You Know You Are A Naturalist (Because You Are Not a Mad Dog or Englishman*) - A Family Story Of Sorts

"But why not sit and rest?" said one of the escort. 

"Only the devils and the English walk to and fro without reason." 

~ Rudyard Kipling, Kim

[Patience...the whining stops fairly quickly.]

It's July and it's hot.

I know I am repeating myself, but I cannot help it. It is miserable.

This is the time of year that people hustle to do all their chores before 9:00 a.m. because after that you cannot survive the walk from the parking lot into the store/business you're visiting.

These are the days you use half a bottle of sunscreen just to pick up your morning newspaper.

It feels more like August.

It feels more like hell.

I do not get out in this heat anymore - from July through early September.

I don't have to.

The corn is dry in the fields and the sorghum is brown-topped. The cotton is blooming and begging for just a little rain. Hell, we are all begging for just a little rain.

Getting close to harvest time for this corn.

And I am driving through the countryside to help out with a wildlife class or two (today we are talking about ducks). This one is in Hutto. [What is wrong with me?]

My people once lived in Hutto and so I think about them as I drive down these crazy roads. It's a wonder anyone survives driving some of these windy (winding?) roads. Some of my people - my daddy's people - are buried in the Old Hutto City Cemetery. I used to be able to see it from the old downtown area. It was just over the railroad tracks and surrounded by farms. It's now hidden among housing developments.

Hutto looks nothing like it did not all that long ago.

I thought I might visit the cemetery after the classes, but by then I was too tired (we stood most of 3 hours) and it was too hot (99 degrees whether we like it or not) so I headed off to Taylor in search of materials for my amphibian classes in just over a week (glutton for punishment? amphibian fan?).

Oh...naturalist...but wait, there's more...

As I drove more crazy roads I saw milkweed blooming in the ditches. "There's a place to stop," I thought. And I did.

Green Antelope Horns

I love these plants...

Cutting through a neighborhood I spied a dead Fox Squirrel and pulled over to take a photograph (There was a dead white-tailed deer about halfway back to the house - safe u-turn and photo there too. I'll save you from these sights.).

After finding necessary supplies (30 plastic jumping frogs! Hurrah!) I decided to drive by the egret rookery in Taylor's Murphy Park. It is fabulous. Pick an egret...any egret...and a cormorant or five. Yeah, I got outta the car. All the shady parking places were taken, but I wasn't planning to stay long.

The small swampy-looking island is covered by birds...the smell is pretty strong.

The rookery from the baseball field side of the pond.

Everyone is there...Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Cattle Egrets, cormorants, assorted ducks and what-have-you (that is southern for it is too hot to dawdle - I'm getting back in the air conditioning).

I headed home thinking about the differences in my parents' upbringing. Mom's people left town in the summer. There were stories of Lake Louise** and photos of donkey rides in the Rocky Mountains. [Even now - in this day of air conditioning - I have friends who spend the summer elsewhere and return only after the summer is done.]

Dad's people were farmers.*** They had to work the fields all summer. There was plowing and planting and hoeing and picking. It's hot just thinking about it. Escape was a quick swim in river or tank and maybe a Nehi Red in a shady place.

Neither Daddy nor any of his brothers grew up to be farmers**** (although his sister married a farmer). My brothers worked for that uncle on his family farm (not ours) many summers. How did any of them do it (neither of my brothers grew up to farm, although one continued to work/help out with friends on their farms in his "spare" time).

All of a sudden my drive changed and I had to pay attention.  I'd run up under one of those scattered summer showers. The sky darkened just a bit and the smell was powerful. I don't know if it is the rain on the dust or on the hot pavement, but it is the smell of the country - the smell of summer.

There were a number of spot showers across the fields. This one followed me home, but we only heard thunder - we got no rain.

Ghosts of summers past rode home with me today as I turned away from the fields and took shelter in my cool, dark home. The ghosts stayed outside - waiting for the next drive.

Oops! I almost forgot these - for all my sisters. "Pick a color. Pick a number...."

NOTES:

*"Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun"...https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1&ei=wb5AW-LiBsGusAWn2YuAAQ&q=mad+dogs+and+englishmen+lyrics&oq=mad+dogs+and+englishmen+&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0i67k1l7j0l2j0i67k1.1898.1898.0.4341.1.1.0.0.0.0.78.78.1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.1.77....0.UfTIkG4Sdro

Noel Coward got it from Kipling - https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/56/messages/121.html
 Also -- "Air and water are good, and the people are devout enough, but the food is very bad," Kim growled; "and we walk as though we were mad—or English...." (dialogue of Kim from Kim, Rudyard Kipling).

**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Louise,_Alberta

***I have letters from one of my great uncles about farming in Williamson County and San Patricio Counties. First two letters here: http://jack0204.tripod.com/gen/flinn/John_E_Flinn_Letters.htm

****They were a pilot, an engineer, and an insurance man and a lawyer. All served in the military and all graduated from college.

Final Note: It just came to me - despite carrying this Irish name for over 60 years, my DNA says Great Britain (I can hardly type it without shaking my head). Whatever... it seems I'm embracing my inner Englishwoman...