State of Wilderness

A boy bounces down a bayou with binoculars.  “Let’s check Turtle Rock, Mom”, he says, pulling me down the bank to peer expectantly at the cluster of rocks in the middle, scanning for the little turtles that we have been seeing scrambling back into the water at our approach.  We hear a different bird call from a nearby tree, and walk over to investigate.  We determine it was just a blue jay, making that musical warble that they occasionally make.  We marveled over a June bug that was being chased by a line of ants, and then over a life-or-death drama of an earthworm and same ants.  We find a cracked egg and then a whole one half-hidden in the bushes near a fence line, and then we have to check on it on the regular during our walks after this.

Such is life out in Shadow Creek Ranch.  I’ve been absent from this cyberspace for quite some time due to our house renovations, search for a new house, and the maddening pace of adding a PhD program on top of our already-packed lives.  Any free time was being spent studying, learning, writing papers, or packing, unpacking – all the trials of the past year.  I very nearly lost my mind.  This summer, I have been trying to reclaim it.  Part of the healing process needed to be a commitment to spending time in nature.

We felt a little adrift at first in our new house, and decided what we needed was to find all the nature spaces within a short drive from home.  The bayou is very literally in our backyard, and a very short drive away is Shadow Creek Nature Park, a place I visit on the regular.

It is a walk in the woods that we want, though.  So far, 1776 Park in Friendswood is the closest we have come to the ideal patch of woods.  On an afternoon walk a couple of weeks ago, I found myself thinking about terpenes, the aromatic chemicals of plants, and how they affect our bodies (or perhaps the more correct word is “phytoncides”).  I was already several degrees calmer just from soaking in the scenery, but the smell of the forest was also lowering my blood pressure surely.  Nature therapy – it’s what the doctor (should have) ordered.

In Korea, the idea of the healing power of forests is so convincing that they have created 37 state run forest recreation centers and trained over 500 forest healing instructors.  Several countries, including the US, have followed suit and dedicated resources towards forest-as-therapy programs.  Most of us intuitively perceive nature is good for us, but now we have science to prove it.  In one study, 2 two-hour walks in nature over consecutive days resulted in a 50% increase in natural killer cells, which help prevent cancer and other diseases, in human subjects, compared to those who remained in an urban environment.  Those benefits persisted up to thirty days later, where those same cells were seen to still be around 25% increased over the urban-only subjects.  The benefits of nature can be obtained in something as simple as watching a video of green spaces or smelling the aromas of the woods.

Some of this information I learned from a podcast (“Hidden Brain”) that another student in my program turned me on to.  I am going to try to take this knowledge to heart, as I approach a third semester committed to trying to maintain my sanity this time around.  Perhaps I might even find the time to write some of those experiences down, in between assignments.

Sometimes in life, you see a road and wonder what is down there.  For the past few years, that road for me has been 955.  Just past Hruska’s on Highway 71 Austinbound, there at the 955 junction a sign says “Fayetteville” and points east.  I took us down that road, to settle my curiosity about what we would find.
We knew at least a few things we would find, from experience and poking around the internet.  I read about their historic town square and antique shops, and noted a couple of restaurants that were worth trying.  I also knew it was close to Rohan Meadery, a place that is dear to our heart. I also know it was close to places on Hwy 71 that I wanted to stop in at and spend some time.  I also learned that this town is very close to the locally famous Round Top, which draws huge crowds during their antique weekends.  Due to this tourist surge, there are several B&B and AirBnB type rentals around the area.  Browsing the Chamber of Commerce page, I found several places to choose from, and ended up renting us a room at Granny’s Retreat.
Granny’s Retreat has several rooms to choose from, and this newly built “Breakfast Pavilion” that would be great to hang out in with a group. I spent some time daydreaming about what kind of group gathering I could have here, but I haven’t come to any conclusions yet.
The place was conveniently located right down the road from Lake Fayette Oak Thicket Park, and even though that park was not initially on my radar, we spent some time exploring this park throughout the Saturday we spent out here. After a hearty breakfast at Orsak’s Cafe in the town square, we explored the town square for a bit.  An old courthouse stood in the center of the square, and you could go inside of it to see what it was like in the olden days.  Jason took the boys upstairs, where they got a sense of how lawbreakers were kept in the past. We also poked around in the general store, keeping a safe distance from the dogs that were in the back of trucks in the parking area.  One truck had a big sign saying “Beware of Dog” and that truck needed an extra wide berth.  The dog was chained to the truck and perched on the window, and about jumped out at the kids even though they were several feet away.  After this, we headed over to Oak Thicket Park and waded and splashed in the swimming area of the lake. After a couple hours of this, we went back to our digs, got cleaned up and rested for a bit.
Midday, we hit the road to explore the two places on 71 that we are always zooming past and never have time to stop in. The first place we had to check out was the Industrial Country Market, a “Non-General General Store”. If you haven’t stopped in, you really should.  There were some real treasures in there.  The best part about this experience was that they were having a sale due to the Royal Wedding, and everything in the store except consignment items was 50% off.  My middle son had his wallet with dollars he was dying to spend, and he and I both bought all kinds of fun finds. There is a whole outdoor area we didn’t even explore (including a greenhouse, a pond, an art walk and a model train layout), as we were taking turns sitting in the running truck with the sleeping toddler. Next time, we will try to plan to arrive when it is not his nap time, so we can all explore inside and out.
Then we stopped at Rosemary’s Winery so I could dash in and sample some wine to figure out which bottle to buy for us (Blanc de Bois was the winner). Soon after this, the sleeping toddler woke up and it was time to eat lunch. We had several choices in La Grange, and decided on SeaLand because the middle son wanted calamari. The calamari was good, but the other food was just okay. We had enough leftover from this meal that it also served as dinner back at the property later in the evening. The kids enjoyed playing the old arcade games and putting quarters in the machines for little treasures in plastic eggs.
After this, it was time to go to Rohan. This meadery is also part of Blissful Folly Farms, where they grow the honey to make the honey wine. Typically, there is live music on Saturday afternoons in their outdoor pavilion. I purchased us some delicious Peach Bellini wine slushes to sip on while we listened to the music and watched the youngest make new friends. The kids picked out honey sticks to suck on and played with the giant honey comb jenga set.
On the way back, we decided to go for an evening hike at Oak Thicket Park. We had two choices in trails – the six mile round trip trail, or the 1 1/4 mile nature trail. We were warned that the rangers had not checked on that trail for a while, so it was a little rough. We decided we liked it rough and tried it anyway.
The trail went down to a lake and probably circled it (appeared to on the map), but we lost the trail going around the lake so just went back out the way we came in. Everyone had a good time but we did get too close to nature on this walk, as we all took turns pulling down spider webs across the trail, and all but the toddler ended up with chigger bites afterwards.
Some of the best times of the weekend out in Fayetteville was our down time. The porch in front of our room was a lovely place to watch the clouds float by.  We watched a tractor bailing hay in the nearby field.  Sebastian made some bubbles, but that was very short-lasting because he immediately spilled the bubble solution.  We watched a wren in the bushes and had close encounters with wasps.  We had several conversations with Rinn, the owner of the place, who was so much like my former mother-in-law in her mannerisms and way of speaking that I kept feeling transported back in time about twenty years.  Even some of the decor in the room was much like the house I lived in with my first husband when we first moved in together, a house in the country that belonged to my in-laws.  The scenery and sounds were much the same – fields of hay, mooing cows – and I kept expecting to hear the sound of a crop-duster zooming overhead.  Despite the fact that I left that place in my past and have no desire to return to it, I would want to return to Granny’s Retreat, and bring some friends next time.  At the very least, this area is worth another day trip sometime, as it was really enjoyable.