September Bloom Day

I was up early this morning, couldn't wait to get out there and take photos...I wrote a whole story that was lost between uploading images and getting the kids off to school...oh well. I missed last month's GBBD because we were in the Davis Mts. and Big Bend participating in the Texas Hummingbird Roundup which was wonderful. I'm so happy to be back home because Autumn is my favorite time of year, when the relief from the heat makes everything magical again and the summer growth is deep and green and mature and the long wait for Fall color is on the verge of happening...any minute now...oh wait, we're in Texas. Scratch that.

My view of the culinary garden, where I take my morning coffee, and contemplate the day.

It's almost a year now that I've been watching the garden change, trying not to meddle too much. I put in 18 months of work to bring my garden to a point of readiness for a tour and the last 11 months I've been considering the next move, literally...we'll be moving in 3 years and I need to have this space, renter ready...easy to maintain, because I don't expect anyone to spend the time I've been spending in my garden. Loving spouse, and the daughters will all be finished with school and we will, as a family...in our own directions, disperse, to return to this home at a much later date in time. So...I've watched things die, a lot of things. I haven't tried to help. My St. Augustine lawn, now in full sun refuses to give up...the bane of the neighborhood I'm sure (note to self: I should probably take down the "Conscious Gardening" signs as I do this...) and the Sycamore tree that was destined to become a goddess sculpture, decided to don a green dress and is unrecognizable. I intend to transform the front yard into a wildflower prarie with fruit trees. We'll see if that happens.

Heralding my favorite season...Fall Obedient Plant.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this months show...it's not too shabby for what's going on around here. I just love the monthly tally and for those of you who haven't checked out Carol's blog:
May Dreams Come

you must do so as she is the keeper of the list...the list of all of us gardeners who love participating in, and seeing what is blooming all over the world each month. This is her idea, and a fantastic one at that.

Pecans!
Mexican Sage, cuphea and Rosemary.

New Gold Lantana, pony's foot, white lantana and Mexican oregano.

Fall Obedient plant, Thyrallis, Texas Sage.

Plumbago

Magestic Sage

Red Yucca, skullcap, Autumn Sage and Provincial Lavender.

Forgive the fuzziness of this shot...the bumble bee was so fast! I missed the hummingbird that was working this same barometer bush, Texas Sage. Below is fall obedient plant and in the background blooming...almond verbena, which smells delicious.



Autumn Sage


More blooming sage...

This is a cheat...I snapped it yesterday afternoon because the Passion Flower Vine doesn't open it's blooms until the sun hits it...

This is the same vine this morning...it has 9 flowers on it, which you can't see yet. Also blooming in this shot are, purple cone flower, butterfly weed, and bulbine. The reason I put this in is to show how the passion vine has taken over a rose bush...and is halfway up my house. When Randy gave me a few of these last summer, I didn't believe him when he said they were invasive...I have them all over my side garden and backyard now, I can't bring myself to take them out though, they're so happy and the butterflies love them.

My Bob cat, garden cat.

I got a new digital camera for my birthday and haven't really taken the time to play with it properly, but this is it's "pinhole" feature on some bronze fennel.

Red Okra

Red Okra flower, I think they are stunning!

Check out the aphids on this Butterfly Weed!

Beans, I can't remember what kind...I just put them everywhere...I hope these will grow up the tree house, they get a fair amount of sun...we'll see. Dorothy has spotted a squirrel.

Eggplant

Oxalis and a simple philodendron, which came back from the roots.

A chewed up Turks Cap.

Pink Island, Mexican Petunia, or ruellia

Blooming onions and a tiny row of arugula. You can also see culinary sage, new onions, Melissa, Gregg's Mistflower and Rosemary in this shot...none of which are in bloom presently.

Tobasco Pepper

This is the spider web arbor that I drew up for Bob Poole of Draco Gardens to make for me...he took my chicken scratch of a sketch home and this showed up on my porch a few weeks later. There is nothing this man can't do with metal! I love it and can't wait for Cecile to bloom!

Volunteer Moon Flower or Datura. I lost my double purple frill this winter, but the white one returns yearly.

Other things blooming but not photographed:

Mexican Honeysuckle

Hymenoxys

Russian Sage

Purslane

Fern leaf Verbena

Purple Lantana

Flame Acanthus

Rock Rose

Blue Mealy Sage

Chili Pequin

Basil

Crape Myrtle

I'll add what I've forgotten in the coming days to this list. There's just a lot going on, though my guiding thought is: simplify...things need to change. In June I found a home for the bunnies, and last week, Cat of Amlo Farms welcomed my chickens into her fold. We now have 4 cats (one feral porch cat, that will stay with the house) 2 dogs and a long line of beta's "Flash the Birthday Fish" will be our last one. The number of plants who can handle the Texas Sun and unpredictable winters will continue to diminish. There is an end in sight.

What's blooming in your garden?

Happy Gardening!

Hi-hoe Hermine!

Well, after a summer of a lot of nothin' by way of gardening I mean...loving spouse and I roused ourselves just in time for the big one! We're terribly late, but just yesterday we finally put in our tomatoes, planted beans and chard and greens and did a whole lot of necessary cleaning up of the yard and today the storm hit!

I thought Friday's rain would have soaked the ground enough to stop the flooding...but my Croc's went floating off into the backyard just a few minutes after I snapped this shot!
I hope the seeds don't just float away!
Aw shucks, they're just beans!

I broke my rain gauge earlier this summer, but my neighbor says hers is showing 7 inches...I've been listening to the storm all day and it's been so nourishing to my dry bones! Yippie!


Happy Gardening!

Way Out West

August, the perfect time to get outta Dodge...and head for the hills...or rather the mountains, the Davis Mountains and Big Bend. Hubby and I participated in this year's Texas Hummingbird Roundup and took in some much needed adventure. I'll spare you the entire itinerary and just say that before the Roundup, we went to Balmorhea, hiked in the Chiuahuan Desert at the Research Center and laid out under the stars to see the Perseid Meteor Shower, whilst drinking some Hoptober and enjoying our friend and fellow CAMNer, Bill.

Female Black Chinned Hummingbird in the cage. Christmas Mountains

Female Black Chinned Hummingbird

Male Lucifer Hummingbird

Flowering Huisache

Christmas Mountains


The roundup took place in and around the Davis Mountain Resort, on 3 private properties including the above Christmas Mountains and our final destination was a hike to the bottom of the Chisos Basin at Big Bend.



Tuna, the fruit of the Prickly Pear was abundant.

All over the Chiuahuan Desert cacti were in bloom, like this Century Plant on the hike down the basin. This is another favorite of hummingbirds and bats.

Nicotiana in bloom, the preferred food of the Blue Throated Hummingbird

Ocotillo outside of Big Bend.

The beautiful Texas Madrone tree, in all our hiking we only saw 3 in the mountains, but we saw a few at Sul Ross that had been planted in honor of Deans.

Emory Peak, Big Bend.

One of many blooming mallows.

The trail behind Indian Lodge in the Davis Mountains State Park, it's a relatively easy hike.

The clearing after a brief storm outside Alpine, Texas.

Well, I went through the pink flowers in the "Wildflowers of Texas" book and didn't find this beauty, I'd love an ID.

Indian Lodge trail.

The Indian Lodge from the trail.

The Indian Lodge was built by the CCC, a troop relocated from Bastrop. They made the bricks, built the lodge and also made a lot of the original furniture which still remains. I think it's one of the nicest of the CCC lodges I've been to, and I always try to stay at them whenever possible. However, the bed was lousy, the shower had no pressure and there was no complimentary coffee. The restaurante left us unimpressed, but I must say it was reverently quiet. We ventured into Ft. Davis and found a wonderful Mexican Restaurant, BYOB across from a liquor store and a darling natural food market that resembled a manageable WholeFoods/Central Market in a SunHarvest size, it's attached to Stone Village Tourist Camp, where we stayed for 3 nights and it was wonderful! Organic gourmet coffee free to the guests, pool and they had hummingbird feeders that were packed!

Top of the trail.

Milk Thistle

I love the rock piles created by hikers over the years...this one was huge and had wildflowers growing through the cracks and around the base.

More view from the hike, which took us about 2 hours. We saw javelina, jackrabbit, roadrunner and a bunch of butterflies and other birds, and the cacti were all blooming like this Spanish Daggar.

One of many, many DYF's (damn yellow flower) on the trail.

The clarity of the puddle and the single butterfly wing in it was poetic.

Though I've heard about the dung beetle, I'd never seen them in action. We stopped and watched these two roll this perfectly round ball of dung a few feet...they were amazingly quick.

This jackrabbit didn't seem to mind us watching him snack on tuna.

It was really wonderful to see wild Esperanza! This is taken from the top of the hiking trail off Skyline Drive, overlooking the town of Fort Davis.

Our favorite resting spot on the hike, we went back later that evening to just sit and take in the beauty and silence.

These barn swallow nests were everywhere we went! I totally admire the building style.

Watching Mama Barn Swallow go in and out feeding her kiddos!

Well, this was the last hike we took and we were the first ones on it that morning...made me feel guilty walking through all those spider webs. This hike is rather hard to find as it's tucked behind a picnic rest area about 10 miles from the McDonald Observatory off the road completely. Well worth the time it took to find it.

I wish I knew what this Dr. Seussian thing was! Not knowing her name didn't stop us from admiring her blowing in the wind! Thanks to Lee and Christine, who live way out west...for the ID...it's an Apache Plum!

My favorite rock pile on the Madera Canyon trail.

Not the largest grass hopper we saw, but he was very balanced and strong, the wind was blowing and he just went about his business swaying with the DYF.

This is the last view I'm going to leave you with, it's the last place we sat down for a rest on the hike. The trip was magical, the hikes were invigorating and gorgeous and I think West Texas will go on the calendar for next August as well. It was expandingly beautiful and cool in the evenings and though hot during the afternoons, it was not as hot as Austin! I hope you enjoyed the photos from our only escape from town this summer!

Happy Gardening

North Austin Funk...Numero Dos

I don't remember the dimensions of "The Wall" but the message is clear. Jean Graham is the Brentwood artist who had the idea and it was a long process. The wall runs along Woodrow Ave behind the neighborhood MiniMax (located in Crestview) one of the coolest places in the 'hood. The first meeting of minds happened at El Mercado years ago, Linda Anderson, the wonderful art teacher at Brentwood Elementary School, myself and Jean made the first sample pieces that sold the idea to the hood. It's a massive piece of historical art.

Hedrich Michaelson is a dedicated gardener with a beautiful yard and her husband Phil, a great sense of wonder. They have toys tucked in here and around the veggies and native flowers in their xeriscaped front yard. It's always fun to walk by and see what's new.
My friend Ellen's house is on the market (check it out here) one of the coolest, biggest houses in Crestview...but you can still see the shadow of an artist if you're paying attention to detail. She threatened to "shoot my ass" if she found me in her yard...hehe. I love the turquoise balls on the Redbud tree out front. Hi Ellen, ya missed!

Charming gas lamps painted by children, or someone with a childlike perspective. (Note to self: repaint your pathetic lamp!)


I had to hang over the fence to capture the wonderful metal art below.

Wabi-Sabi and I have been walking the 'hood all summer and I'm only showing a few of Michele's playful charms with permission of course!

Every time I try to write something, some bone-head has stolen the Sharpie!

Pan, the goat-god with breasties, sits beneath the Oak tree out front, playing an invisible flute. The story is a good one as to how she acquired it...but not necessary...it's a delightful, melancholic, blast from the past, on its own.

In order to present our neighborhood in full spectrum, I'd need a turret entry, a color entry, a this isn't art but trash entry and many more...There's a lot of new construction and many houses on the market. I think some may still consider this part of town "transitional" but then again, what isn't? Featuring my 'hood is hopefully a great way to draw artists to this part of town...we have a plethora of creatives, but I'm always open to meeting more cool people...it's all part of the dream. Stay cool and...

Bloom Where You're Planted, if you're not planted...transplant yourself here.

Happy Gardening!