White Wolf Hill · East Texas
Leigh Writes
“Well, how are things at your place?”
Notes from White Wolf Hill — twelve years on one hill in the East Texas piney woods.
The lake at White Wolf Hill
About
I’ve been on this hill since 2014.
I’m Leigh — a Texas Master Naturalist in the East Texas piney woods, on a patch of ground I’ve had long enough now to know by heart.
I spent my career with the federal government and retired early, with a long list of things I finally meant to go learn. Then I left the city for this hill and set about learning the place itself: what grows here, what moves through, what the water does in a dry year.
Then my father had a heart attack, my mother’s dementia deepened, and the country locked down. I spent those years caring for them, and my mother died not long after. Her whole life pointed at her family. When she called she always opened the same way — “Well, how are things at your place?” — and I miss hearing that come down the phone line more than I know how to say.
The difference this hill made in that stretch is most of why I write about it now. Some of this is still me answering her question.
What I have these days is quieter. Volunteer days with my chapter, state parks and preserves, a kayak when the water’s right, the Texas wine country, and a hill I still haven’t finished learning. Most of what I write starts as something I noticed out here and couldn’t stop turning over.
Latest writing
Nature Writing and Journaling
A blend of writing, sketching, and painting to document what you notice — and a way of looking that changes what you see on the next walk.
Keep reading →
What I’m writing about
Three strands, one place
The naturalist work
Life in the Piney Wood Lakes Chapter — trainings, volunteer days, and the Gazebo Nature Preserve at Lake Livingston, through the seasons.
Places I’ve been
State parks, trails, preserves, put-ins, and Texas wineries — with the practical detail you’d want before going yourself.
Life out here
Retirement that didn’t go to plan, caregiving and after, and what a quieter life turns out to require.
Today at White Wolf Hill
Sunrise, moon phase, and what’s playing — written fresh every morning, mostly for my family. You’re welcome to look in.
