{"id":11554,"date":"2022-12-24T15:23:25","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T21:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/?p=11554"},"modified":"2022-12-24T18:31:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-25T00:31:46","slug":"saturday-snaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2022\/12\/24\/saturday-snaps\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Snaps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It&#8217;s a fairly frigid Christmas Eve here in the Texas Hill Country, but the skies are deep blue, the brutal winds have left for parts unknown, and we&#8217;re anticipating a quiet weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of anticipation, I had the rare foresight to put <a href=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2022\/10\/20\/random-thursday-the-stuff-i-like-edition\/#kindlingsplitter\" title=\"Gazette post from last October: Introducing the kindling splitter\">my new kindling splitter<\/a> through its paces during the past month or so, and stocked up on firewood. The effort was worthwhile, as we&#8217;ve had a blaze going continuously through the day, both yesterday and today. Gas logs might be a lot less trouble, but I&#8217;ve never felt them to be as comforting and cozy as a wood fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/fireplace_anim.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Feel the heat?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I&#8217;ve posted some photos, and now seems like the right time to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s rare that it gets cold enough for long enough for the creek behind our house to freeze, but the past couple of days of low-teens temps, along with the drought that has caused the creek to stop flowing, provided the perfect conditions for that to happen. It&#8217;s not as if we can go skating, but even a scrim of ice is unusual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/icycreek.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">You have to look closely&#8230;but it&#8217;s there!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of ice&#8230;remember ice flowers? Sure you do, because <a href=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2018\/01\/01\/180101_iceflowers\/\" title=\"From January, 2018...'A New Year's Day Surprise'\">I wrote about them<\/a> almost five years ago. I hadn&#8217;t thought to look for them this year, mainly because I figured the aforementioned drought had left the plant life from which this phenomenon springs too dry to produce the ice crystals. But after our run this morning, we noticed a pretty widespread assortment of <a href=\"http:\/\/w3.biosci.utexas.edu\/prc\/VEVI3\/crystallofolia.html\" title=\"More via the Biological Sciences group at UT Austin\">crystallofolia<\/a>. Here&#8217;s a picture of one of those frigid floral fantasies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/iceflowers_2022.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Easily mistaken for a shredded plastic bag from Walmart.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The recent temperatures in the near-single-digits have obliterated what little fall color we get to enjoy around here, but it was a different story only a couple of weeks ago. The following photo was taken from just behind our house:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/pecancreek_watercrossing.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s another [highly-tweaked] scene from Pecan Creek about a half mile upstream from the preceding picture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/pecancreek_sienna.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our home is situated such that a line of trees and hills block our view of most sunsets, but when we&#8217;re able to motivate ourselves to get out early, we&#8217;re treated to some pretty terrific sunrises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/sunrise_resort.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Just after sunrise, this view is from the Horseshoe Bay Resort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the first year I&#8217;ve become wise enough to understand that taking time to enjoy and capture photos of my surroundings in the middle of a run is A Very Good Thing. The next couple of pictures are examples of what that can lead to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/dramaticrun.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Looking southeast (sort of) down Bay West Blvd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/dramaticrun1.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Another sunrise view, this time from Golden Nugget, near the HSB Nature Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Nature can be pretty funny, sometimes. Here&#8217;s a picture of a squirrel that&#8217;s been frequenting our back deck. It&#8217;s not a very good photo, because it&#8217;s over-enlarged to highlight the fact that <em>something<\/em> has denuded much of the squirrel&#8217;s tail. What might at first glance appear to be a stick laying on the deck is actually the end of the squirrel&#8217;s tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/baretailedsquirrel.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">And you thought Rudolph&#8217;s nose was fodder for peer mocking.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the odder scenes was the appearance of this rather large collection of ant mounds. Since I didn&#8217;t have a banana with me, I included my foot to show the scale. I&#8217;ve since learned that these belonged to fire ants and they do this following heavy rainfall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/antcolony.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I suppose I could have dug down to see what I turned up, but I&#8217;d rather imagine that these holes connect the world of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Morlock\" title=\"Via Wikipedia, in case you're unfamiliar with H.G. Wells's 'The Time Machine'\">Morlocks<\/a> to ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/miscphotos\/antcolony_smoking.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"108\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/divider.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10399\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Feel free to add your own caption&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/images\/misc\/memes\/alligatorriders.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are a few photos to peruse whilst waiting to open your Christmas gifts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,6,59,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horseshoe-bay","category-photography","category-texas-hill-country","category-weather","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/pecancreek_aerial.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11554"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11566,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11554\/revisions\/11566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}