Hickory

Hickory tree catching the setting sun with moon.

This time of year there are many hickory nuts under these trees. Some creature breaks them open and eats them, a lot of work.

Adios Tree

Daddy-o planted this tree maybe 40+ yrs ago. It may be a white oak or water oak - not a live oak. It was one of a number of trees here that didn' t make it through the drought and one that I was particularly sorry to see go.

Dug around it and cut off the surface roots, took some doing...

Pulled it over w the tractor. All this took a number of days and many tries.

Now will cut it up for firewood and Jimmy using his tractor and chipper will mulch branches that we don't use for firewood. The mulch will go on walkways, around Bro's trees, and in the garden. Don't know how much mulch to expect.

 View without the tree.

Used all the mulch for a walkway. Didn't make a huge amount.

Paris

Notre Dame de Paris
truly celestial choral music, Sunday 10/7/2012
w Bro Mark, Matt, Carrie, Ethan.

Rome

down the Appian Way for Bro's birthday
- be careful, it's very hard to return.

Summer Flowers

 Flying Saucer Morning Glories
saw some of these at a friends house years ago, just now found seeds. Hope the deer don't find them right away. There has been a little rain so things are growing - unlike the last few years.

 Nightshade
wildflower

 Petunia Patch
original seeds from Mr Muske

 Red Bird
original plant from Granny Kleypas

Green Spring

 Bluebonnets peaking, has been a pretty good year.












Hinckley's Columbine starting to bloom at farm, my favorite is Rocky Mountain blue columbine but this beauty will have to do in our Texas climate.

Everything must have been perfect for the petunias, hundreds have come up - along w thousands of weeds. Am pulling weeds every weekend, sooner or later will be a magnificent patch of Muskie petunias (but for armadillos?). Mostly white w some purple and shades in between. Very fragrant.







Tall green grass, mostly rye grass - rye grass may not be good to keep, choking out wildflowers. Also masses of dandelion like plants called Cat's Ear, past years mistake to let them grow alongside bluebonnets going to seed, now they're about to take over. Last few years have been pitiful, but things are looking very good so far this year. I personally like hot and dry, but feel bad for plants/trees suffering.

Spring

First pale blue bonnets are appearing. May be a good year bc of rain.

Found a new flower in the field last year - came back this year, claytonia virginica
















wild muscari

one more dead tree gone - so far this makes 4 trees we have removed bc they are around house. A big water oak seems half alive so far this spring - hope it makes it. There are others that are dead and even starting to fall over on their own out in the woods. It's a sad thing - includes many cedars and native pecans.

A few weeks ago noticed that a number of trees on the hill had bad wind damage. A number of oaks had big limbs at the top knocked out, and about four cedars (about a foot+ diameter) were just broken in two about 6' up. Maybe a small tornado didn't touch ground or something. Sorry for the trees, but glad it didn't hit the house or barn.

Big Rain

Finally had a gully washer, almost 4" here, other close-by areas had 6" - it tried to wash out the new culvert. Started fixing it but will need some gravel. Lake Winedale is all of a sudden about half full and many dry tanks are full or almost full.

 

then started working on dead tree, Bro is way up there... Will cut it down next week if weather is good.

Dandelions are blooming, white seed head reminds me of someone I know... Also narcissus and other very small flowers (< 1/4") - one is called houstonia, but thought it was blue, maybe related to white flower here, looks very similar. Learned how to work the digital macro on my little camera so got these closeups.

Warm Winter So Far

We have had a little rain off and on and a few 70˚ days so far this winter. The narcissus have been trying to bloom for the last month but now they are starting for real. And very nice to see green grass growing after such a dry summer. Lake Winedale is slowly catching a little water. But it can still become very cold yet - until the beginning of March.