Garden Blooms.

Our recent welcome rains have brought some blooms to the garden. The Cenizo (Texas Sage) only blooms after a rain (just watering won't do it). Mine burst into bloom the first day it rained!




I have several clumps of Blood Lily that bloom every fall. It's one of my favorite plants. There was no sign of them until the rain and they shot up overnight and are now in full bloom. Amazing!

Rain at last!!

Can't believe it has been a month since I posted to my blog. The month of August has been really bad as far as gardening goes around here. Had to water way too much just to keep things alive. I hope we have turned a corner this weekend with the beneficial rains we are having.

Now I can start thinking about some fall planting. Planning to plant lots of herbs and some fall veggies including lettuce, brocolli, kale, spinach, etc. First I have to clear weeds - they are the only things that have thrived this summer!

The photo above is from my yard earlier in the summer - a swallowtail butterfly feeding on a phlox bloom.

Class of '61

I have had so much fun the past 2 weeks catching up with some of my best friends from high school. Even though we are spread out over many miles, the internet allows us to talk like we are all together. We have exchanged photos and info about our lives, kids and grandkids. Such fun, and we all agree we feel much younger remembering our "teen years." Here is a photo of some of the graduates. Aren't they the cutest! Such promise in their smiles. (I am not in this photo, by the way.) We hope to have an "in person" reunion soon.

(photo courtesy of Judy W.)

Garden Survivors.

This has been a tough summer in Central Texas. Extreme heat and drought - a bad combination. However, a few of my plants are tough and doing pretty well. They are survivors for sure.

Rose Mallow perennial hibiscus

Verbena Bonariensis and Portulaca

Esperanza (Yellow Bells)

Gulf Fritillary on Passion Vine laying eggs.

Gulf Frittilary caterpillar on passion vine (passion vine and perennial morning glory growing on fence together).

Barn Owl

We have a beautiful barn owl living on our property. We see him in the backyard nearly every day or evening. He swoops in and sits in a tree and sometimes even goes to the bird bath (water is scarce these days). He will sit and seem to look straight at me and doesn't move if I don't get too close. This year we have seen bobcat, deer, raccoons, opposums, armadillos, skunks and snakes on our property, in addition to the usual array of squirrels and birds. All are interesting and mostly good to have (not sure what armadillos are good for, except digging up the yard), but I think the barn owl is the most interesting of all. I hope to get more photos of the owl when my Canon returns from the repair shop.

Houseboat.

This summer has been terrible for gardening around here so not much to talk about there. We are staying busy with our new project - a houseboat. It is a fixer upper but we are enjoying the challenge. We still have the pontoon boat for actually going out on the lake. The houseboat is more like a floating cabin. Jerry has been doing some carpenter work on the exterior and I have been on cleanup duty inside. We will be painting inside and putting down new flooring. Also new ceiling tiles are needed. Here are a few photos. I plan to post updates as work progresses.

View out the back. Bunk beds on left.

View out to front deck.Side view and upper deck.

Cameron on the front deck.

Curtains for sliding door.

Trip to Smoky Mountains.

The travelers.





Smoky Mountain beauty.

The forest.

Mountain stream.

We had a great trip to the Smoky Mountains, Memphis, Nashville and Biltmore Estate in Asheville. Beautiful country that I had not visited before. We drove and hiked through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What a rich history we found there! Biltmore Estate was amazing, Memphis and Nashville are both great cities to visit.

Birds, birds, birds.

This is a painted bunting in my small fountain. Had to shoot through window screen, so not a very good photo. The colors are spectacular on this bird and we have some every year. They nest in our wooded area and come in to bathe.

Another shot of the painted bunting. So pretty!

Just a few of the cardinals under our bird feeder today. Mostly pairs, the males are red and the females have an orange beak and are brownish with some reddish orange. Love cardinals, and we have many around here!

Earth Day.

Well, I have been spending too much time on Twitter and have not taken care of my blog. Spring is in full swing, we have gotten some rain and everything is green right now. I have taken some photos to show how beautiful spring is in our part of Texas. The top photo is Coral Honeysuckle in bloom - the hummingbirds love it! The other photo is of the path Jerry and I cleared in the woods. I have been walking on it every day and it is so peaceful. The birds are really singing and flying through the trees every morning. As you can see, Lucy enjoys the path also.

Hummingbird Moth.

This has been a weird spring with lots of ups and downs in temperature. Hopefully we will settle down now. I have lost some tomato plants (even though I covered them) and lots of new growth has frozen on plants. This afternoon I was out watering and saw a pair of hummingbird moths feeding on my columbine and dianthus. They are some of my favorite insects - not really related to hummingbirds but they remind you of them. Their wings go so fast and they feed on tubular flowers like hummingbirds do. Here are a couple of photos I took.

Julius Caesar

Last night was Live Oak's production of Julius Caesar. They did a great job. This is a photo of Lindsey and her friend Josie in their "togas."

Planting time.

We have had some beneficial rains and I have gotten some planting done. Several tomato plants and the seed for some bush beans are in the ground. We have a cold front coming this weekend, so I will have to protect my tomatoes. That is common this time of year in Texas. Here are some photos of my raised beds and my Texas Mountain Laurel in bloom (the blooms smell just like grape koolaid).

Spring!!

Here are a few photos of Spring at our place. I like winter, but it is always exciting to see everything come back to life in the Spring.

Valentine's Day Wedding.

Craig and Cassie will have an easy anniversary day to remember as they tied the knot on Valentine's Day. A very small wedding but a big day in their lives, and the lives of their 5 (combined) kids. Life is always busy at their house with 3 girls and 2 boys filling it with activity. Here's a photo of the happy family.

Another Birthday.

Well, another birthday has come and gone; they sure come around quickly. We made the trip to Dallas on Friday, the 30th, to attend Grandparent's Day at Chandler and Delaney's school. Since Friday was my birthday, we had a nice dinner with family and friends that evening. These are photos of the fun that ensued. I think everyone had a good time.

Cold, blustery day.

It's a cold winter day in Texas. Some areas are getting freezing drizzle and we are forecast to get some tonight. I am in by the fire, so thought I would try to get in a blog entry. This is the sort of day that makes you dream of spring and start planning the garden.

This is a photo of a large frog or toad who lived in a pot on the patio last summer. I'll bet he or she is hibernating somewhere and will be back in the spring. Often they dig down in the dirt of a pot and live there all winter.

Bluebonnets and Knitting in January.

I haven't done too well with my resolution to blog more and take more photos but I plan to do better. Today I got outside and did some things in the yard and that made me think about Spring. I have included a photo I took of Bluebonnets sprouting in our pasture. If we get some decent rains they will really start growing. On the opposite end of things, I know winter is just getting started so I have been knitting. The photo is of a scarf I am knitting on really big needles so it goes very fast. I used 2 different kinds of yarn I had on hand and it is looking very pretty. Easy, easy!

Happy 2009!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and let's all hope for a happy, healthy and promising New Year. I have several resolutions for 2009. My blog resolution is to post more often and take more photos. Stay tuned.