Tag: Houndstooth

Houston and Drought

If you follow me on Instagram, I’m sorry for repeating photos, but for those who read the blog, this is an example of what we’re dealing with in Houston right now. We are in a drought, and we are limited to watering two nights a week between the hours of 7 PM and 5 AM. The extreme temperatures are exacerbating the situation, and we just aren’t getting the help from the Gulf that we usually get. No idea how this will affect hurricane season, which usually really kicks in for us in August.

This is a shot of our backyard on May 30.

I took this shot today.

It’s likely to get worse, and we have no idea how much if any of the grass might be back. When we moved here, there were four large dogs (Tim’s three, Debby’s one–her other is a small), and our dogs, two mediums and one small. Now there are two large dogs–one senior, one adult (Tim’s), Debby’s one small, and our three small/one tiny. We don’t need the amount of running space for dogs we used to, and we’re hoping that eventually, we’ll mix grassy areas with more bee and butterfly friendly plants and flowers. It’s a long-term plan.

Right now, we’d just love regular subtropical rain–nothing of the hurricane variety–and a break in the heat with its three-digit temps. We are conserving water and electricity, because we are also subject to power grid outages and rolling blackouts.

How are things in YOUR part of the world?

Thursday thoughts

One thing about going back through many years of keeping an online journal or blog is that it reminds me of some of the difficult times I’ve gone through–and come out on the other side.

This is a bad time for me, and it’s not just the attack on my website. It’s an ongoing list of things over which I have little to no control. I do have support, and it’s good support. I’m so grateful for that.

Tom and I went nursery shopping a while back and picked out some things to dress up our patio. He filled several large pots with knockout roses. They were fully flowering when we got them, though of course, those petals are gone. Above is one of the first of the newer buds that opened; I’m looking at it as a good sign. I had roses at The Compound, and I’ve missed them. I hope these roses will take hold and thrive here.

Houston’s experiencing drought-like conditions; with luck, we won’t end up with a watering ban. Even if we do, it’ll mostly impact our grass. We’ll have enough gray water to deal with all the new pots we’ve filled. It’s one reason we chose to go with pots instead of trying to spruce up our “flower” beds. I do have a lot of photos I can share… but I’m writing these posts with my site locked down until I can get everything cleaned up. Every post from LJ and WP have been affected (more than 7,000). I’ve finished cleaning up year 2022, and have completed 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. It takes a full day, sometimes more, to do a year, and I still have a household with dogs to take care of, among other things that require attention. I barely have time to look at social media or the news. Maybe it’s for the best; what I do see leaves me despondent (I am so, so, so, so tired of wealthy white men ruining the world). I know that I should be writing, and I hope as I get into a routine, I’ll manage my time better. There’s no TV, no movies, no reading happening right now. No coloring or art.

I feel driven to complete the task of repairing what’s been done to my eighteen years of people and animals, books written and published, and other interests, along with so, so many photos–it’s my life, or the part of it I’ve shared publicly. When you’ve gone through the experience of a parent with Alzheimer’s, you–or at least *I*–know that memories are packed into our identity and sense of place in the world. In moments when my mother couldn’t remember where she was, and sometimes who I was, all I had to do was bring up something from twenty or thirty or fifty years before, and she could remember and talk about that. Even if she sometimes got a few details wrong, she was happy in reliving things as she remembered them, and seeing her happy was enough.

I’ll keep posting every day. Even if no one ever catches up on what they missed, it’s my record so that, once again, when I’m on the other side of all the things that are awry right now, I’ll see that it all worked out.

Tiny Tuesday!

I painted and Tom installed a couple of letters in Aaron’s Garden. They resemble the tattoo I got back in 2014 on a night out with Timothy and The Brides. Rhonda told me if I’d get it, she’d pay for it, because she knew how much it meant to me. I’ve never regretted it.

Here’s the more colorful version that is now on the wall over Aaron’s Garden.

Subtle from a distance, but our way to show this little section of Houndstooth Hall is a place to remember him.

Today is the thirtieth anniversary of our friend Steve’s death. I remember that I once intended to get stones etched with the names of those friends we lost to HIV/AIDS for one of our flower beds at The Compound. It was the bed where we had the small sculptures of the Winnie the Pooh characters, and I called it Pooh Garden. Those were damaged long ago by time and weather and are gone, but I started considering smaller rocks, maybe even painted stones, that we could place in Aaron’s Garden. It’s something for me to think about, and maybe enlist some friends for help. A creative effort that becomes communal is my favorite kind.

Photo Friday, No. 810

Current Photo Friday theme: Broken

It’s hot as blazes in Houston. I’ve had to take my website private while I repair damage done to it by malicious jerks. Around 7000 corrupt posts covering 18 years. Terra cotta pottery isn’t the only thing broken around here. Technology and its villains have made me feel a bit broken, too.

Broken pottery can be used in the bottom of other plants to give them better drainage. With time and work, I’ll be useful again, too.

Tarot Etc. Thursday No. 22

Last week I featured the 15 Tarot decks I have. Here are the rest of the decks or similar items I’ve located throughout Houndstooth Hall.

I’ve featured four Oracle decks. If you Google the difference between Oracle and Tarot cards, you’ll find a wealth of information (some of it contradictory–good luck!). My decks are:


Celtic Astrology Oracle Cards


The Illustrated Crystallary Oracle Cards


The Urban Crow Oracle


Messages From Your Animal Spirit Guides Oracle Deck

In addition to my Tarot and Oracle decks, here are other items I have on my shelves. Like these, that I should use MORE OFTEN.


Mindfulness On the Go (2014) is a small book by Jan Chozen Bays with twenty-five mindfulness practices that can be done anywhere. These are meant to get a person into the habit of cultivating “the gratitude and insight that come from paying attention with body, heart, and mind to life’s many small moments” (from the back cover of the book).

The Relax Deck (2000), designed by Henry Quiroga, with illustrations by Katarzyna Klein and Hannah Firmin, includes fifty cards with images on one side, text on the other side, all meant to help the user relax. Here is a sample card:

I think this is one of my favorite decks I’ve ever bought for just making me BE STILL AND BE for a while. It’s very refreshing. Not only does it provide inspirational exercises, but it even shows you how you can use the cards in a game with others. I haven’t done that. Yet.


I also have this box of Mindfulness Cards: Simple Practices for Everyday Life (2018), from Rohan Gunatillake. Again, this is a deck I should use more often. Here are the categories:

And some samples from “Curiosity and Joy”:

Here are some of the other resources I’ve shared on here before.


John Nagiecki’s Animal Spirit Knowledge Cards (2007), beautifully illustrated by Susan Seddon Boulet.

Karma Cards (1991), created by Monte Farber.


Rachelle Charman’s Chakra Reading Cards (2016).


My collection of Rune Stones, that includes The Book of Runes (1984) by Ralph H. Blum.

WHEW! I think that’s everything. As I was compiling this post, I found a few more things that might be of interest to you. They reminded me of the importance of mindfulness, gratitude, and the kindness of friends.


This came from a woman I worked with in 1997. Someone very special in her life was LGBTQ, and I’m not sure if she’d shared that at work with more than a few friends. One day, she overheard my quick, sharp response to someone who made a homophobic remark. You never know who’s listening and how your support might uplift someone who needs it. In return, this little book she gave me has many reminders that I recorded of kind things done for me. They’re a pleasure to read and remember all these years later. I need to start writing in this book again.

I want to reiterate this because of other people’s stories I’ve read or heard lately. BE A FUCKING ALLY FOR MARGINALIZED PEOPLE AND USE YOUR VOICE. You don’t have to yell like I just did. Just please don’t miss an opportunity to speak for those who might not be in a position to speak for themselves.


I was confused when I saw this tiny book tucked away on a shelf, because if you’ve read here for any length of time, you know I’m always quick to say that I don’t put a lot of stock in fortune telling. When I looked inside, I remembered how lively LiveJournal once was for many of us. I knew Todd from there, but once people stopped using LJ, and I stopped using Facebook, I lost touch with many of those folks. Thank goodness he inscribed this book when he sent it, since I’d forgotten how it came to me at Christmas 2008. I hope Todd is doing well.


Likewise, you may have read or heard me say I’m not into spell casting. I’ve seen this go wrong for people who don’t know what they’re doing and are trying to control other people’s behavior instead of working on themselves (did I say that in Church Lady’s voice?). However, the title clearly specifies that it’s a GOOD spell book, and once I read the inscription from our friend Steve V, I realize the fun he had in giving it to me (“Jimmy” is his pet name for our mutual friend James). Steve V is an activist and advocate in Houston’s HIV/AIDS community, and he and James are two of the best people who’ve ever come into my life. Grateful for them always.

Did you make it all the way to the end? I’m thinking that this post marks the end of Thursday’s Tarot Etc. posts. However, I want to transition it to Thursday Thoughts, leaving it wide open for anything you might want to discuss, ask about, or if you want me to look into any of these decks for a specific date or animal or card or crystal or mindfulness/meditation exercise or whatever. You know I read all my comments on every post, so if something strikes you, drop a comment anywhere and let me know anything you might want me to talk about on a Thursday. If you want your interest or question to be anonymous, email becky@beckycochrane.com. If you hit “tarot” in that tags list on the right, you can find past posts of specific decks or similar items. Thursdays, YOU get to choose the content.

Tiny Tuesday!

All of us here at the Hall have been trying to do a little gardening and yard work/cleaning to spruce up the place. I’ll be sharing photos now and then, but for today, I wanted to share a tiny find.

After last year’s freeze, we lost botanicals that I’d been nurturing for thirty years. We had a lot of pots filled with nothing but dirt. After more than a year of being bothered by those plant-less reminders, and prompted by a couple of other things (mini health crisis; finally getting to see Lynne’s new home and her always-gorgeous gardens), I got Tom to help me brainstorm what we could do to provide a more pleasing place to enjoy our yard (when the heat and mosquitos will allow it).

One of the first dirty jobs he did was dumping the old soil from all those pots. There’s a certain section along the fence where some dogs like to dig (notably, the late Penny, along with Anime and sometimes Delta), so he used the soil to fill in there. A lot of it was tangled in old dead root balls that he had to break up. In doing so, he found a ceramic frog that my mother had used in one of her potted plants. Don’t know how it ended up there, but if she were here, she’d remind me that if I maintained my plants better, the frog would never have been lost. (I’ll say it again: ONLY David and Debby got the plant-growing gene from her.)

We’d bought some new aloe for small pots on the back patio because I usually have good luck with aloe. However, there’s one aloe plant in Aaron’s Garden on our front porch that has always struggled. I transplanted it to a new pot in the backyard with a thriving aloe plant, gave it some succulent food, and took one of the new plants for Aaron’s Garden. And that’s where I put the frog, so now his garden has a little gift from a grandmother he loved and who loved him so much.

Aaron and Mother, 2008