Guadalupe County Naturalist

Birding in and around Aransas Pass

2011-05-20T10:23:00.001-05:00

Recently the Texas Ramblin’ Roses (the TX chapter of RVing Women) had a rally in Aransas Pass, TX. A group of us went birding one morning and we were rewarded with about the most perfect birding day one could hope for. The winds were calm, the weather was cool, mosquitoes were rare, and birds were in abundance. I’ve never had a bad birding trip to the Texas Coast and this trip netted me 13 life birds! I should mention that I’m still a novice, having just recently returned to birding after a decades-long absence from the field.

Commen Moorhen

We started out near the RV Park where we saw, among other birds, Roseate Spoonbills, Tri-Colored Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and Great Egrets. We then drove to Port Aransas (saw dolphins from the ferry) to see what we could find at the Birding Center.

We saw two alligators!

Upon entering, we immediately identified a variety of warblers, vireos, and Empidonax flycatchers in the brush right by the trail to the boardwalk. We eventually tore ourselves away to go to the boardwalk for waterfowl watching. We were incredibly lucky to see a Least Bittern and a mother Pied Billed Grebe feeding her two babies. This inspired us to have some seafood of our own and we headed over to Fin’s for a meal and brewskis.

The next day several of the group headed back to Port Aransas to check out Paradise Pond, which had been recommended by a birder we met at the Birding Center. There we saw more warblers, including an abundance of American Redstarts, along with water thrushes. We think we saw both the Louisiana and the Northern Waterthrush but only the northern was listed on the chalk board at the entrance.

On the third day – this is beginning to sound biblical – we drove to Rockport to see the nesting black skimmers. By then the wind had really picked up and the birds were hunkered down out of sight. We did find a rookery in Rockport where we watched herons and egrets moving around in the treetops.

My last two birding trips have rekindled the excitement I had when I first began birding back in the 80s. It feels new and fresh to me and I’m astounded at the variety of birds in Texas, especially along the coast. I’m cementing what I’ve learned by reading, searching the web, and using iBird Pro, the cool app on my Droid.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-11T09:30:00.000-05:00

The spring that blew away

2011-05-03T08:39:00.000-05:00

Here are photos of our brief spring. Yes, I know it’s May and spring is still officially ON, but the heat, drought, and winds seem to have baked, sucked, and blown away spring. Yet we still have some cool mornings out here in the country and, regardless of the vicissitudes of nature, rural life is a source of new found wonder for this long time city slicker. At dusk and dawn the cottontails taunt the dogs by grazing just outside the small fenced in yard. The bird feeders offer a dazzling assortment, including Painted Buntings in full breeding plumage. Hummers fight over their feeders and the Carolina Wrens have already had one brood in a hanging paint bucket – moved to hanging position after they began their nest. We didn’t want some critter to get them.

Emerald moth

Living in a rural area, it figures that vultures would be in abundance. But I didn’t count on the pair of black vultures who have nested right along the dog-walking route. I managed to get a picture of their babies.

Baby Black Vultures

All these birds and bugs have rekindled the lens envy I’ve had for awhile. I would like better closeups of the insects and I want to be able to capture the birds from a safe distance. What I really wish I had a picture of are the Texas Spiny Lizards in the tree where the hummingbird feeders hang. One afternoon two of them tried their best to capture hummers as they buzzed about and roosted briefly in the same tree. Of course, the things that stand still are the easiest to capture and nothing says spring in Texas better than blooming prickly pears.

Moved to the country!

2011-04-06T16:14:00.000-05:00

About a month ago I moved from the city of Austin, TX to my partner’s acreage in Kingsbury, TX. So, calling it my acreage is a bit inaccurate but, since I’m in charge of the landscaping, it feels like mine. We live on about 2.5 acres here in Guadalupe County. I’ve never lived in the country before but, so far, I love it. The night sky is free of light pollution and coyotes can be heard yipping in the distance. Walking from the main house to the little one I use for my office, I’ve startled rabbits out of the brush and I’m told I should be careful of copperheads as the weather warms. Our nest boxes are full of bluebirds, chickadees, and wrens. The red Drummond phlox attracts at least two kinds of swallowtails – the pipevines and the giant (at least that’s what I think it is). The wildflowers are in bloom all around us. Life is good out here and I’ll write more as the season moves from spring to summer and as my landscaping projects get underway. This evening when it cools down a bit I’ll put the flame acanthus in the ground. It miraculously survived the winter in pots.

My lepidopteron summer

2010-07-11T13:26:00.000-05:00

It has been a summer of challenges, well, mostly one challenge – getting my elbow to move. I had a second surgery two weeks ago and I’m making incremental progress. An interesting side effect is that I am living local. I am not commuting to work, unless you count walking down the hall to my office is a commute. I am fortunate that most of my needs can be met within a 5 mile radius. Driving with one arm is a bit of a challenge so I try to limit my freeway driving since doing something dangerous is even more dangerous at high speed. This whole thing has slowed me down quite a bit. I am someone who enjoys a project and a challenge. Grabbing some power tools and putting something together is my idea of fun. But this physical limitation has resulted in a messier house, fewer projects, and more time to read and think.
I start every day with a cup of coffee and an exploration of my backyard. I have an average sized backyard but the diversity is amazing. I have always enjoyed watching butterflies but this summer I have been fortunate to observe lots of larval and butterfly activity. My vegetable garden attracted horn worm caterpillars. (These turn into a moth, not a butterfly.) I went out one day to discover this one covered in these little white things.

A little research turned up some info. The wasp, Cotesia congregata, lays her eggs in the caterpillar (Manduca sexta). The caterpillar is a food source for the larvae. After a while the larvae emerge and continue their transformation, metamorphosing into pupas, and then flying adults. I learned that the tomato plant, or any plant under attack by the horn worm caterpillar, sends out a chemical message which attracts the wasp. This symbiotic relationship – caterpillar, plant, wasp – has gone on at least since the Jurassic period. That’s a hell of a long time.
All around the yard volunteer sunflower plants sprang up in the spring and are now all in bloom. They have attracted some butterfly larvae that I believe to be some sort of checkerspot. They all feed together in a mass and completely skeletalize the leaves.

I was keeping a close eye on these, checking a couple of times a day, watching as they went from small black caterpillars to these more colorful varieties.

But life isn’t easy for them either. One day I went out to the plant they were working on. I had been out a couple of hours earlier but on this second visit, they were completely gone. Circling the plant was a paper wasp. The female paper wasp creates a paper nest and lays an egg in each cell. She feeds the young larvae pieces of chewed caterpillar. In my backyard it appears these checker spots were the victims. I think if I find some more I’m going to learn how to isolate them so that at least a few survive.
But here’s a happy story. When I put in my square foot gardens I planted some dill and parsley. I’m not wild about cooking with either but I remembered that the last time I grew parsley I wound up with swallowtail caterpillars. Growing these plants was all it took to attract them and I’ve been rewarded with several generations so far. Here are a couple of larvae chomping on dill and parsley:

I read that when it is time to pupate, the larvae will travel some distance to find a suitable location. I was fortunate enough to discover one tethering itself to a post I am using to prop up a tomato plant. I didn’t get a picture of the caterpillar pre-chrysalis but I did manage to photograph the chrysalis. Before the chrysalis forms, the caterpillar attaches itself with these two little guy lines that are shown in the chrysalis photograph. The larva sits very still and is slowly transformed into a chrysalis.

And, all I can say is that I must be living right because when I did my little yard tour this morning this black swallowtail butterfly was emerging:

After this last photograph she flew off. I hope she’s able to mate and come back to late more eggs on my herbs.
There are lots of other butterflies in the yard but I haven’t been able to photograph all of them. Here’s a bordered patch butterfly.

I’ve learned a lot about butterflies this summer. It has only whetted my appetite for more information. I want to research and add more butterfly-attracting plants to my yard. If I can get some help with the labor I want to create another bed in the front yard filled only with plants for butterflies.

Forgotten blog - The Square Foot Gardens

2010-07-05T10:58:00.004-05:00

I just realized that I never posted this blog entry. The season is different but here is the entry:

Square foot gardening and the promise of abundance

I haven’t had a vegetable garden in probably 20 years, so when I purchased the Square Foot Garden book by Mel Bartholomew, I was cautiously optimistic. Why cautiously? Because every garden I’ve ever had resulted in wimpy plants. But following on the success of the accidental greenhouse tomatoes, I felt empowered.

I sprouted a bunch of things in those little jiffy pots you can buy everywhere around springtime. My back yard was a mess of bedstraw and fescue – AKA weeds and trash grass. My nephew promised to come over and mow it for me but blew me off. That set me back a week. My seldom used lawnmower needs carburetor work so it sits idle until I can get it over to the repair guy. Finally, my enterprising son managed to borrow the neighbor’s lawnmower and get the yard cleaned up for me. Then came the drilling of holes in the 4’ X 6” x 2” foot wood planks. A trip to the Natural gardener resulted in several bags of their brand of “Mel’s mix”. That made life so much easier. Otherwise I would have had to mix 5 kinds of compost with the other ingredients. This way I just poured the stuff in the big squares.

I got one of the square foot gardens set up over the weekend and put in the second one last night. After sitting all day at the computer, it was so refreshing to be outdoors working with living things. Thankfully, the mosquitoes haven’t hatched yet. Clumsy crane flies loped around and Scrappy, the only cat allowed outdoors, did her best to catch them. After about an hour of work, I felt a little sweaty and slightly itchy and then I remembered that feeling. It was the same one I used to get when I was kid. After school, I would play outside until dark, running around with the neighborhood kids. The world smelled like earth and green, growing things – 50 years ago and last night.

Wordless Wednesday - Mellow Yellows

2010-05-26T11:15:00.001-05:00

The broken arm blog

2010-04-18T22:04:00.001-05:00

Last Friday I tripped and broke my arm. Now I am doing everything with one arm. So everything I was doing before I now tag on “the one armed” in front of it to describe myself. I am a one armed blogger, a one armed gardener, a one armed cook – well, you get the idea.
I am typically very busy person so it’s really hard to sit with my arm up to reduce the swelling while I wait a week for surgery. As a gardener, I enjoy walking out every day and surveying my plants. I know each one and its little story, where I got it, where it didn’t do well, and how it like its new location. I can still go out walk around and look at everything, but I can’t pull any weeds or do much puttering around. We’ve had plenty of rain the last few days so my plants have not a really needed me at all. In fact, they are thriving in my absence. I, however miss them quite a bit.
With my camera mounted on the new tripod, I went out in the late afternoon light and took a few photos. They look a little blurry and far away but that’s a good metaphor for my life right now.
I did manage to get a close-up of my fragrant mimosa, blooming for the first time ever. (see photo at top) As a kid growing up in West Texas I enjoyed the mimosa trees we had in our neighborhood. Now, of course I realize that those were all invasive trees. I was careful to get the native variety for my yard. It smells just as good and it’s such a sweet, delicate little tree.
Here are the evening Primrose. This little patch didn’t do so well last year but with all the rain we’ve had it’s quite happy this year.

Here’s the little xeric garden and behind that is an assortment of native Texas plants.

The Engelmann’s daisies and standing Cyprus are both in bloom right now.

This is a patch of Salvia, mealy blue Sage, with some wild to vetch mixed in.

And here are my little vegetable gardens. The squash plant in the foreground (near the spider wort) has two tiny little squashes. I bought four different kinds of squash seeds and they were the most productive of all the seeds I bought. In the beginning I had it all figured out but now I have no idea what kind of squash is what out there. Thankfully I’ve never met a squash I didn’t like so it’s all good. The back row is herbs and onions. I have one pretty hardy looking Romaine lettuce plant and a couple of Swiss chard that Fosco might enjoy. The other square-foot garden has more mystery squash, some peas – another offering for Fosco – carrots, chives, and a tomato plant. I have a bunch more tomatoes in the greenhouse. The one that I put in there in the fall has done so well that I thought I would try raising most of them in the greenhouse.

Maybe I needed this time off. The first couple of days I was a little down, mostly just dopey and in a lot of pain. One day I felt really sorry for myself and I went out into the greenhouse and cried as the rain hit the plastic top. I’ve had my share of grumpiness, usually followed by feelings of guilt, sometimes followed by extreme gratitude. My son has been a real standup guy, my friend Marie has been terrific in bringing things over to me, the neighbors are very sweet and concerned, and both Janet and Mary Ellen have helped me through some grumpy times by listening to me whine.
After I went to the doctor on Tuesday things turned around for me emotionally (OK, I know there was still some whining). I do like this doctor. I feel very confident that he’s going to do a good job on my arm. So, after the surgery, I can start healing. I leave you with this graphic of the affected area.

Sometime late Tuesday my version of this will have a lot of metal in it. I found myself wondering today if those super strong tiny magnets that I have will stick to my arm now. The old science teacher in me can’t wait to try.

Easter in the backyard

2010-04-04T17:42:00.006-05:00

As I move through life, I find that I'm constantly remaking holidays. The way I was raised doesn't fit who I am now. So I am shaping things to fit, adding new traditions, deleting old ones, and melding some of them together. I was raised to observe Lent, usually giving up chocolate for 40 days. As a kid that was a supreme sacrifice. Come to think of it, it would be a sacrifice now. After Lent, I attended Easter Mass. I got the spiritual angle but I also got the commercial angle - I loved shopping for a new Easter dress, hat, and shoes. Easter egg hunts were fun but I mostly looked forward to Easter dinner. It was a feast as elaborate as Christmas dinner. We usually had a roast ham, a hen, or a goose. That was accompanied by a big spread of veggies, bread, and whatever else we had. I can't remember it all, but most likely dessert was some kind of cream pie with perfect meringue. And my brother and I got to drink wine at Easter dinner. Here I am on some Sunday, holding my prayer book, getting ready to go to Mass. It could have been Easter Sunday.
I observed this Easter by working most of the day. I cleaned the window from the kitchen to the patio. That was an ugly job but now the view from my breakfast table to the backyard is a little clearer. I got the patio cleaned and swept. I potted 30 strawberry plants and 7 okra plants.
I bought no new clothes, I didn't prepare a feast, and I'm definitely a heathen by my family of origin standards. These days I walk the shaman path. I worship the spirit that makes living things live. I don't have a name for it but I'm grateful to it. These early weeks of spring have been a time for gratitude. The temperature is Goldilocks perfect - not too hot; not too cold; just right. I know this pleasant weather will be followed by a hot summer. I can't predict how hot or how long it will be. But today was picture perfect. At this point in time, plants are growing, birds are nesting, and life feels new.
Here's one of the prickly pears. They both have new pads. These are the scrambled eggs that Marie gave me. They over-wintered nicely and spread a little. I can't wait for them to bloom.

Cranes, Part 2 – Bosque del Apache and the stay at the B&B

2010-03-18T13:30:00.006-05:00

After a quick lunch of Mexican food in Socorro, we headed straight for the Dancing Cranes B&B to check in and meet our hosts, Jim and Jana. We wanted to be sure to get to Bosque del Apache for the nightly fly out of the cranes so after a quick meet and greet, we took off in that direction.
Here’s the crane drill for novices (and I was in that camp until this trip). Like most (maybe all?) waterfowl, the cranes get up at the crack of dawn and fly off for a day of eating and doing whatever else they do. Mostly eating, I suppose. Toward dusk they fly back to their favorite water spot and settle in for the night. For the birds, this is a fairly simple thing. Humans scramble around, layering cold weather clothes on themselves, putting wool stockinged feet into boots, grabbing cameras, hats, and so on, all the while muttering (all of us) “We don’t want to miss the fly out.” Having been bitten by the crane bug earlier in the day at Bernardo Wildlife Refuge, I was right there with the other humans, wanting to get out the door and off to “pond one” which we had been assured was the favorite nightly spot for the cranes.
Thankfully, we got there enough in advance of their arrival that we had some time to drive around Bosque del Apache for a bit. We also hit the gift shop where I bought things I didn’t need but am happy with still the same. Around where this picture was taken, we saw flocks of small, frustrating little birds that challenged our birding knowledge. Later we discovered they were pine siskins. Here are Mary Ellen and Gail.

We headed over to pond one, parked, and walked as close to the pond as we could get. I took along my little Canon point and shoot mostly because it has a video feature. That allowed me to capture the sound of the cranes. I was truly fascinated by the sounds they make. What’s interesting is that most of us humans barely spoke. We stood and listened as bird after bird flew in noisily announcing their arrival while the birds already in the water called out greetings. We stayed until it was dark and the stragglers were few and far between.

Back at the B&B, Jana had made a vegetable casserole. There’s something about being cold that works up an appetite. I ate my share and then some, along with a few glasses of wine with Gail and Jana. All that was followed by fresh apple cake and it was all accompanied by friendly conversation with our hosts. Jim was more than happy to fill in my knowledge gap around the cranes. He pulled out a book and showed us photos and maps of the trek these amazing animals take every year. We learned that a separate group makes a similar journey over in the Midwest around the Platt River. I sat and looked through the book some more while Jim and Jana tidied up. Then it was off to bed so we could get up early and go back to pond one for the fly out!
I was still on Central Time so it was no trouble for me to get up early. I got dressed and had coffee and more apple cake with Jana. I learned that, in addition to being a photographer and jeweler, she’s an avid scuba diver and counts the Galapagos as one of her scuba destinations. Here is the link to her photography gallery. When Mary Ellen and Gail got up and had a little coffee, we headed back to the pond. Jana joined us so she could add to her collection of crane photos.
The fly out was as spectacular as the fly in. I stood with Jana in a location close to a group of cranes. We watched and listened as they talked and talked about flying out, doing so in small groups, pairs or singly, but all with much conversation.

Here is a photo of Mary Ellen, Gail, and Jana, bundled up.

As the last of the flock headed out for the day, we headed back to the B&B, where Jana had promised a tour of her studio. There we saw many of her photos and some of her jewelry. I bought a silver pendant with a bird stamped on it. It’s now one of my favorites. After that, we packed up, said our goodbyes to Jim & Jana, and hit the road again, headed back to ABQ.
The trip back is short but it was marked by three interesting events. We had gotten word that an artisan familiar to Mary Ellen and Gail (who also happens to be a neighbor of Jim & Jana) had a table at the Socorro Farmers Market. We stopped in there to see her wares. I bought some prayer flags that I still need to hang up – and a onesie for a little baby who is still in the oven. She’ll get the onesie in May when she joins the rest of us in the world. Thing two was a surprisingly hip restaurant/coffee shop that we found in Socorro. The food was great. I had an avocado/cheese sandwich with a side of homemade potato soup. Thing three about the trip back was the weather. After leaving Socorro, we drove through rain, sleet, snow, and hail – all in an hour and a half! All in all, the trip to see the cranes was an amazing adventure. It has taken me so long to write about it that I’m ready for another adventure now.

Thoughts on an iris

2010-03-08T10:53:00.003-06:00

News of Robin’s death.
First iris– progeny of my parents’ irises – blooms,
is snipped, and put in the empty
pear preserves jar – the kind my father loved.
Life persists; cycles cycle.
A rainy day starts in Central Texas.
My gratitude for life is boundless.

Trip to New Mexico - Part 1

2010-02-15T20:43:00.006-06:00

Let me just start by saying it’s not called the land of enchantment for nothing. My good friends Mary Ellen and Gail have a wonderful home in Albuquerque and they asked me if I would like to come visit them and go see the Sandhill Cranes at Bosque Del Apache. Being busy people it took a few emails to figure out the best time and we settled on late January.
I flew up on a Thursday and we had a relaxing evening at the house, sitting at the kitchen table eating lentil soup and catching up. I should probably point out that Mary Ellen and Gail are former B & B owners so staying at their house is always a treat. I had a very sweet bedroom all to myself. The next morning after coffee and bagels, we started throwing our overnight stuff into various bags so we could head down to Bosque del Apache where we had booked rooms at a nearby B&B. Some dicey weather in the forecast almost changed our plans but we decided to go for it. As we headed south from Albuquerque the mountains to the west of us had lots of snow on them. It was cold and a little bleak outside the car but inside the car, we were in good spirits. We stopped for a few minutes so I could take this picture.

Our first stop was the Bernardo Wildlife Area, located between Belen and Socorro between I-25 and the Rio Grande. It’s set up so that you can drive your car through a big loop and stop at various places along the way to look at birds and take photographs. Rain had made the road impassable so the drive was closed. Undeterred by the closed gate, we parked outside and walked in. I heard the cranes before I saw them. It’s an amazing sound that I can’t begin to describe. For me, there is something mystical about it. I loved listening to them. Maybe it’s because their kind have been on this planet longer than we can imagine. From Wikipedia, “The oldest unequivocal Sandhill Crane fossil is "just" 2.5 million years old, over one and a half times older than the earliest remains of most living species of birds.” We are virtual spring chickens compared to these birds. To be in their presence is to touch the primal nature of the earth.

At Bernardo we saw hundreds, maybe thousands of sandhill cranes and lots of snow geese. We also saw a large flock of mountain bluebirds that rested in some branches a few feet away from us. The males are blue over most of their bodies. It’s a shocking bright blue that really catches the eye. We spent the better part of an hour walking around the area. It’s sort of an accidental wetland. Many years ago they diverted the Rio Grande to provide water to farmers. This created a riparian habitat that is now home to many creatures. In addition to their usual crops, many farmers plant corn for the cranes and the big birds can be seen on the fields, casually eating while overexcited humans gawk at them.
We weren’t thrilled with the mud that stuck to our feet but the cranes thought it was just dandy. Here are some of the many, many tracks we saw.

Stay tuned for the next post – Bosque del Apache and the stay at the B&B.

Post-freeze

2009-12-05T10:32:00.003-06:00

As much as we disparage extremes in weather, seasons are good for us, reminding us that time is not a man-made construct but a reality, experienced by all living things. Escaping the fate of the morning glories and lantana, these entities are living in a little piece of Florida – AKA the pop-up greenhouse.

Finishing Tract A

2009-11-29T20:32:00.001-06:00

It’s hard to believe it was a week ago when I got up way too early and drove thru a thick fog to BCP Tract A to finish a job that started back in the spring. The job is covering virtually every square inch of a few acres of land in search of invasive plants. Once the invaders are found, we log the GPS coordinates, take a picture, and fill out a data sheet. Then we keep walking. But sometimes it isn’t just walking. Sometimes it’s climbing, hanging onto branches, grapevines, or whatever we can grab. Sometimes it’s sliding down hillsides or negotiating dry creekbeds. Our goal last Sunday was to finish Tract A before winter, before the leaves fell off the China berry trees and left us with naked, unidentifiable branches. Another motivation to wrap things up is that the city hunts wild hogs out there and getting shot is something we definitely want to avoid. We’re hard core and all but not crazy.
I met Gloria Blagg and Jan Hanz at the parking lot off Jester Rd. We carpooled to the site and headed out for the last known coordinates, in search of the last patch of Tract A that had not been covered. Although it is work, it’s a naturalist’s dream to have these un-peopled acres all to ourselves. This tract doesn’t even have what anyone would call a trail. The closest thing to that is the creekbed and a few narrow deer trails. We’ve seen amazing spiders, insects, endangered birds (Golden cheeked warblers), and more plants – good and bad – than I can begin to name.
It was chilly Sunday morning and we had had some rain so the moss and lichens were soaking up nutrients and sun probably ”knowing” on a cellular level that winter is on its way.

On one of trips I had missed, the group had run across some black, star shaped things. They picked them up and wondered what they were. Well, Sunday we solved that mystery. We found several little objects that looked like an acorn had fallen smack onto a mushroom.
But on further inspection we discovered that what looked like an acorn was actually a little puff ball of some sort. A little research netted the info that it’s called an Earthstar. I snagged this info from this site: “Earthstar Geastrum saccatum. How to identify it: Star like appendages, often curled under with a puffball-like spore producing body in the center. These odd mushrooms resemble cookies, laying scattered on the dark forest floor. Like the puffball, when ripe, the center sac gives off a puff of spores when poked.” Here's what they look like after they have popped and dried up.
We ran across some pretty pink flowers that we could not identify.
We found what we think are coyote tracks.
And of course no hike is complete without a gnarly tree and various holes.

Jan managed to go the entire four hours without falling. I was the first to go, much to Gloria’s delight. She laughed and poked fun at me, only to fall in the exact spot not ten seconds after I fell. The amazing thing is we’ve never been injured, snake bit (in fact I’ve seen more snakes in my back yard than I have on BCP lands), or even gotten a rash from the ubiquitous poison ivy. We have a great time learning as we go. We have catalogued a number of invasive plants like nandina, china berries, ligustrum, and Chinese tallow.
Here we are after we finished Tract A. We celebrated by going to Waterloo Ice House and having lunch. The church crowd looked askance as we made our way to the table with scraggly hat hair and dirt on our jeans. But we didn’t care. We raised our ice tea glasses and toasted to a season of hunting invasives as we await our next assignment in the spring.

Fall report

2009-11-15T15:07:00.000-06:00

If I wait for the time to write a long entry with profound insights, I will be too old to type. My goal is to just write things as they come – so here it comes. It’s been a busy fall, as I basically have a busy life. That’s a good thing as I see it. In September, Will and I vacationed in the Davis Mountains. When I am there, I feel like I’m at home. Being a reasonable driving distance from Odessa, it’s where my family would head out to on a rare family trip. I went to Girl Scout camp every year from when I was 7 until I was around 12 or so at Camp Mitre Peak. So the whole area feels comfortable to me, in a land embracing you kind of way. My friend Gloria and her son Eric were camping in the state park and my friends Beck and Anne were out there at the same time too. One afternoon we all happened to be at Balmorhea State Park at the same time. That was fun – to drive 7 hours and bump into someone you know one picnic table away from you. I took lots of photos on that trip and they can all be found on my Flickr site. But here is one that Gloria took of me showing off Mitre Peak.
Later in September I went to Odessa to meet little Jax and visit with his parents, his grandma (my BFF) and his great grandma. That was a super fun time full of babies, good food, laughter, and lots sweet moments. Those photos are also on Flickr except for this teaser here.
In late October I attended the Texas Master Naturalist state meeting. I was privileged to represent my local chapter by presenting a talk about our relationship with the Austin Nature and Science Center. I had a really fun time at the meeting. I met new people, learned new things, and had lots of laughs with my fellow Capital Area Master Naturalists. I forgot my camera so you’ll have to take my word for it that the trip to Mo Ranch, where the meeting was held, is one of the prettiest drives I’ve ever taken.
Back on the home front, I continue to tackle my yard. I fight back weeds, plant new things, and lately I put up a little plastic greenhouse shown here. Sometimes I take a book or magazine out there and sit. It’s like being a kid again and having a clubhouse. I’ll have to heat it when the temps drop down below 32 this winter but for now it’s quite pleasant out there.

How I spent the summer from Hell

2009-08-30T23:07:00.000-05:00

I’m the first to admit that the subject of climate change is interesting, but I would rather read about what’s happening somewhere else than live through it here. We’ve had an entire summer of over 100 degree days. If you’re not familiar with Austin, TX, that’s hot even for here. Yes, it hits a 100 a few times in a typical summer, but this year has been brutal. I had so many summer landscaping plans that were dashed. I lived in denial the entire month of June, thinking, “Any day now, the mornings will be cool and I can get out and work.” By the end of June I was depressed. Yard work is therapy for me. I might not have the best looking yard in the world but I love puttering in it after a long day at the computer. In addition to the heat, the city is improving the street that runs behind my house. I’ve never lived so close to street work. The noise, the noxious fumes, the dust all over everything on the patio as they scooped up the old street and threw it into dump trucks - one after another, all the while beeping as they backed up –made for an unpleasant time. On the mornings it was cool enough to sit outside with the dogs and have my coffee, I couldn’t enjoy it because of the noise, smell, and dust. Late in June, I pulled myself together and turned my attention to indoor tasks – no big projects, mostly just keeping my house cleaner than usual.

I did manage to create this little flower bed out front

I did as much Capital Area Master Naturalist (CAMN) volunteering as I could. We got our new assignment in the Balcones Canyonland preserve . Walking through dense brush, falling on my bum, scrambling up hills by grabbing hold of any kind of plant available, really makes you feel alive. I volunteered for two of the Nature Smart Family events and had fun at both of them. My favorite moment was watching a 3 y/o observe a dragonfly larvae. He called him mom over and said, “Mom, look, a cinnamon-pede.” I enjoyed working with the kids and seeing them light up when they saw the creatures we found in the pond. Getting a fake insect tattoo with Cheryl was fun too. As was the beer and garden burger at Waterloo Ice House after a few hours in the heat with the kids.

CAMNers stalking invasive plants

Back on the home front, I learned to get up early and work in the yard for almost an hour before getting ready for work – at least a couple of days a week. I bought an ugly blue doggie pool. My dogs of course wouldn’t go near it but the birds used it to cool down, in addition to the regular birdbath and the small ones on the ground that the cardinals and the wrens like. I also discovered that the bees and wasps like the shallow water for their fill-ups. The mud daubers were able to make their little mud shelters for their offspring because there was ample water in the yard.
I was able to get a few yard-related things done, mostly hardscaping. Will pulled up 30 of the 2x2 pebble/cement pavers that were in the front yard. We replaced that with a nicer, more natural path from the sidewalk to the front porch by using flagstones and French drain gravel. We scooped up dirt and made a berm in the backyard for the rain garden. The berm is topped with Gulf Coast Muhley. The side near the fence has native cannas that Marie and Jerry gave me and I bought some Greg’s blue mistflower for the base of the rain garden. I’m sprouting some inland sea oats that will also go in the bottom. I got to test it out when we had a nice rain last week. Instead of running out under the gate, the water stays in the yard now, thanks to that project.

Here's the new path that replaced the pebble 2x2 pavers:

And then there’s the pond. I set it up in the early spring just to have some gurgling water on the patio. I used a washtub and plunked it on the patio. No liner, no frills, just gurgling water and 9 cent goldfish. Then came the baking afternoon sun and the algal bloom. Add in some snails and a plecostomus. After trying some unattractive methods of shading the pond from the afternoon sun, I put up a reed screen. That helped. Then the pond started to leak. So I went to Callahan’s General Store and got a 2x1x4 livestock tank. I lined it with pond liner, put in the rocks, set up the pump and filter, then added back in the living things. The big plant was a gift from my son who got it for me one afternoon while running around with my nephew. It still doesn’t look that great but I can see the fish better and everyone survived the move. I think the fish are actually getting bigger.

Original pond

New pond from beginning to end

The new tank

Up on blocks to elevate it

In go the rocks

Add the water, fish, pump, and plant

Put a reed border around it

Cool, clear water

And it wasn’t a total wash for the plant life. Yes, my tomatoes croaked but the prickly pear, the agaves, the yuccas, the flame acanthus, and the standing cypress all thought the hot weather was just fine. As did the avocado that sprang up in the world’s most neglected compost heap. I transplanted the avocado plant and it is putting on new leaves.

So most of us survived the summer, but I for one, am glad to see it come to an end. This morning, as I did my morning yard chores, a cool breeze whipped past me. The road construction crew was off for the day and, for the first time in months I thought “This summer might actually end.”

Where did June go?

2009-07-10T11:46:00.000-05:00

June started in Dallas. I drove up to visit friends. Shown here are Mary Ellen and Gail exiting Maryam's condo. Gail is doing the royal wave.

We headed over to the Dallas Arboretum and saw lots of pretty things like this walk thru a crepe myrtle canopy.

...and this fearless bunny that let me walk right up to take this picture.

We tried to beat the heat by choosing some nice shady paths.

We finally found the frog pond. Four giant frogs spray water onto a brass sphere.

Mary Ellen ran thru the water while Gail and I snapped photos of the event.

Back home I visited Marie and Jerry's yard and snapped this little butterfly. Jerry probably knows what kind it is. I however, do not. I guess I need to attend more Austin Butterfly Forum meetings.

I finally got a big tank for holding rainwater. 305 gallons!

The morning glories spang to life in June and are still producing although they're a bit limp in the middle of the day.

I did a little yard work and turned this parched spot into an area for draining overflowing rainwater from the barrel. I put in some drought resistant plants like big muhly and black-eyed susans.

And then the rest of June went like this:

Birds near and far

2009-05-26T21:22:00.000-05:00

At dusk last night I was thrilled to see the cardinal parents feeding a fledgling out in my backyard. As mom and dad were seeing to her needs, three adolescent males - likely from an earlier brood - came to check out my flower bed and feast on lantana berries. They were a motley group, not fully red. They squabbled over the berries but they seemed to be evenly matched. Everyone got their share.
While this is happening here in Austin, 2000 miles away my ex-husband is hosting a robin's nest in the ficus tree on his back porch. She's not camera shy as you can see.
Mom picks the perfect spot

And lays her eggs

She patiently broods

The babies are here!

First meal from mom.

The Eyes of Texas

2009-05-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

It's Tuesday and that means class number three of the Sustainable Landscaping course I'm taking at the Wildflower Center thru their Go Native U courses. I was running a little late and rushed past the plants and ponds to get to the classroom. I stepped into the Visitor's Gallery and decided to take a couple of seconds and put away my keys and sunglasses. The Visitor's Gallery is a large room that is used for all kinds of things, like gatherings preceding a public speaker or silent auctions, as well as its day to day purpose - a place to display currently blooming flowers, and other functions. But as I stepped in this evening it was completely empty. I went about my busy-ness, mindless to my surroundings. Mindless until I heard The Eyes of Texas coming out of invisible speakers. I put everything down, took in the empty room, and listened to the entire song. When I turned to go down the stairs to the classroom, there was the photo of Ladybird Johnson. I am so, so grateful to her and grateful to be back in Texas.

Slimy Saturday; movie Sunday

2009-05-10T12:28:00.000-05:00

Warning, this blogpost contains graphic images!
Yesterday I went to the Natural Gardener and bought plants for my Hell Strip (as Cheryl calls it). I thought I might put them out today but it's looking more like it will happen tomorrow. At the Natural Gardener I bought a new copy of an old book I had years ago - Worms Eat My Garbage. I came home and started flipping thru it and was inspired to sort thru my worm compost bin. I laid out some clear plastic and dumped the contents of the bin on it. Then I separated the black pile of compost into about a dozen piles. The worms wriggled down to the bottom of each pile to escape the light. I sorted thru those piles for about an hour and a half. Here is one (yes, only one) pile of worms I scooped up for a photo op.

Yikes! I took the compost they had created and put some of it in a bed where I put out the three tomato plants that my friend Marie had given me. The rest will have a similar fate in a few days as I make new beds. Then I got the bin ready for the worms to do their work by layering shredded newspaper and topsoil and tossing a fresh pile of peach skins for them to start working on.

And as if that wasn't enough creepy fun for one weekend, I found this when I was digging to prep the bed for tomatoes. This is the second one of these I've found in the yard. I've gotta' find out what they are. But that's for later because my son is taking me to see Star Trek - the new movie. Nature later, movie now.

A day of volunteering

2009-05-03T07:43:00.000-05:00

It’s early on a Sunday morning. I went to bed super early last night after an exhausting day of volunteering. I spent three hours in the morning with Theresa and Gloria, climbing up and down some very rugged terrain, searching for invasive plants on one of the BCP tracts. At one point we thought we might have to scale a wall but we found a way around it. At the top of that was a mesa with a little stand of flax amidst a pile of limestone rocks. Small pockets of moss took advantage of the sun. After a short breather, we started our descent. For all that efforts of the morning, we found one 3 ft. tall nandina. We cataloged it and denuded it of blooms and berries. At a point on our descent I saw the most beautiful little spider. It was probably in the Theridiidae family, no more than 3 mm, lying belly up in its tangled web amongst branches. It was green with a shiny copper spot on its belly. It was worth all the pain and discomfort of the day to see that little creature. Here are some photos of our BCP invasive hunt:

Devil's shoestring. Not an invasive plant.

Daddy Longlegs

Gloria trying to scale a rock wall. Ha!

Theresa and Gloria identifying a plant

Orange mushrooms in the leaf litter

Life persists

After we completed our survey, I drove home and had a quick lunch, shower, and 20 min power nap. Then it was off to the Wildflower Center for an afternoon of vegetation surveying on their research plots. The plots we surveyed were quite a distance from the center so we got to ride on “gators”, the motorized Kawasaki 4 wheelers they use to get around out there. The ride to and fro was a delight. Imagine perfect weather, tall stands of purple three awn grasses bent over in the breeze, spots of color everywhere from the blooming wildflowers, all accented with bright yellow prickly pear blooms. There were just a handful of us and we were all ready to start our weekends so we got down to business and surveyed our plots. I’m pretty sure I can now distinguish these grasses: purple three awn, spear grass, love grass, fall witch grass, and side oats gramma. Plus the “bad” grasses like King Ranch Bluestem, Johnson grass, and rescue grass.

My ride out to the research plot - one of the gators

The real experts return from the field - Dick and Jeannine (foreground) work at WFC and seem to know everything - but in a nice way.

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T11:20:00.000-05:00

I know this might sound sappy but I try to live like every day is Earth Day. But there are many more things I could do of course. Here's what I'm doing regularly now:

I just set up an appointment to upgrade the insulation in my attic. They'll come out and give me an estimate tomorrow.

Except for occasional fish or shellfish, I don't eat meat. Getting that prime rib to your butcher uses up lots of water, land, and fuel. Admittedly, I quit eating meat for other reasons but getting out of that energy consuming cycle is a plus.

I bundle car trips and try to accomplish as many things as I can on one outing.

Reusable grocery bags are part of my life now. It took awhile to remember to take them into the store but I'm used to them now. If I do forget, I use paper and recycle.

got rainbarrels and use that water on my plants.

use non-phosphate laundry soap and use cold water on most loads.

compost with worms plus the compost pile out back.

Here's what I want to do in the near future:

Follow thru on the attic insulation.

Get dual flush toilets.

Install Solar panels ($$$).

Replace my roof turbines with wind turbines and generate electricity on windy days.

Continue xeriscaping the yards - front and back.

Work from home more often.

Get a large water tank to save even more water.

Buy locally grown produce.

But I also want to keep in mind that it's the journey; not the destination. It should be fun and as guilt-free is possible.

Here are some links that might be of interest:

Repower America

Yahoo Green

Home Power Magazine

Can you see me?

2009-04-20T18:27:00.000-05:00

I saw some movement, grabbed my camera and ran outside. At first I just saw the ivy...

but as I got a little closer..

I saw this guy. Here's some good info about anoles.

A river runs thru it or, good day to be snail

2009-04-17T16:22:00.001-05:00

I took the day off work to go to a vegetation survey training at the Wildflower Center. It was to begin at two and go ‘til six but it turned out to be a very rainy day. The last I heard, they were going ahead with the training but I opted out today and, weather willing, will attend tomorrow’s session. I battled the crankiness that comes with having dashed expectations but was snapped out of it by a growing pool of water just beyond and encroaching on the patio. The back yard is on a slope so rainwater funnels down the yard and out a gap under the gate – if there isn’t too much water. One of the new rain barrels – all of which are full by the way – has dammed up the flow. I went out in the rain and dug a trench so the water could flow out. It took awhile but here’s a picture of our little river. Isn’t it amazing how you can see how the soil separates? I looked at that and imagined a tiny canyon forming and I guess that’s how canyons would look if you were high above the earth. As I write, the rain has let up, at least for a bit. All in all, it’s a good day to be a snail.

Thoughts of rainwater - and new native plants

2009-04-17T04:03:00.000-05:00

My rain barrels are full and I've been toying with the idea of getting a 300 gallon storage barrel. I think I need to chill out and recognize that I can't hoard every drop of water that falls on my property. But I do want one. I should get my attic insulated instead. That would be better for the planet probably.

OK, last Friday - yes, it's been a week - I went to the members-only plant sale at the Wildflower Center. It was jam packed with people. I was all abuzz and just grabbed plants willy nilly. Here's a picture of what $50 will buy you at the plant sale.

And check out this picture of a budding prickly pear. I didn't even see the bug until I cropped this picture!

Baby praying mantis and other yard news

2009-04-09T14:52:00.000-05:00

I found this little guy on one of my potted plants out front. He's quite small but I hope he eats lots of other bugs and gets really big. It's a beautiful day here in Central TX. The sun is shining, lots of things are blooming, a northern flicker was on the tree out front - just one of those storybook days here. Oh, and the wrens might have hatched a baby or two because they are spending a lot of time flying in and out of the wren house.

This afternoon I'm going to get a trellis or two and put out the morning glory seedlings that I started last week. I have been watering my plants with rain water AND I created a really low budget pond. Stay tuned for pictures of the pond when it's completed. That will be in a day or two. I used a number 3 washtub, filled it with rain water, and built it up with rocks. I had a pot in the shape of a fish so I drilled a hole in the fish mouth and put the tubing thru that so he spits out water. But before I can take a picture I need to spiff it up a little. I bought an inexpensive electric pump but I want to get a solar pump for the outdoor pond and I'll use the electric pump for a yet-to-be-created house pond.

Tomorrow is the plant sale at the Wildflower Center so check back to see what I bought.

Rain barrels at last

2009-03-30T06:09:00.000-05:00

After much delay by the contractor and lots of rain by Mother Nature, I finally have functioning rain barrels. While I was waiting for the rains to stop so I could get my gutters installed, I did some research on rain barrels. At the high end were the really pretty ones at the Natural Gardener. They were made of some kind of plastic and, from a distance, looked like a big clay chiminea. But the cost was more than I could justify. I thought about getting the ones from the city but they are out of them. The cheapest ones were an ugly blue that I didn't want in my yard. I finally settled on the ones at Home Depot made by Fiskars (and I thought they only made scissors). You can see details at http://www.rain-barrel.com/. They're quite attractive and hold 57 gallons each. Because of the way my rain gutters had to be installed I had to get four rain barrels. So, step one – getting the barrels – was done.

Step 2 was getting the rain gutters installed. Henry (rain gutter guy) was supposed to come by last Thursday but we had a big gulley washer. I appreciate irony but I was like a cranky toddler in a candy store that day. I wanted my rain gutters and rain barrels! But I watched the water flow under the gate, knowing that some of it would get sucked up and used by my yard but also knowing that a lot of it was lost to me. Flash forward to Friday. The skies were clear. Henry showed up and rang the doorbell. I put up barky Cookie and Newtie and by the time I got to the door, it was sprinkling. Within five minutes it was pouring rain and we even had dime sized hail. I was starting to take all this personally. But Henry prevailed, even measuring and cutting the gutters with his rain jacket on. What a sweet guy. The rain cleared and he and I looked at the directions for installing the barrels, only to discover that, the way they were designed to be installed, they would only DIVERT some of the water. What? But I liked the barrels so I dug out my drill and jigsaw and Henry cut rectangles in the lids for me. I spent some time yesterday rigging up some screens for the inside of each one. Now, it can rain all it wants and I will harvest it for use on the lawn in times of drought.

Here are a couple of beds that will get that water someday:

Earth Hour

2009-03-28T20:58:00.000-05:00

I'm participating in Earth Hour and have turned off all my non-essential electronic devices and the house is quite dark. It's interesting what's essential. I decided that the night lights in the bathrooms might keep us from tripping and hurting ourselves so I left those on. The Earth Hour website suggested we blog during Earth Hour so I guess my modem and wireless router are essential. Go figure. I wish all my neighbors were participating and that all the street lights were out. Wouldn't it be nice to see the stars from your own backyard as if you were camping? No light pollution? The closest I've come, besides camping, to being electric free have been in times of power outages - usually from big storms. The ice storm of '77 in Dallas comes to mind. We were without power for a couple of days and my neighborhood was lucky. Then once in Grand Prairie we had a power outage that lasted thru evening and most of the night. In both situations, I was outside more and I talked to my neighbors. We're all in our own little electric caves these days, busy with our lives. What if we didn't have this electric convenience? What if I had to hand crank my modem? Would I be blogging now?

Flower pics

2009-03-24T09:28:00.001-05:00

Here are some things blooming in the yard.
Edward's Plateau Spiderwort or Tradescantia pedicellata I have always called these spiderworts but there are many species in this genus. Some call them dayflowers but dayflowers are actually quite a bit taller. Here's a quote from the link above: Tradescantia pedicellata is a most unsatisfactory species. The species may have arisen as a hybrid between Tradescantia humilis and T. occidentalis and been recognized as a species because of its constant morphology and high pollen fertility (R. P. Celarier 1956). C. Sinclair (1967) concluded, however, that there was no evidence for the species' existence, and I have found it very difficult to recognize specimens that agree with the original description (no type has been located). A most "unsatisfactory species". Well, I happen to like them. So there.

One of our salvia plants.

A winecup. Callirhoe involucrata. I want to get a bunch more of these at the Wildflower Center plant sale in a couple of weeks.

And of course an iris. My brother gave me my irises and he claims they are descendants of the ones in our parents' back yard. Could be; it seems at home in mine.

I also bought some plain ole petunias and impatiens and put them in pots on the front porch. If the sun comes out again I take some pictures of those.

Wrens or no wrens?

2009-03-18T07:38:00.001-05:00

That is the question. During and shortly after the spell of cold weather I saw no activity around the wren nest. They had been so active before the cold weather that I worried something had happened to them. Two days ago, after being out in the yard for over an hour with no action - and having seen no action for days - I chanced a peek into the nest box. There I found a little nest with 5 small eggs about the size of large jelly beans. Still, I wondered if they had abandoned the nest, had met with foul (fowl?) play, or were just off doing something else. Yesterday one of the pair was on the fence near the nest trying his best to chase off a warbler. I'm not that good at identifying warblers so I can't be sure what kind it was. Small with some yellow, but that describes about half the warblers in the world. So, maybe the wrens are OK. I figure it's best to not look into the nest box until I'm sure the eggs should have hatched. That should take at least another week or so. This link has some interesting, TX specific, info about these little birds.

Otherwise, life in the backyard is doing quite well. Anemones, day flowers, winecups, salvia, and irises are all in bloom. I'm guessing the evening primrose will spring forth in a few days. I'll get out in the sunshine this afternoon and snap some pics of the flowers.

The rain that escaped me

2009-03-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

We've had days of much needed rain. Cold rain but still welcome. The downside is that I was supposed to get my rain gutters but the contractor who's doing that and other work didn't get to my job in time. You see, I'm going to collect the rain in big rain barrels so on those dry days, I can just pull out the free water from the sky. So as much as I love rain and am glad my yard and all the dry creek beds have been refreshed, I can't help but watch it trickle away thinking that I wish I could have captured it. The good news is it's going to warm up in the next few days and all the wildflowers are going to be bursting out. It would take some talking to convince me there's anywhere better than the TX Hill Country in the spring.

Dirt cheap

2009-03-08T22:34:00.000-05:00

Whoever coined that phrase hasn't done much landscaping. I need a bunch of gravel, dirt, edging stones, and flagstones, and while it's not as expensive as the estimate to paint the exterior of my house, it's not dirt cheap either. The fact that I want these items and am budgeting for them has turned me into a coveter of rocks of all things. I see piles of rocks everywhere and imagine how I could get them into my trunk or back seat without being caught. Yes, I want to steal rocks - not diamonds mind you - just TX limestone or sandstone. I have gone all my life without a thought to the careless piles of rocks that seem to be everywhere now. In people's yards, vacant lots, road improvement projects, construction sites.

Here's a true story of how I came by this craving naturally. When I was in elementary school, my mother wanted a flagstone hallway. Undeterred by the lack of funds for this project, she drove my brother and me to the site of a new housing development where she had spied some flagstones. In the dark of night my brother and I scurried back and forth from the pile of flagstones to the trunk of our 1960 Chrysler until my mother deemed there were enough stones for her entry-way. Then my poor father had to lay those stones in his precious little spare time. And you might be asking, was her mother a little crazy? Well, yeah. Thankfully I am not and I will not go off in the dead of night and steal rocks. But it doesn't mean I don't wish I could pass by a sign saying "Free landscape rocks!! Take all you need." If only.

Slow progress but progress nonetheless

2009-03-03T18:31:00.000-06:00

Now that I'm home from my recent trips, I made some headway in the yard. I drove out to Geo Growers yesterday and got some dirt. Will and I filled up 8 big bags and put them in the trunk, turning my Honda Civic into a low rider. When I got home I connected two separate beds and planted the newly purchased mountain laurel in a sunny spot. One of my irises is about to bloom, the salvia is already blooming and the winecups have buds. Last fall I tossed a sizable bag of wildflower seeds in the 7 ft or so behind the fence. No sign of life from them yet but I have high hopes. I wish every day was gardening day.

Wrens as neighbors!

2009-03-02T18:24:00.000-06:00

The bewick's wrens decided to call our little wren box their home! They spent much of this morning going back and forth to the nest box. Here are some pictures of them.

Trip to Port Aransas

2009-03-02T18:09:00.001-06:00

We left last Thursday for the Whooping Crane Festival in Port Aransas, TX. I went on three boat tours and saw lots of birds, including two life birds for me - a reddish egret and of course whooping cranes. There were plenty of roseate spoonbills, avocets, oyster catchers, grebes, and both white and brown pelicans, and many, many more. My friend, G. is a member of TOWN and they had a group camping there. My son and I hung out with them a lot including the boat ride to see the whooping cranes. It was super windy the whole time we were there though. The day we left we ditched a plan to go to Aransas Wildlife Refuge because it was too cold. Will and I got along great and he had a good time. G's son was along also and they found a way to pass the time with a Game Boy while their mom's did the nature thing. I definitely want go back to the TX coast in the next few months but I'll take the dogs the next time.

Signs of spring

2009-02-13T20:24:00.000-06:00

It was late last spring when my CAMN class made bird houses for wrens and screech owls. I took one of the wren nest boxes and put it in the garage with bunch of other stuff. It was too late for wrens to be nesting so I figured I would assemble it and put it out this year in my new back yard. Today my nephew came over to use my computer to do his taxes. On a pass thru the living room I mentioned to my son and nephew that it was probably time to put the wren box out. I had no more uttered those words when I looked out back and saw a wren hopping around the top of the chiminea, turning his (or her) little head to the side to look inside and see if it would do. The mate was a few feet away on the fence. Of course then I worried they would find a home in the neighbor's yard before I could find all the pieces and assemble my own wren nest box.

I retrieved the wood pieces with the pre-drilled holes and the three of us made sense of what was by now a collection of puzzle pieces. "No, this is the top." "This goes like this." And so on. My son, who has always been good at that kind of thing, got it right and shortly after my nephew left for home we assembled the nest box and put it out on a hackberry tree. I hope the wrens find it suitable and raise up some little ones in there.

Motivated by that, I finally got out the staple gun out and stapled the chicken wire to the posts I purchased a while back. Now my outdoor compost pile has a fence around it. I wasn't living here this time last year so I missed the beginnings of spring. Besides the wrens, the white wing doves are cooing loudly, two little mourning doves sipped water out of the bird bath. The henbit and bedstraw are coming up, along with the rain lilies, the latter climbing out of the earth to celebrate the gully washer we got this week. I'm sure we'll have more chilly weather but today it felt like spring.

Today is the first day of…

2009-02-08T17:41:00.000-06:00

…the rest of my garden; the rest of my life and so on. I'm in a state of change right now. I guess I always am but I'm aware of it these days. In the last week I've started a bunch of new things, all positive, self-nurturing endeavors - this blog being one of them.

Recently I made a mobile from some items I've been gathering. It's made of sun-bleached bones, a big stick, a bell made in India and a little dragonfly paperweight. On my hike thru Stephenson Preserve (SP) today I picked up stuff for future mobiles or assemblages.

I go to that preserve regularly. It's near my house and I love walking there. Few people go beyond the first part of it so I usually have the trails to myself. Today I found an area that was new to me. The SP sculptor had been there though. Attached to trees were masks made of found objects. I didn't have my camera along so you'll have to take my word that they were a little creepy. The masks looked like the kind of things that tribal people post to warn trespassers they are on sacred ground. I stood still, listening as the trees scraped against each other in the strong winds, sounding like wind chimes. I will definitely revisit the spot. I didn't have my GPS with me but I memorized the route thru the maze of trails back to main trail.

Earlier today I grabbed my friend Kathleen and we went over to the Natural Gardener. I got some really great ideas for my yard and I picked up some rosemary and lavender plants. I can't make much progress on my big yard plan until March since I'm going to be out of town for most of the last two weeks of February. But I had a spot for the herbs so they're in the ground.

Worms are eating my veggies

2009-02-05T14:04:00.000-06:00

Many, many years ago I had a worm compost set up. I kept it going until a visiting pet sitter overwatered my bin and ended the life of all my worms. Last week I got a bin of worms going by procuring red wigglers from a local worm farmer. His "farm" is in his kitchen. I bought some coconut husk material from the pet store because that's what he was using but newspapers and plain old dirt works fine too. So far they're happily crawling thru lettuce, strawberry tops, coffee grounds, and other material from the kitchen. It will take months to make compost but I'm happy to be recycling those materials instead of adding to landfills. If you want to try a worm bin yourself, this little tutorial is the shortest and sweetest I've found. Happy worm farming!

Welcome!

2009-02-04T18:55:00.001-06:00

Today I was in my backyard throwing a beat up tennis ball for one of my dogs when it hit me - the design for my backyard. This is where I will share the progress of realizing that design, describing the successes, pitfalls, and encounters with nature in my own backyard and beyond.