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Archive for the ‘Favorite Places’ Category

Birding Reward for Dumping Gypsy Lee

Posted in Birds, Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Travels With Maggie, tagged , , , , , , , on December 19, 2011| 7 Comments »

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber

 

American woodcock. The one we saw at Brazos Bend had a beautiful red belly but flew away too quickly for me to get a photograph. -- Wikipedia photo

 

Travels With Maggie

The best option I’ve found to dump the holding tanks in my RV when I’m visiting my son in Lake Jackson is Brazos Bend State Park. The compensation for making the 80-mile round-trip drive is that the Texas park, known for its alligators, is one of my favorite places to bird.

I announced my intentions of making the drive to my son, Lewis, asking if he would like to make the trip with me. He passed the word along to his wife, Karen.

“Mom needs to take a dump at Brazos Bend,” is how he put it, which suddenly became a standing joke among us.

Saturday, the two of them, also birders, joined me for the adventure. Arriving at the park, I renewed my annual Texas State Park pass, then took care of Gypsy Lee’s business while Karen and Lewis walked Maggie and watched a flock of cedar waxwings.

 

But this red-eyed fellow, a black-crowned night heron, posed nicely for me. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Ten minutes after I had put on plastic gloves, hooked up a sewer hose and pulled levers, Gypsy Lee’s holding tanks were empty and I was ready to join the birding party.

We decided to hike the Hoots Hollow trail near the park entrance. It was a good choice.

One of the first birds we saw as we entered the moss-dripping forest was an American woodcock. It was cause for great joy as the bird was a lifer for all three of us. It brought my list of species seen up to 699.

But the benefits of having to drive to Brazos Bend to dump didn’t end there. Just as we were about to exit the trail, I got my 700th species, a Swainson’s thrush. It had been quite awhile since I had added any new bird species to my life list, and to get two in one day was fantastic.

Our continued birding around Forty Acre Lake was also great. We ended the day with 57 species, our final one being a black-crowned night heron that posed for my camera.

The day left me looking forward to my next “dump.”

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Cowboys and Giants, Errands and Beach-Walking

Posted in Birds, Books, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Travels With Maggie, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 12, 2011| 2 Comments »

“I have the world’s largest collection of seashells. I keep it on all the beaches of the world … perhaps you’ve seen it.” – Steven Wright

Wave-watching from the Quintana Jetty on the Texas Gulf Coast. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum’s latest antics in “Explosive Eighteen” called louder to me last night than the Cowboys and Giants.

This ruddy turnstone was also wave-watching. -- Photo by Pat Bean

So after dinner with my son and his family, I escaped back out to my RV to read instead of watch the Dallas Cowboy?New York Giants football game. As a Dallas native, I’m an avid cowboy fan, but I seldom watch football these days, preferring instead to read about the game the next day.

I also knew that this particularly game was going to spark family tensions. My Texan son, Lewis, would be pulling for the Cowboys, while my fantastic New Yorker daughter-in-law, Karen, would be rooting for the Giants. Both of them are rabid followers of their teams.

My son left for work before I got up this morning, but my daughter-in-law stopped by my RV to say good-bye before she left for the day. I

Footprints in the sand intrigue me. -- Photo by Pat Bean

didn’t need to ask who won. The smile on her face lit up the overcast dawn. Hopefully my son will have cheered up by the time he gets home.

In the meantime, I have errands to run. I have to mail off Christmas packages and get propane for my RV, which means a road trip from Lake Jackson to Brazoria.

After that, Maggie and I are going to the beach for a little bird-watching, wave-watching and sand-walking. I can’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon. Can you?

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White Ibis and a Disgruntled Maggie

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on December 9, 2011| 9 Comments »

‘An old dog, even more than an old spouse, always feels like doing what you feel like doing.” — Robert Brault

 

White ibis coming in for a landing at the Sea Center in Lake Jackson on a cold morning. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

Travels With Maggie

I braved the cold yesterday morning to walk the boardwalk at the Sea Center in Lake Jackson. It’s a great place to watch birds, as well as being a fish hatchery, beach/seashore museum and an aquarium.

Check it out at: http://www.texasexplorer.com/SeaCenterTexas.htm

 

A new sign marks the Bobcat Woods Trail in San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge. That's my son, Lewis, in the background. -- Photo by Pat Bean

While I had a pair of warm gloves, I never kept them on long enough for my fingers to warm up. I was too busy checking out the Audubon Bird App on the new smart phone my son gave me as an early Christmas present and taking pictures. I can use my binoculars with my gloves on, but not the phone or camera.

My photo above of the white ibis was my reward for braving the cold. It did warm up later on in the day, and my son, Lewis, and I found about 40 species. After the Sea Center, we walked Bobcat Trail at San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge.

My dog, Maggie, wasn’t happy, however. I had left her home so she could stay warm and cozy in the RV. But the dirty looks she gave me for the rest of the afternoon indicated she had wanted to go birding, too. Or at least gone for the ride.

Gypsy Lee has been parked for a week and Maggie is already getting antsy.

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Kansas Sky and NaNoWri Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on November 28, 2011| 3 Comments »

 “There is nothing to writing. All you need to do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway

A morning sky in Garden City, Kansas. It was windy Oz kind of day. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

NaNoWriMo update … 47,602 word

Of course these days it’s the computer that takes our blood donations, well at least for most of us, I’m assuming.

The home stretch is in sight. So I’m saving my words for the finish. I need a head start because I have a 2 p.m. appointment tomorrow.

Happy writing everybody.

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Turtles and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on November 27, 2011| 3 Comments »

 

Turtles on the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park -- Photo by Pat Bean

 “That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong. – F. Scott Fitzgerald.

NaNoWriMo Update … 45,088

I got my ending written today. But not too worry, I have plenty of scenes to add that will bring my book up to 50,000 words. My goal is to do 2,500 words on Monday and 2,500 on Tuesday, and post my book to NaNo on Thursday.

I was worried about getting the ending finished before the deadline. To have it done has taken some of the stress off the last few days. Originally I planned to do 2,000 words a day. By day 15 that plan was already in the garbage, although I was halfway through the book at that point.

When I started, I also knew who was the murderer in my murder mystery. I was surprised when it turned out to be someone else. Another surprise is how much better I felt I was writing toward the end. My characters stopped being as stilted as they were at the beginning.

I don’t know about anybody else out there, but this has been a major learning experience for me. One, I now feel more confident about completing a big project. I feel I’ve written some very bad scenes that will end up in the trash can, and some scenes with lots of possibilities.

So now my biggest worry is that my computer won’t play tricks on me before Thursday, or that we have a big earthquake here in Texas that takes out all the power lines. In other words my worry has shifted outward away from inward. It just wouldn’t seem right not to have something to worry about.

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Elk and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on November 26, 2011| 2 Comments »

 

Elk sculpture at the National Wildlife Art Museum just outside Jackson, Wyoming. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
W. Somerset Maugham

NaNoWriMo Update … 42,529

Good writing day. With only four days to go, no need to say more.

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Maine Moose and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on November 25, 2011| 6 Comments »

 “Write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.” – Agatha Christie

 

The view out my RV window at Wassamki Springs in Maine. I wanna go back. -- Photo by Pat Bean

NaNoWriMo Update … 40,035 words

First Maggie got the doggie runs. She needed to go out every hour on the hour for the entire night. The consequences of not crawling down from my bed over the cab of my small RV was enough to make sure I kept getting up hour after hour.

So I awoke with very little sleep, and so my writing suffered. My best writing occurs when I am in bed by 10 p.m. and get up and get in front of my computer by 5 or 6 a.m.

Second it was Thanksgiving, and there was family around that needed my attention, or I needed theirs, or whatever. And calls from family far away, and too much eating going on, followed by several games of Settlers, none of which I won.

And so my writing suffered.

Today, with the end of NaNo only five days away, it was back to the keyboard. My decision to demand everyone leave me alone, however, has probably earned me a few black marks in my ledger. It’s the big Christmas decorating-day here at my son’s house in Harker Heights.

My daughter-in-law looked shocked when I refused the call to arms.

The upside, however, is that today I got past the 40,000 word mark. if I write 2,000 words a day for the next five days, I will meet the 50,000-word goal.

What I have going for me is that I think I’ve figured things out in my head on how my story is going to end. And that in my 37 years as a journalist I never missed a deadline.

I’m also thinking that my conclusion might not take the book all the way to 50,000 words, but I’m hoping that’s the case. I have lots of extra scenes in mind to flesh out what is already written. The trick will be to add these scenes without deleting all the unnecessary and redundant words that go into all my first drafts.

It takes much longer to write short than it does long.

So now if you’ll excuse me, I still have writing I can do today. I don’t want to push that deadline beyond my capability.


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Kickapoo and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on November 19, 2011| 4 Comments »

 My Favorite Places

What I remember best about staying at Kickapoo State Park in Illinois was the tremendous thunder and rain storm that pounded my RV. It was a marvelous concert and light show. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“You can say any fool thing to a dog, and the dog will give you this look that says, ‘My god, you’re right! I never would’ve thought of that.’” – Dave Barry

NaNoWriMo update … 32,438 words

I met my writing goal today, but only my slapping my hands and telling myself to get on with the writing and not get into the rewriting – yet.

I haven’t really gotten crazy with my quickie novel, as many have suggested. I think I’ve concentrated too much on trying to get the plot moving along. I know I will need to go back and sass up the characters a bit.

Meanwhile, the dog inherited by the first person protagonist in my mystery has taken on a more major role than I imagined. I think when I would get stuck writing I could always write something about what the dog was doing.

Would you believe I named the dog, Maggie. But she’s a combination of a couple of dogs, and cats, I’ve owned. No she doesn’t talk, but her expressions and mannerisms say it all.

It sure feels good to have my computer back. How’s everybody else coming?

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Canyon View and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged , , , , on November 18, 2011| 5 Comments »

My Favorite Places

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado -- Photo by Pat Bean

NaNoWriMo Update … 30,325 words

Through joy and through sorrow, I wrote. Through hunger and through thirst, I wrote. Through goo report and through ill report, I wrote. Through sunshine and through moonshire, I wrote. What I wrote is is unnecessary to say. — Edgar A. Poe

But Poe never had to write when his computer was suffering a glitch.

Anyway the bad news is no new words on my novel today. But I watched a glorious military retirement for my son, whom I am very proud of, and I got my computer back. So all is well, all is well.

And  tomorrow it’s back to NaNo and at least 2,000 more words.

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Zion and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on November 17, 2011| 5 Comments »

 My Favorite Places: Zion National Park

 

Emerald Pools waterfall in Zion National Park in Utah -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

There are so many different kinds of writing and so many ways to work that the only rule is this: do what works. Almost everything has been tried and found to succeed for somebody. The methods, even the ideas of successful writers contradict each other in a most heartening way, and the only element I find common to all successful writers is persistence-an overwhelming determination to succeed.” – Sophy Murnham.

NaNoWriMo Update … 28,717 words

NaNo goal of 2,000 words met, physical therapy appointment kept, drive from my daughter’s homein Dallas to my son’s place  in Harker Heights accomplished, segments of my novel written out in my head as I drove,  hugs and kisses from my autistic granddaughter, yummy liver with onions and bacon, rice and gravy and green pea dinner with family, ice cream sandwich for dessert, Survivor show watched with my son, and now I’m writing and posting my blog post.

I’m pooped but happy.

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