Alligator Juniper

Also known as the Checkerbark Juniper, these cones were photographed in the Chisos Mountains of west Texas (Big Bend National Park). The tree is small and the bark cracked into small square plates resembling alligator skin.

On another note, we are doing very well. We get out one morning a week for a few groceries and another day for some hiking, usually fairly close to home in areas that are still open. We'll be doing that later today at Fishtrap Lake.

The confinement has given us time to work in the yard, do some projects around the house, some writing, some cooking and baking and I am even learning to play the kalimba. We have not lacked for things to do nor for walking space.

Yesterday we baked some artisan sourdough bread, sourdough rosemary crackers and cooked some chicken korma. The day before we cleaned out the gutters on the roof and got all the pots ready for our patio garden (tomatoes, peppers, etc.).

We've put some molding on stairposts, refinished a table, washed and detailed the car, put up the hummingbird feeders, written and edited twelve chapters of book I'm working on, cleaned up the lawn and flower beds, planted grass seed and more.