I have several large pots filled with dirt in various spots in the back yard. They are leftovers from plants that have either died or been replanted, and I haven’t gotten around to planting something new in them yet. Two years ago (or maybe 3?) I noticed a shoot growing in one of these pots. Another volunteer. I let it go for a while and realized it was a crepe myrtle. The first year it grew a bit and leafed out. The second year, it had a few more shoots and it even had a few flowers. This year I want to start to shape it into a taller tree, rather than a bushy shrub. So, a couple of weeks ago, I pruned it back to two bare, woody stalks about 3 feet high.
In the shot above, you can see some of the big buds that have popped out along the main branches. Glad to see that I didn’t kill it. 🙂
First day of spring! It rained buckets overnight. The front passed through here about 1:30AM this morning. It dumped a ton of rain in the Hill Country, so the lakes are on the rise! As of right now, Lake Travis has risen 4′ since this time yesterday (@ 636.7′), and is expected to rise another couple of feet, as they have the flood gates open on Lake LBJ and Lake Marble Falls, to let their overflow pass through.
After work tonight I took a walk out back to see what I could see. One of the birdbaths caught my eye. The water was so calm, like glass. There were leaves in the bottom of it, but I didn’t want to disturb the surface of the water, so I just took it as is. I like how the cedar elm tree above it is reflected in the surface.
The shot above is after I changed it to black & white. The original is below. I like the B&W better. It seems to show much more detail of the reflection. How about you?
We met Doray & Tom at BB Rover’s tonight for dinner and to play a few rounds of pinochle. The ladies won a tightly contested best-of-three match.
Today is the last day of winter. Spring will officially be upon us at 12:14 AM local time tomorrow morning.
I have a couple of unrelated other shots I wanted to post… one is of a deer that has taken to laying outside the guest bedroom window. He’s got an injured foreleg, and has been back here a couple of times. This shot is from the bedroom window. He’s only inches away. Forgive the crummy shot through the solar screen on the window. You get the idea.
Oh deer!
And this is a shot of a bunch of Texas Mountain Laurel seeds that I harvested from a bush growing in the greenbelt when we were there on Saturday afternoon. I looked online to learn how to prepare the seeds for germination. These seeds are from last season, they are hard and red and have shrunk a bit. Conventional wisdom says to knick them and then soak them till they swell a bit, and then plant them about an inch deep. The little dimples on the seeds in the picture below are where I cut through the shell of the seed. The seeds soaked for about 8 hours, so they are plumped up a bit from when I knicked them. I’ve got these guys in pots in the back room now so that I can tend them. I hope they take! We want to plant a bunch of mountain laurels along the back fence line. I’ll let you know how they turn out… FYI these are supposed to be poisonous, so if you try this at home… don’t eat them 🙂
Texas Mountain Laurel seeds.
There is rain in the forecast…it’s been slow getting here. But as I type this post, there’s a big red line just moving into our area. I’ll have to sign off now to watch the weather channel (my favorite).
It’s hard to believe we will ever have a nice lawn again. The weeds rule this spring.
Oh well, you know what they say:
If you can’t beat ’em….
Take a picture of ’em!
🙂
I’m enjoying this last weekend of winter. It’s in the 70’s… very humid, though, with rain in the forecast (yay!).
Yesterday afternoon we ran to the lake for a sail in nice winds for a couple of hours. Saw Kurt, Wally & Kevin as we were leaving the marina. We decided to head in early, and topped off a lovely St Patrick’s day with a beer and corned beef and cabbage at BB Rover’s. Slainte!
I made it home last night at 11:45, so I was able to give Monte a birthday hug before it was over, after all.
We’re having a lovely Saturday, so far. I love being home.
I enjoyed walking around the yard this morning to see what had changed in the last week. Just 7 days ago monte planted some rows of lettuce seed. As you can see in the shot above, by this morning they’ve formed little green lines of lettuce seedlings.
We took a walk through the park at the end of our street this morning and ended up looking for one geocache there that has eluded us several times. We couldn’t find it again today. (darnit!) When we got home I looked it up again to read recent comments from people who had found it. It bugged me so much that we decided to go back to try to find it again. We also checked the magnetic declination (the difference between magnetic and true north) for our area and updated the GPS. And this time we took our bikes. We ended up finding it… FINALLY… and then went on to look for (and found) two others in another park nearby. Whew. What a relief.
Now we’re plotting how to spend the rest of St Patrick’s Day.
I am in New York this week for some meetings. It is unseasonably warm here, as it is in other parts of the country this winter. It was in the 50’s and 60’s today. No snow on the ground. This tree, outside of my hotel, is covered with big buds already getting ready to pop.
February has 29 days this year. I’m going to savor each one!
The weather has been beautiful during the past week. Highs in the 60’s, even creeping into the 70’s, clear skies. And, it’s been breezy, the winds started out of the north and then slipped back into the normal southerlies. The wind has almost emptied the red oak of its leaves. The picture on the left was taken last Saturday, the one on the right today. Monte’s already planning his leaf collection strategy for this year. We are getting off easy, though. About half the leaves uncharacteristically fell in the Summer and the Fall, due to the drought, and they are long gone. Half of the rest blew down the street over the last few days 🙂 .
One of the things I enjoy about our little homestead are the many large trees that surround it. It’s a blessing, but also a challenge with the extended droughts we’ve experienced over the last few years. We just couldn’t seem to put enough water on the trees this summer, given the water restrictions we had, and the fact that our sprinkler system is currently out of service. Though quite stressed by the drought, most of them weathered through the summer. We lost a redbud out back (*sniffle*), and I’m not sure about the ornamental pear out front — we’ll just have to see how it looks in the spring.
The Shumard Red Oak that graces the front yard is ginormous, and is a sight to behold when the leaves start to change. Even though it lost many of its leaves this summer, there are still plently left to fall (and to rake up in about a month).
The strange thing is that i cannot find an acorn on the entire tree this year. I guess that’s a result of the drought stress as well. Last year, by comparison, was a bumper crop for acorns, and the squirrels went nuts (pardon the pun). This year the little critters are going to have a hard time finding food — which means they’ll be trying to eat anything attached to, or around the house, that looks like food. (So, be warned!)
With Thanksgiving safely in the record books, now I’m ready to look ahead to Christmas. But it’s stunning how early all the retailers and television channels start to decorate for Christmas. I saw Santa decorations out before Halloween this year.
As I was walking through the back the red berries and green leaves caught my eye. I think this is a yaupon holly. Very festive!
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted something. Things have been very busy lately. So, i’ll take the liberty of a longer post today.
From the base of the Summit Trail.
We took today off, starting a much awaited and long overdue week or so of vacation. The day was overcast and a tad chilly. We set out into the Hill Country – destination Enchanted Rock. This gigantic outcropping of granite rock was formed about a billion years ago. It’s a stark contrast to the tree-covered, rough limestone hills that surround it. The summit trail leads up the 425′ vertical climb to the top, which is 1825′ above sea level. If you look at the picture above you can see a person approaching the top, and a few people along the way – which give a sense of the scale of the Rock.
Autumn in the Hill Country.
It was quite windy at the top. But what great views! We don’t get a lot of autumn color, so I really enjoyed seeing this patchwork of rust, gold and green from above.
The close up views were worth seeing as well. The shot above is of the rust colored lichens that can be found covering the pink granite rocks.
Craggy.
On the way down I couldn’t resist taking this shot of a wind-beaten, twisted, dead oak tree against the sky.
Oh, deer.
After we made it back down we came across several deer, right on the edge of the parking lot. This guy turned to say bye.
Barrel o fun!
On the way to the park we drove through Fredericksburg and stopped to walk through some of the shops. We ate lunch at Der LindenBaum – home of awesome traditional German cooking. On the way home, we couldn’t drive by Becker Vineyards without stopping in for a flight of wine tasting.
FINALLY the rain gods have smiled on us. We got a few minutes of showers yesterday afternoon, but this morning a front came through and dumped about 2 inches at our house, and hopefully a lot more in the Hill Country, bound for Lake Travis.
The shot above captured a splash from a raindrop in the birdbath out back.
The shot below captured a rain drop in free-fall 🙂
I decided to take the afternoon off today. So Monte and I went out to lunch, something we haven’t done in a while. As we were getting back in the car, it started to sprinkle. We stood there in awe… It has been so long since any rain has fallen, and even longer since any rain that has fallen has stuck around long enough to make a difference.
By the time we got to our house it was raining lightly, but only for about 15 minutes or so. Let’s hope there’s more in store in the next few days.
Sheila365 