This society garlic was one of the perennials I planted this year. I’m happy to see it putting up new blooms.
Tag: photography
Crossing over.
The creek in the greenbelt behind our house is running. The stones are firmly planted and lead you to the other side.
Every rose has its thorn.
When we moved to this house, I scoped out all the plants and trees in the yard, looking forward to taking care of them: the amazing live oaks all over the place, a couple of pecan trees that are majestic but don’t seem to want to produce nuts, a redbud that has since died (sniffle), the ginormous red oak in the front yard, the (now ailing) flowering pear, the resilient Texas mountain laurels, several red yuccas that I love to watch bloom, silverado sage that forecasts the rain, a mimosa tree in the back with its fine pink puffy blooms… just to name a few…AND one tiny cactus that seemed to be too much in the shade.
It was small in the beginning. Monte mowed over it accidentally way back when, after which I staked it out with a ring of limestone. But now after 9 (!) years and much thinning of the small forest under which it sat, it has sunlight, and has thrived. And I am happy to see two buds on it this year! The first one opened today. I’m enjoying my flowering prickly pear cactus. Perhaps this is the yellow rose of Texas?
Chasing sunsets.
We popped into our local public house for dinner and some cards tonight. On the way home we were treated to an awesome sunset… complete with rainbow and mammatus clouds (Monte looked it up). We had to dash around a bit and didn’t get a good shot, but hopefully this gives you an inkling of how beautiful it was.
Renewal.
We have been working in the yard quite a bit lately. Two weekends ago we set out to save a stand of 5 or six struggling young liveoaks in our back wooded area that had been dealt two bad cards: they were being overshadowed by invasive hackberry trees, and completely defoliated by catepillars this spring. They looked like goners.
So we cut the hackberries down, fertilized the oaks, and sprayed to get rid of the remaining catepillars. For the last two weeks i’ve been checking on them every day, watching tiny lime green buds pop out up and down each branch, and then watching the buds turn into tiny leaves. And with all the recent rains they are starting to look like trees again. I think they’ll make it!
Red zinnies.
My first zinnia picture of 2015. 🙂
Last fall we visited Wildseed Farms on our way home from a trip to Fredericksburg. We picked up some zinnia seeds. We have a patch or two every year, but they always tend to be shades of fuschia, orange or yellow. Monte was looking for something more vibrant so he chose seed for red zinnias and planted them this spring.
They are just now coming up and are lovely. 
Saturday.
We enjoyed a lovely night on the hook. We cooked up some grilled red peppers, chicken poblano sausages and rice.
We’re spoiled now…used our phone as a wireless hotspot and then streamed shows off of amazon prime on TV down below until we both fell asleep. Not exactly roughing it. 🙂
This morning I paddled for quite a while then went ashore to scrub 6 months of gunk from the bottom of the kayak. I also checked on some geocaches I’d hidden nearby. All good.
Pretty sights: 
Tonight Kurt will join us for another night in the cove. An almost full moon should light things up.
Friday.
We hightailed it out of town after work. The sunset from the back deck:
Wall-to-wall.
This part of New York is quite scenic, striped with miles of meandering stone walls. I like to think they were stacked by hand in the 1800s, bordering pastures and property lines. Slow work, I’m sure, but enduring. 
I’m headed home. TGIF!!
Interstate caching.
My meetings wrapped up atound 6 o’clock. I had about an hour and a half til sunset. So…. I set out for the woods before coming back to my hotel for an evening of email and work. I’m close to the border of Connecticut and New York where I’m staying, so I managed to find geocaches in both states tonight.
This is a placid pond I came across along one of the trails.
Earth Day dawning.
View from my room this morning.
Happy Earth Day.
This is the 45th anniversary of Earth Day. I remember way back then as a wee lass, soon after the EPA was formed, hearing the word “ecology” for the first time. I had a school folder with the ecology symbol on it (remember this?):
We’ve come a long way since then.
On the road.
Where? 
But no matter where I go, I can still look up. This is tonight’s crescent moon with Venus closeby. 
Bed time.
I got a bit of a late start, but I finally tended to my fenceline flowerbed. Plumbago, liriope, red salvia, autumn sage, gaillardia, may night salvia, tickseed, geranium, flowering sage, and a couple white annuals.
I’m looking forward to some color! 
Tree house.
Today was a beautiful sunny Sunday. I spent the day gardening. On my way out back this morning, I noticed a bird fly out of our mimosa tree. On second look he really did fly out of the tree. Must be a woodpecker?
Sheila365 