a blanket of snow and all its imperfections were erased.
Time for Repairs
It’s raining in the Hill Country this morning. Later today we might get snow. It’s Sunday morning. I’d go to church if I could because it just feels like a day for that. It’s been a hard week.
Winter Thoughts
I could really do with a hard freeze. Something in the teens. Winter is passing here in the Hill Country and we’ve yet to see one. There’s a bit of rain this morning and a front is on the way. But it’s only going down into the high 20s this weekend, and no one has ever called that hard.
Good Morning
I can really sense the tempo of the earth at morning. Get a feel for the slow spin of the planet on its axis in its heavenly circle around the sun. It’s a measured pace of big things in a big place…
Betwixt and Between
I have a major couch, a minor couch, and two easy chairs in my front room, seating for seven if everyone likes one another or is at least willing to tolerate them. It’s been a long while since all the seats were taken and it will be a long while again before it happens once more.
Being There
Timing. One day I can walk out the back door and there’s a brilliant sunset for the viewing. On another I can walk out and the clouds are a steel gray and the sun is gone and whatever light painted them colors is someone else’s memory.
Weather Thoughts
Winter is having trouble making up its mind. I had a spring-like day on the golf course yesterday with my brother. Today promises more of the same, warm weather not golf. Winter must have forgotten it has a job to do and let spring back in the house.
A Pastime
The southern porch sits close by the fence that marks one of our property lines. Consequently, we get fence trees, mainly hackberries. Sometimes they’re right on the fence, sometimes just off. A while back we had one just off and I let it grow.
Nighttime Doings
There are three cameras monitoring the nightly comings and going of the local wildlife, which consist mainly of a fox, two skunks, a possum, an occasional deer, and what I’m sure is an assort of raccoons.
Winter Weeds
Spring. We all think about it. We all love it; especially, when the days shorten to next to nothing and the cold pushes us indoors. And perhaps that’s why no one celebrates the green underfoot as the so called winter weeds begin to appear…
One Slow Step
For years a big metal sunflower, a gift from my wife’s Ya-Ya’s, has stood hidden behind the big rose bush at the east end of the house. When it was first placed there, the rose was small, the burr oak a young tree, the yaupon holly a child, and the Orchid tree equally small.