Did you check any of that water for trout?
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Very strong allergies, even for people who normally have none. We call it cedar fever. While the tree is native to the central texas hill country, it acts a lot like an invasive plant in neighboring areas. Beautiful shrubby trees with interesting growth patterns and bark. The berries are important for birds.
Still evil
ETA: yes, very prolific breeder. There was this big wildfire in the Brazos pine forest nearby. Now, in addition to planting more pines, activists are having to remove the cedar that keeps moving in because the pine can’t grow with the cedar crowding it out. My personal theory is that climate change around here is favoring that tree’s expansion and disfavoring trees that are not as good at handling drought and wild temperature swings in winter. The cedars will release their pollen when it has been warm and then there’s a cold snap and the winds are high. And while this has always been a pattern for central Texas, it seems like in the last 20 years that pattern has become more extreme
https://texnat.tamu.edu/library/symposia/juniper-ecology-and-management/biology-and-ecology-of-ashe-juniper/
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs_journals/2022/rmrs_2022_hanberry_b001.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiwyqX74Mz8AhVblWoFHb8AB-YQFnoECDEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1HOuw3R-iVTm3Wi6vSWs3H
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs_journals/2022/rmrs_2022_hanberry_b001.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiwyqX74Mz8AhVblWoFHb8AB-YQFnoECDEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1HOuw3R-iVTm3Wi6vSWs3H
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Always. 
But it was skinny water, and that section of creek is a few hundred yards from it’s glacial source. The creek bed tends to wander dramatically year-to-year. In some places it’s half a mile from it’s nominal streambed. It’s not an ideal habitat to say the least.
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It’s good that you’re trying. I’ve all but given up on looking for fish in the winter. I remember standing, almost waist deep in snow a few feet from the road and thinking, “Fuck this.” It was the last time I tried winter fishing (that isn’t ice fishing).
Having said that, it’s been warm lately and I’m about to try my local creek. It might actually be fishable right now. 
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we had those juniper/cedars all over the farm i grew up on. upper Brazos. can confirm “cedar fever” is very real. our goats would nibble on the new shoots at the branches and get “christmas tree breath”. made their milk taste funny, so we had to try to keep them away. good luck with trying to get a goat to do anything it doesn’t want to do!
did you know that you can make a very good sourdough starter using the berries? just be sure not to wash them beforehand. the magic is in the powdery wild yeast that coats the berries. couple of handfuls (about a 1/2 cup(?)) in a slurry of flour, water and sugar, cover and wait for the bubbles! true story.
not sure if these are the type of juniper berries that give gin its distinctive flavor, but i am not in the business of making gin! (just drinking it)
edit: i guess i should point out that you want to remove the berries after the starter is established!
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Oh, don’t get me wrong. I barely slow down fishing in winter. It’s just shorter hatches/days. I snowshoed on Saturday and fished yesterday. It was Ok, with the highlight being sight-nymphing to a well-above average rainbow. I watched the fish react when it saw my flies, turn and eat. I lost it when it jumped, but that was still more fun than catching 12-14”ers later in the day.
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that’s the spirit!
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Huh, I did not know that! Now the inclusion of juniper berries in traditional sauerkraut makes sense. I bet that yeast helps with the fermentation. The juniper ash berries are edible but bitter.
Goat herds are often used to control infestations of juniper ashe, where they’ve crowded out other plants.
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I love it! I wish the waters were more productive around here in the winter. I can’t seem to get so much as a sniff from fish this time of year. I may head to an actual river later in the week. If nothing else, there’s whitefish.
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Whitefish used to save the day in winter for me, but they’ve been scarce lately. The water quality in my home waters has gone down since they messed with the dam upstream in 2009. The trout have adapted somewhat, but I haven’t caught a whitefish in almost a decade. The ratio used to be 1:1 while nymphing.
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Luckily, they’re still pretty common around here. They saved my butt on a trip last fall. The water was low and still kinda warm, which made finding trout nearly impossible. But, not only did I catch a tank of a whitefish, I had couple of really nice evenings catching them on dry flies.
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Gorgeous. Wow.
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morning walk took us through the hammock at the end of the street:
the trail is dry year-round, but gets swampy off to either side. wooded mostly with gumbo limbo, buttonwood and lignum vitae with mangroves in the wet places.
snake plant, aka “mother-in-law’s tongue”.
and this:
anyone know what this flowering tree is? it’s pretty
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Starburst bush.
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so awesome! thank you! the mum will be very excited to learn this!
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We didn’t go far, just the neighborhood park. We live in central Texas and it is incredibly dangerous to drive during ice here. So we walked. There are a lot of damaged trees
And the ducks be like “30 degrees? No problem”
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FYI, yesterday’s Something Positive dealt with the ice storm you guys are dealing with right now:
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