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.