Communing With Giant Wildflowers Blooming In Wichita Bluff Nature Area

Yesterday's dire weather forecast for today had me thinking it likely today's nature communing would be taking place in Walmart.

But, instead, this fourth Wednesday of the 2025 version of April dawned with nary a cloud in a clear blue sky.

And so, it was to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area I ventured today for my nature communing.

I have no idea what the name is of the giant wildflower I photo documented today. I saw several instances today of such sprouting tall along the Circle Trail in the Bluff's nature area.

Today's daytime predicted thunderstorming may not yet have materialized, but last night's predicted thunderstorm did materialize.

Beginning around two in the morning, lasting a couple hours, with what seemed like nonstop lightning flashes and explosive booming. Along with loud downpouring.

By morning my abode was partially surrounded by what I refer to as a moat, requiring a bit of a detour to make my way to where my motorized means of motion sits under carport protection.

Looking out my computer room window I see clouds have once again arrived, blocking some of the formerly clear blue sky.

I suspect these are early arrivals of the clouds which will be thunderstorming in a few hours...

102 Degree Torrid Texas Tuesday

It seems like it was just a few days ago, because it was just a few days ago, I made mention of the fact that I was feeling overheated upon getting in my vehicle, to drive to Walmart, to see the vehicle's temperature monitor was indicating the temperature was 96 degrees, as measured by the Fahrenheit method.

And now, this Tuesday late afternoon, I got in my vehicle, driving to that same Walmart destination, to see the temperature monitor was over 100 degrees for the first time this year.

Over 100 degrees is HOT. There is no denying that. Add the humidity and those HOT 100 plus degrees feel even hotter.

100 degrees is humid Texas is not the same thing as 100 degrees in the desert climate of Arizona. 

I suspect way are heading into a few months of record-breaking temperatures. I hope my various air-conditioning devices are up to the cooling task...

Tuesday Return To Sikes Lake Under Totally Clear Blue Sky

On this next to last Tuesday of the 2025 version of April it was back nearby Sikes Lake, I ventured, for some salubrious nature communing with resultant endorphin acquisition.

In the photo documentation we are looking west from the rocky eastern shore of Sikes Lake.

As you can see via the ripples on the lake, wind is making for some wave action.

Sikes Lake was seeing a lot of nature communers today, enjoying once again being under a total cloud-free clear blue sky, after enduring a stormy, gray Easter weekend.

This return to a clear blue sky is predicted to be short-lived, with clouds returning later today, along with thunderstorms and rain, continuing to boom and drip on Wednesday.

It is likely my nature communing and endorphin acquisition will need to take place at Walmart tomorrow...

Easter Takes Me To A Weeping Jesus In Oklahoma City

I took me a moment or two to remember what this Microsoft OneDrive Memory from this Day was remembering.

It does seem right that it was in April of some year early in this current century that I was up north, in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma City, to be precise.

That weeping statue of Jesus is part of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, sometimes called the Murrah Memorial, due to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building being the building which was blown up in the worst terrorist attack on American soil, til the 9/11 attacks.

Experiencing the Oklahoma City National Memorial was a sobering experience of the sort I have only experienced a few times previous.

Such as being at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, also known as the location of Custer's Last Stand.

That same roadtrip which brought me to where Custer had his last stand, in Montana, also took me to the South Dakota site of the Wounded Knee Massacre. The memorial at this location is not as elaborate as the Little Bighorn complex. But, it was sobering, standing at this location, reading the simple signage explaining what had happened at this location.

And then there was another sobering experience, this century, in Texas, near the town known as Waco, a location known as the Mount Carmel Branch-Davidian Compound. When I visited this location there were still some Branch-Davidian survivors living there. You could walk among the graves of those killed. And still see the burned remains of the buildings, and the buried bus in which many died.

Interesting timing to have a statue of a weeping Jesus show up on Easter...

Stormy Good Friday Walk Around Sikes Lake

 It was to Sikes Lake I ventured on this third Friday of the 2025 version of April. A day also known as Good Friday.

As you can see, via the photo documentation, our regular North Texas clear blue sky has been obliterated by a thick cloud cover.

That thick cloud cover dripped some big drops of rain whilst I was nature communing, but nowhere near being copious enough to wet the landscape, or me.

The weather forecast for today, tomorrow and Easter is for rain, hail, thunderstorms, strong wind, and possible tornadoes.

Thunder is not scheduled to begin booming til later this afternoon and then continuing through the night. 

I strongly suspect this is going to turn into a major storm. It has been awhile such has occurred at my current location. The creek which runs by my abode has been dry for a couple years now.

Below is what my nearby creek looks like when it is not dry. The name of the creek is Holliday Creek. Yes, spelled with two l's. This photo showed up this morning in the daily Microsoft OneDrive Memories from this Day....

I like the sound of roaring rapids. It is a soothing sound I hope to hear later today, or tomorrow...

Wednesday Considering Sikes Lake Fishing Before Easter Weekend Storms

It was back to Sikes Lake I ventured on this day after the Ides of April, also known as the 16th day and third Wednesday of the fourth month of 2025, for some nature communing under a clear blue sky, with the air heated pleasantly into the 70-degree zone, as measured via the Fahrenheit temperature measuring method.

My nature communing did not include catching fish. The sign you see photo documented, above, showed up a week or two ago, attached to a fence which blocked access to the lake, at that point, making fishing not possible.

The signs informs one of the type fish one may catch in Sikes Lake, and warns that one must be properly licensed to do any angling.

I have seen a few poles hovering over Sikes Lake, over the years. I have never seen anyone catch a fish, of any sort.

I do know that periodically Sikes Lake is stocked with fish. Of which variety I have no clue.

Tomorrow may be the last pleasant day, weather-wise, for a few days.

Currently the Easter weekend weather forecast for my North Texas location is for heavy rain, hail, thunderstorms and tornado conditions, beginning Good Friday, and lasting through Easter Sunday.

These dire weather conditions likely will wreak havoc with any possible plans I might come up with to attend any Easter morning sunrise services....

Looking For A Visitor From Somewhere Called Boardman

The blog you are looking at right now has what is known as a gadget. This gadget tracks the blog's Live Traffic Feed. 

Somewhat accurately.

The Live Traffic Feed does not compile a comprehensive listing of all blog traffic. I have another means by which I can see a comprehensive listing of the blog's traffic.

The screencap I made of the Live Traffic Feed I made early this morning, thus the many hours since the last noted traffic. As in, not much blog traffic, from America, during the past midnight hours.

So, the past couple weeks I have noticed that there have been multiple blog visits from a blog visitor located somewhere in America called Boardman.

Googling I found there is a Boardman, Oregon, and a Boardman Township, in Ohio.

Boardman, Oregon is a town on the Columbia Gorge, in the part of Oregon east of Mount Hood, known as Eastern Oregon.

The population of the Boardman in Ohio is way larger than the Oregon version.

Do I know someone in either Boardman? Not that I know of. I have relatives in the Amish zone of Ohio, a town called Sugarcreek. Sugarcreek is not close to Boardman Township.

Anyway, maybe making mention of this Boardman mystery will cause some sort of feedback from one of the Boardmans...

Windy Sikes Lake Monday With Evening Primroses

On this second Monday of the 2025 version of April, it was to Sikes Lake I ventured for a windy lake walk under a clear blue sky.

As you can see, via the photo documentation, it is that time of the year when the Texas landscape turns colorful, with wildflowers, with the most prominent wildflower, seen in my North Texas zone of the Lone Star State, being the pink bloom known, for reasons unknown to me, as Evening Primroses.

I remember way back late in the previous century, in April of, I think 1998, driving to Texas to test the feasibility of moving there, and being surprised by all the flowers we were seeing between Amarillo and the Dallas/Fort Worth zone.

In April of, I think, 2001, I ventured south to what is known as Texas Hill Country, to hike up Enchanted Rock and visit Fredericksburg. This was to be my one- and only-time seeing Texas wildflowers in all their glory. 

The wildflowers of Texas Hill Country were not quite as colorful as the tulip fields of my old Skagit Valley home zone. But, being natural, not a cultivated agricultural product, made the Texas Hill Country wildflowers as impressive, if not more so, than the Skagit tulips.

Let me see if I can find a photo I took that day, early this century, of Texas Hill Country wildflowers...

The above scene was seen a few miles north of Enchanted Rock. As you can see, wildflowers far into the horizon. Except for the model in the foreground...

Sweltering 96 Texas Degrees

It seems like only a couple days ago big balls of hail pummeled my location, which was chilled to below freezing, with frost frosting the rooftops and a few snowflakes making it to ground level.

It seems like that because that is what happened a couple days ago.

And now, on this second Saturday of the fourth month of 2025, I got in my vehicle this afternoon, to drive to ALDI, to find my vehicle's temperature monitoring device situated on the rearview mirror, was telling me the temperature was 96 degrees.

The outer world felt HOTTER than 96 degrees due to the fact that there was no wind blowing, thus no wind chill happening.

Soon cold water coming out of the tap will no longer be cold. That makes for refreshing showers, with no need to add any HOT water to the mix.

This coming summer I should be feeling cooler than last summer, due to the fact I have lost weight, and thus have less of an insulative layer of adipose tissue. 

I see some of the plus-sized people at my current Texas location and wonder how they manage it, in the HEAT, with such a well-developed thick layer of insulative adipose tissue...

Finding Nephews Jason & Joey At Lake Grapevine With Significant Others

A couple days ago in a blog post titled Microsoft OneDrive Remembers Nephews Jason & Joey In Texas I made mention of the fact that I was unable to find, among the hundreds of photo folders folded on my computer, a photo I remembered taking that day, way back in 2005, when I went to D/FW International Airport to find my nephews, Jason and Joey, and their girlfriends.

That photo I was unable to find a couple days ago, I found last night whilst looking for a photo of myself and my siblings, for International Siblings Day purposes.

Above, that would be me in the middle, with nephew Joey to my right, with Joey's girlfriend between he and me. I do not remember that particular girlfriend's name. That would be nephew Jason on my left. I do remember that particular girlfriend's name. She is Spencer Jack's mom, Jenny.

Behind us, that is Lake Grapevine. I'd driven the kids across the Lake Grapevine Dam to the park which was the trailhead location of my favorite D/FW mountain bike trail.

The above photo pre-dated the taking of photos using one's phone. That photo would have been taken with my now long-gone Olympus digital camera.

I do not remember the means by which one had that camera automatically take a photo. I do sort of remember one could set the number of seconds before the photo was taken.

I find it unsettling to realize the above photo was taken over two decades ago. Yet seems so recent in my memory...