Don Young's Tandy Hills Prairie Notes #48

Possumhaw berries are a bright spot on the Tandy Hills prairie.

I've not blogged Don Young's Prairie Notes in awhile. Please note the plea for help with the Prairie Fest. I figured the Prairie Notes & Prairie Fest Plea need to get as big an audience as possible. 

Prairie Notes #48

December 1, 2010

Springing Into Fall

1) Field Report

2) Prairie Fest: By hook or by crook 

3) Wildflower of the Moment

4) Ladies' Tresses Orchids

5) Critter Report

1) Field Report

A brief period of chilly weather on November 1st made it finally feel like Autumn at our little urban oasis. Multitudes of leaves finally fell but Spring-like temps soon returned. The number of blooming plants that normally mature in the Spring was amazing. Meanwhile, Possumhaw, Aromatic Sumac, Mexican Plum and a few others brightened up the subdued landscape with their Fall colors setting off the Autumn grass that continues to be the Main Event.

Eye-catching fall foliage of Mexican Plum.

It's the "hills" that make Tandy Hills so remarkable.
As Winter approaches, the hills are more noticeable.

2) Prairie Fest: By hook or by crook

The November 23rd edition of Fort Worth Weekly reported on the growing pains of Fort Worth Prairie Fest. You can read the report by Jeff Prince here. Volunteers are urgently needed. Our Number 1 need is for a Volunteer Coordinator to recruit, train and supervise event day volunteers. Please let us know ASAP if you will take this critical responsibility.  

Against all odds and by hook or by crook, Prairie Fest 6 will happen on April 23, 2011. Exhibitors and Sponsors, get ready. You will be hearing from The Best Outdoor Cultural Event in Tarrant County very soon. Watch a little video snapshot of the 2010 fest here.

3) Wildflower of the Moment

A single Purple Paintbrush in full bloom on November 7th? How rare can that be? It made a nice contrast with the Autumn leaves in the background.

Purple Paintbrush fooled by Mother Nature.

4) Ladies Tresses Orchids

The amazing and wonderfully aromatic Ladies Tresses Orchids of THNA have just finished blooming. Are they Nodding Ladies Tresses or Great Plains Ladies Tresses or both? Experts disagree. Either way, the similar-looking species are one of the many Fall pleasures at THNA worth celebrating. 

Trout Lily and Ladies Tresses expert, Jim Varnum, took a day-trip to THNA in November. He documented his trip in the November edition of Jim's This and That. Check it out here.

5) Critter Report

On the evening of November 28, I witnessed a Great Horned Owl with a 4'+ wingspan descend into the darkening twilight of Tandy Hills Natural Area. The thrill of seeing such a magnificent creature in its natural habitat reminded me once again of the wise words of poet, Mary Oliver:

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

DY

The Dawn Of December In Texas With Gas-Powered Internet Repression & A Big Chill

It is the dawn of the last month of 2010, on a chilly, one degree above freezing, 1st day of December in Texas.

I had myself a restful night last night, no repeat of the night before's bizarre nightmares. Instead, last night's dream theme seemed to mostly involve Kim Zolciak of Atlanta, and me going all sorts of interesting places, without ever leaving Kim's condo. I imagine there might be some who might consider spending the night with Kim Zolciak to be a nightmare, but, for me, it really was not. I awoke well-rested from the experience.

Speaking of nightmares. In the early evening, on Sunday, I was appalled to learn of the fresh hell Texas Sharon is experiencing, thanks to, all evidence suggests, Barnett Shale Gas Drillers. Sharon got messages from Google, warning her that accesses had been made to her account by multiple IP addresses. Soon thereafter, Sharon finds out that when one of her YouTube videos, on her blog, gets clicked on, the clicker does not get to view the video, instead the viewer sees this...

This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.

Apparently, without letting anyone know, Sharon moved to China, where censoring Google and YouTube is allowed. Sharon really should not have made such a rash move and should have stayed in America where free speech is a constitutional guarantee and repression of someone's free speech is criminal activity. As is hacking.

The last month of the year is starting off a bit foreboding. And interesting.

The Shadow Of The One-Armed Tandy Thin Man Thinking About Returning To My House In Washington

I have yet to tire of taking pictures of the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man. Today's Thin Man Shadow was across a dry creek bed at the bottom of a ravine. With leaves.

The leaves in the trees on the Tandy Hills have greatly diminished. Large areas of the trails are under a thick carpet of fallen leaves.

Fallen leaves in Texas are much more pleasant to walk on than fallen Washington leaves.

In Texas the leaves stay crunchy and quickly dry up and blow away. In Washington the leaves get wet and slimy and can make walking slippery. I prefer the Texas leaf disposal method.

In Washington my house had flat roofs. Four of them. Leaves would cover the roofs and need to be removed. Over and over again. The house was surrounded by trees, about half of them evergreen, the rest leaf shedders, of the big maple leaf sort that can easily clog a drain.

Go here to visit my house in Mount Vernon, Washington. It is a primitive webpage, made long ago, well before highspeed broadband, hence the little clickable thumbnails. On the webpage you'll meet my deceased cat, Hortense. She died in Texas my first year here. You will see a lot of trees and see why there were a lot of leaves. You will also see pictures of the most snow I ever saw on the ground in my zone of Washington. I was stuck on my cul-de-sac's hill for almost a week.

I had not looked at pictures of where I lived in Washington for awhile. This has put me in a sort of wistful, melancholy mood that fits perfectly with how tired I am feeling from last night's exhausting nightmares. Looking at the pictures brought back remembering how nice it was to walk out the front door, from the kitchen, to the rooftop garden to BBQ and pick fresh tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, basil and other stuff I'm not remembering.

In Texas there is no rooftop garden that I walk out to from my kitchen. Nothing grows on my Texas patio. Not even moss. I'm ready to move back to Washington. But doing so takes a lot of effort and bother. And right now I am tired.

Fort Worth's Native Son Rex Reed Shoplifting, Starting Rumors, Dissing Korea & Starring In X-Rated Movies

You likely do not recognize the person in the picture. His name is Rex Reed.

Rex Reed got himself a well-earned reputation for being a bit of a nasty, mean-spirited movie critic.

I always assumed Rex Reed was a New Yorker, for some reason.

Here in the boondock known as Fort Worth, the local newspaper with the largest circulation, it being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has a habit of pointing out any possible remote connection between Fort Worth and some celebrity type in the news.

The Star-Telegram celebrity connection can be very tenuous, something like Joe Jones was once married to Fort Worth's Sprinkle Pants and visited Fort Worth once during the 1970s.

So, I was a bit surprised to learn that critic, Rex Reed, was born in Fort Worth on October 2, 1938, the son of Jewell and James M. Reed.I do not believe I have ever read mention of Rex Reed being a Fort Worth product.

I think I know why. Maybe it is because Rex Reed is a bit embarrassing to have known as a native son. He is a bit notorious.

Like the time, in February of 2000, when Rex Reed was arrested for shoplifting Peggy Lee, Mel Torme and Carmen McRae CDs from a Manhattan Tower Records. Peggy Lee was so impressed that Rex Reed went to so much effort to get her records that the sent him her entire CD catalog.

In 1993 Fort Worth's Rex Reed started the rumor that Jack Palance called out the wrong name at the Academy Awards for the Supporting Actress award, when he said Marisa Tomei's name. Reed claimed Jack Palance was confused due to being too drunk or stoned to be able to read the envelope. Four years later, in 1997, Rex Reed was still claiming there had been a massive cover-up to prevent the public from learning about this horribly serious Academy Award crime against humanity.

Then in 2005 Fort Worth's Rex Reed aggravated people by harshly reviewing a South Korean movie called Oldboy, writing, "What else can you expect from a nation weaned on Kimchi, a mixture of raw garlic and cabbage buried underground until it rots, dug up from the grave and then served in earthenware pots sold at the Seoul airport as souvenirs?"

Now, I think the Kimchi/Korean comment was funny. That Kimchi stuff is terrible.

Rex Reed is a bit on the old side of his life now, in his 70s.

Over the years Rex Reed has made a few acting appearances, including being in the X-Rated Gore Vidal debacle Myra Breckinridge, where he co-starred with Mae West, Raquel Welch and Farrah Fawcett. Fort Worth's Rex Reed was also in Inchon and played himself in one of the Superman movies. In the late 70s Rex Reed's tart tongue was a regular on The Gong Show.

To get a look and listen to of one of Fort Worth's favorite native sons, Rex Reed, watch the video below of a Rex Reed Appearance on the Dick Cavett Show in 1969, where Rex Reed disses John Wayne so bad it had to be bleeped out, while he discusses what he think about the 1969 Academy Awards.....

A Cold Morning In Texas On The Last Day Of November Following A Night Of Nightmares

Looking out the window, on another cold morning in Texas, on this, the last day of the 1st November of the 2nd decade of the new century.

I am growing weary of time passing so quickly, I would like time to slow down and give me a break from the rapidly aging process.

This morning the rapidly aging process is manifesting itself in it feeling like every joint and bone in my feet and hands and shoulder is sore.

Why?

I do not know. Except for the fact that last night I had my most action-filled series of nightmares in memory. Disturbing nightmares where I would think I had awakened from the nightmare only to realize I was still asleep and still nightmaring. I've never experience such a thing before. It was exhausting.

It is only 36 degrees in the natural unheated zone this morning. No way am I going to try to go swimming. I will be totally over-doing hiking on the Tandy Hills today, barring some unexpected interruption of that plan.

George's Specialty Foods & White Settlement Road Under Attack By Chesapeake Energy & Fort Worth's Natural Gas Corrupted City Government Of Eminent Domain Abusers

You are looking at a mural at George's Specialty Food on White Settlement Road.

The mural depicts the view from George's, looking out at the Trinity Trail, the Trinity Levees and the houses in the hills on the opposite side of the river.

However, the mural is a bit out of date. Chesapeake Energy drilling sites need to be added to the view.

A few days ago I blogged about George's Specialty Foods closing in order to fight Chesapeake Energy's abuse of eminent domain to take property from the George's Specialty Food's owners.

I have gotten a few messages about this latest Chesapeake attack on Fort Worth Citizens. It is my understanding, now, that George's Specialty Foods was started by George and Helen Phiripes and is now operated by George's son Nick and Nick's son Theo.

Chesapeake Energy in the guise of one of its alias, Texas Midstream, want to take the Phiripes' property to run a pipeline from a couple Barnett Shale drilling sites Chesapeake has drilled and frac'ed.

I'm assuming this is another non-odorized natural gas pipeline like what Chesapeake tried to ram under Carter Avenue.

This morning I got an interesting comment to the blogging about George's Specialty Foods closing.

The commenter's name is Jim Bowe. Mr. Bowe has some interesting things to say regarding Chesapeake, and the City of Fort Worth's, rush to abuse eminent domain to steal citizen's property....

Now that all the bad publicity generated for two years by the Carter Ave. pipeline fight has come to an end, it appears that the gas drillers and the city need to make up for lost time and start putting those gathering pipelines in ASAP. 

That sector of gas drilling operations officially employed the outgoing TRR commissioner Victor Carillo as a consultant a few weeks ago---even while he's still in office. They also must hurry up because the legislators are fixing to meet next year and their man's prospect for another term as ruler, uh "mayor", of FW is not as secure as before. 

Gathering pipelines and eminent domain abuse appear to be the new hot issue in 2011. 

I guess we can help these business folks the same way we helped the residents on and near Carter Ave.: by keeping the story in front of the public and uniting to raise funds for legal defense. Not sure how much was raised to help those people on Carter Avenue fight for so long and then win an impossible victory. There must have been tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars collected in order to pay for a team of legal specialists to work on the case for two years.

Whatever money left from that Carter Ave. pipeline legal defense fund should be used to support these folks--if they want the help or their lawyer/s approve, of course. It would seem that these business owners have more financial resources than the working class folks on Carter, but they are going to need all the help they can get in going up against a multi-billion dollar corporation and its close city allies, though.

Well, Jim, I can tell you that no fortune of money was raised to save Carter Avenue. What happened was one brave Texan, Steve Doeung, fought back, alone at first. Steve acted as his own attorney. Because he could not afford one. Early one it was Steve alone, with Don Young pretty much being his only comrade in arms.

And then, it seemed to me, that a lot of people sort of got outraged over the bad behavior of the city and of Chesapeake. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram did not do too much to expose the dirty dealings. But, FW Weekly, did. Then various bloggers kept pounding away on the issue.

From what I've learned, from observing this, the people fighting Chesapeake Energy and the City of Fort Worth, can not expect any semblance of fairness if you get into a Fort Worth courtroom. What you can expect is to experience corruption up close. I'd never actually gotten to witness corruption up close til I spent time in a Fort Worth courtroom.

Why hasn't FW Weekly done a story on George's Specialty Food closing to fight eminent domain abuse? I can't help but wonder.

Soldier Standing Guard On A Warm Monday In Arlington's Veterans Park With Turtles

It rained last night. I had the dire need to aerobicize. My Therapist, Dr. L.C., ordered me outdoors. Due to the rain I thought the Tandy Hills might be a bit muddy. Since I needed to be in Pantego I decided to take a walk at Veterans Park in Arlington.

The backwoods, hilly area of Veterans Park was dry and not muddy. I suspect the Tandy Hills were in a similar condition.

The soldier who guards the Veterans Park Memorial has had some pillars join him since my last visit. The soldier guards 100s of names etched in bricks. You can find bricks honoring men who served in American Wars as far back as the War of Northern Aggression.

To the east of the soldier lies the Veterans Park Pond. With the temperature nearing 70 the Veterans Park Pond Turtles were basking in the sun, being watched over by a lot of ducks on patrol.

Usually turtles are a bit skittish and don't like anyone getting too close, quickly jumping in the water. But these guys were liking the sun too much to worry about a guy taking pictures of them.

I'm feeling a bit better after having spent time outside on this perfect day.

I lasted less than a minute in the pool this morning. The air temperature was around 60, with the water being colder than 60. I should have known better than to get wet.

I have a backlog of blogging material that is staring at me. I hate being stared at.

The Monday Morning Texas Blues

It is a dark and cloudy last Monday of November, this morning. And a relatively balmy 62 degrees. I bailed on going swimming yesterday. I will not bail this morning.

I heard the pitter patter of rain hitting my window last night. I did not realize that rain had been scheduled.

I do not know if sufficient water hit the ground to dampen the Tandy Hills enough to make mud.

I did not do my usual Tandy Hills hiking yesterday. I did not leave my abode on Sunday. Did not spend one second outdoors.

Which is why I think I have gotten up this Monday morning feeling anxious, cranky and a little headachy. This is the price one pays when one gets oneself addicted to endorphin. I'll be getting multiple fixes today.

Starting right now.

Gar the Texan's Ongoing Mullet Hair Denial Lunacy

The first time I met Gar the Texan in person was quite memorable, due to the fact that I'd never been up close to a Mullet Head before.

In the Pacific Northwest Mullet Heads, for the most part, were called Pocatello Do's. Or was it Poca-Do's? I don't remember. Pocatello is a town in Idaho known for being a bastion of the Mullet, back when it was popular with those who like silly looking hairstyles.

For some reason, Gar the Texan, with clock-like regularity posts a picture of himself in his Mullet Prime, knowing that someone is going to make mention of the Mullet, which he then denies the fact that it is a Mullet.

The latest iteration of this occurred yesterday on Facebook. Gar posted the infamous Mullet Picture, which caused someone named Jennifer to comment, "I must say...That is one b#tchin'* mullet..."

To which Gar the Texan made his predictable Mullet Denial comment.

To which a voice of reason commented, "Gar, I have lost track of the number of times I've told you if it looks like a mullet, it's a mullet. Why do you continue in mullet denial? It's not like you had the mullet in this century. Now, that would be embarrassing."

To which Gar the Texan commented, "I will be in Mullet denial forever."

And then the really weird thing happened.

Someone who lives way out in the West Texas Boonies, in Gar the Texan's old hometown of Kermit, came to a very irrational, albeit, scientific sounding defense of Gar's claim that he was not a Mullet Head.

The commenting Kermitite, Jyl, basically makes the case that Gar was a Feather Head, not a Mullet Head, commenting, "......and no, it's NOT a mullet..feathers? yes. Mullet? no. I can even explain the distinction to those of you who are either from the wrong region or decade to know the difference. A mullet (a.k.a. bi-level, has a perimeter that is disconnected just above, and slightly behind the ears, creating two different styles on one head. Short (business) in the front, and long (party) in the back... What Garland is sporting in this picture is more of a soft metal feathered look...pre-hair band, but still would have made Eddie Van Halen jealous. Quite beautiful, Garland. Perfectly executed feathers...kudos to you!"

I'm thinking it sounds worse to be a Feather Head than a Mullet Head.

At the top is a composite of 4 Mullet Heads. Gar the Texan is the Mullet on the left. The Mullet Head next to Gar is from the Wikipedia article about the serious Mullet Hair issue. The others were Mullets I found by Googling for Mullet Hair images. I picked ones that matched Gar the Texan's Mullet Feather Head.

An interesting quote from the Wikipedia Mullet Hair article...

"The mullet is a hairstyle that is often ridiculed as a lowbrow and unappealing hairstyle. The mullet began to appear in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s but did not become generally well-known until the early 1980s. It continued to be popular until the mid-1990s and has enjoyed a partial return to favor as a retro look in the 2000s."

Gar the Texan continued his Mullet Head well past the mid-1990s. Maybe when I first saw the Gar Mullet it was in retro look mode. It takes awhile for the news that a fad is now a dud makes its way inland to Texas, from the left and right coasts. An example of that is you still see a lot of idiots here in Texas wearing their pants down around their knees, exposing their underwear. I don't recollect ever seeing this particular example of bad taste on the left coast.

Below is a YouTube video celebrating the Mullet Nation. I don't think Gar the Texan is in the Mullet Nation video...

Up Early Sunday Morning After Bad Night Due To Being Overstimulated By Bad Movies & George's Specialty Foods

I am up way too early this last Sunday of November of 2010.

As you can see there is no steam rising from the hot tub. This is not an indicator that the air temperature has risen.

It hasn't.

It is currently 39 degrees out there where the hot tub sits. The reason it is not steaming is because the heat has been turned way down on the water circulating in to the hot tub.

I got new information, over night, regarding the George's Specialty Food Chesapeake Energy Eminent Domain Abuse Scandal. I must ask a couple questions of the person who sent this information to me to make sure I understand what I'm being told.

I did not sleep well last night. I think I may be being overstimulated from watching too many movies. I usually do not watch a movie all that often. And if I do it is usually a classic on Turner Classic Movies.

AT & T's U-Verse has turned on all the HBO, CineMax and Showtime channels for free sampling and recording. Consequently I watched something called Trueblood on HBO. Very disturbing series. And then last night I tried to watch Avatar. It is Avatar that I think overstimulated me.

Maybe tonight I will try and make it to the end of Avatar. Currently I am not getting why this movie is such a huge hit. Maybe I am James Cameron averse. I also did not like Titanic. Could not get past the dumb plot and wooden dialogue.

The temperature average over the last 24 hours has been above 50. So, I am going to make a swimming attempt this morning. I'll let you know how that goes later.