Early Summer

Dwarf tropical water lily - Dauben. Always wanted a water lily so now there it is - seems pretty happy growing very fast. Note cactus blooms - all the cactus are happy and blooming. Also note pony tail palm, it is well over 30 years old. It was about 8' tall but froze down one year when it got into the mid teens, it was in the barn and froze anyway.

Hoya is really blooming now. But aphids show up about once a year - fairly easy to get rid of. Spray with very diluted dish soap, then spray with water hose a little later. Moved it to a location that will hopefully allow the fragrance onto porch. Petunias and osmanthus also scent the porch. Had a few stunted Easter Lillys that were wonderful.

First time to plant cosmos, bad culprits below loved it. Had to put up ugly fence. Token garden includes tomatoes, basil, cayenne peppers. Also zinnias and a delphinium in pot.

Magical Aloe Vera blooming. 

Magical Morning Glories just starting - suffered at first bc of bad culprits below... had to replant.

Bad baby culprit - ToughButt wouldn't have allowed it. These little things have almost no fear. Also baby squirrels have found the bird food. On a better baby note - there are a bunch of baby birds around, including blue birds. They love the yard w short grass to catch bugs.

Spring 2013

Tough little bluebonnets dealing with hard conditions this spring. Didn't post flower pictures so far this year bc it has been so dry. We did have a little rain last week.

Eastern Bluebird eggs in one of the nest boxes my brother and I put up this year. This is the second round of eggs in this box. We have had a few nests that had babies in them w feathers - hope they made it - bet they did.

Mourning doves in nest by kitchen window. First time any bird has made it this far in this location - usually something gets the eggs or babies. Saw one of these fly out of nest the other day. There are now a new set of eggs in the nest.

This is its first bloom - four years old, a unique plant. Grown from seeds that came from plants that a friend gave me - this is the only survivor of maybe 50 or 100 that I tried. If I had a hundred plants to decide if they were beautiful enough, I might x this one. But as it is, think I'll keep it.

Heavenly Retreat

Heavenly Retreat up around Cushing, Texas. Had occasion to visit, it was truly a retreat from the events transpiring.

There are a number bluebird houses along the fence around the house. And you can watch all kinds of birds at the feeders.

Feeding the cows on a foggy morning.

Collard, Mustard, and ? greens, spinach, and onions in the winter garden.

Lucky the red cow with her offspring Oreo. Both have white on head. Lucky is the last cow from Winedale farm which were all red. She is getting old but still doing ok. White on face resembles inverted question mark - so somehow that gave rise to the name Lucky.

Birdhouses

Converted from ag to wildlife exemption this year - built 13 of these birdhouses for eastern bluebirds (some other kinds also). The stove pipe is supposed to keep varmints out. Off in the distance a few more are visible.  Hopefully they will turn grey and blend in before very long.

It's been foggy in the mornings lately. Spider webs catch the fog on the cactus.

Chili Piquin

in the right conditions these little beauties grow wild under the trees. With just the little rain we've had, 2012 was a good year, some years I don't see any. they are somewhat hot. also called bird peppers? If they are not picked soon they will all disappear, have never seen it but think birds eat them.

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.