Texas skies

Early morning silver Christmas tinsel stripes obscure the sun.






A fiery sunset that the camera can’t quite capture.

Texas sized

A quick trip to Texas and a stop at one of the iconic Texas sized convenience stores—

Buckee’s.

The store seems to be a block long, filled with unnecessary items that are emblazoned with the tooth filled beaver face, but, truthfully advertises, and has, the cleanest bathrooms!

Driving into Austin I am greeted by one of the many spaghetti piles called highways.

digging deep

The unusual snow cover and freezing temperatures brought the pink footed, bare tailed possum to the yard looking for scraps of bird food.

He is ill equipped to forage in snow cover.

Usually he competes for bits of compost with the raccoons, but extreme weather has made food scare for those who must dig and scrape for sustenance.

winter wonderland

Woke to find my world transformed!

bits and pieces

A last warm day from this strange fall—the temps still in the 80s. 

A quick walk to check on things—the hickory late to turn color, many still green. A rainbow in a shower less sky and a tree filled with kumquats.

Temps in the 40s today and freezing precipitation predicted by Friday.

Quick changes.

guess who came to dinner

He rolled his scaley head my way and peered at me as I munched my sandwich. It was more wildlife sharing my plants and home—an anole or small lizard that is native to our gardens. Somehow they are able to find their way in from spaces in the door and window frames. Usually I ignore them for a while, but since they need a steady diet of insects I will

eventually  return them to the outdoors. Sometimes they are back the next day if I don’t carry them far from the house.

We get non native small geckos, too, that are nocturnal, and make little squeaking sounds like a mouse. 

Once or twice a garter snake traveled in on plants I brought in for winter.

It makes for interesting lunch time companions.

butterfly days

Who could have thought I would have the gift of so many butterflies at the end of November . They came in clouds to nectar on the chrysanthemums. I managed a few phone photos while grinning like an idiot.

a lunch time mystery

While eating lunch one day I noticed these tiny pearls hanging from the leaf of an orchid that I keep in the dining room window. Each was hung by a tiny thread and arranged down the leaf with such precision that it was hard to imagine that it was natural.

With a bit of research I discovered they are  the eggs of an insect called the green lacewing, and it turns out that they are beneficial to the garden since they are predators that eat insect pests.

it will take a hurricane to move it

It was on sale—a rusty, cast iron rooster. I found it at a favorite nursery where it was being discarded. I spray painted and set it up in the bed of waning mist flowers where I finally realized that it would take a hurricane to push that iron arrow around. The joke is on me. Pretty though and I managed to capture a migrating gulf  frittilary butterfly in the photo.

a sunset

Look, Elijah, the sun is dropping into the lake!

Silly grandma—the sun is in outer space, he answers.

Ah, 4 year olds are so wise today.

So much for that poetic notion.

pottery angel

The folks who were here before me lived simply. They grew most of their own food and had few modern embellishments. Sometimes I come across small reminders of them. Recently this small fragment of china with a tiny angel running around the rim surfaced after a storm. I put it in a bowl with other similar pieces of found tokens of the past, pausing to remember the keepers before me.

my November rose

Defying the deer this rose reached high and made a web embroidered, frosted rose for me on my birthday.

rainbow cloud

I am always cloud watching. It seems my head is often in the clouds.

Napoleon House

While in New Orleans we stopped for refreshment at Napoleon house.

It was built  to shelter Napoleon when he fled his imprisonment, but, of course, was never used.

A sharp contrast to most places in the Quarter---it is peaceful and filled with the sound of classical music. I drank a Pimm's Cup, munched bruschetta, and remembered all the visits with friends through the years.

a few sunrises

Early morning is the best time for walking in the Louisiana heat and humidity. But it's  hard to make progress when the rising sun keeps sending these glorious scenes to stop me in my tracks!

I fill my phone with photos each seemingly better than the last. 

But then sunsets always wow me too.

The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas

I recently had the opportunity to take my granddaughter to the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. It had been years since my last visit, and I had forgotten how magical the place can be.

Perched on the shoulder  of the Mississippi River and less than 100 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, it's a perfect location to showcase the diversity of life in our great bodies of water.

It is world class and a wonderful gem for New Orleans.

above it all

So you ask why is this crazy lady posting photos of dots in a black space.

Because that white smear is the space station with 6 humans gazing down at us!!

I've re subscribed to the notifications of its passage over our region and rush out to greet it as it goes over. Last evening was perfect--a little cooler with just a few clouds. Screech owls called from from the woods and only a few unknowns nibbled at my shins.

I follow on Facebook those astronauts that are currently on board and they post amazing pictures of our planet.

It's one place where humans from many nations come together in goodwill and science  giving me hope that it can be done.

along came a spider

Strung between the shrubs and trees each morning in the fall are massive spider webs. 

I need to look up frequently to duck them all.

Wikipedia:

The golden silk orb-weavers (Nephila) are a genus of araneomorph spiders noted for the impressive webs they weave. Nephila consists of numerous species found in warmer regions around the world. They are also commonly called golden orb-weavers, giant wood spiders, or banana spiders.

One morning recently I walked into one and wore the web around my head like a cap. Only a shower and shampoo would remove the clingy sticky substance from my hair,

Usually I just try to avoid them or encourage them move higher since they are harmless to humans.

However, most visitors find them quite intimidating.

lobelia cardinalis

From year to year one can never know what a plant will do. Some have been in the garden for decades and perform differently each year. This year the cardinal flower went over the moon.

These are self sown seeds or "volunteers".

Wherever they emerge I let them grow, weeding them a little and giving support when necessary.

They are big favorites with sulphur butterflies, hummingbirds......and me.

surprise lilies

These are the bulbs that lay dormant all summer-- no leaves or evidence that they're going to burst into bloom at the right time. 

Often they are forgotten, mowed over, hacked down, accidentally planted over. After a bit of fall rain they appear overnight and have me running to check out that burst of color that erupted like a mushroom!

I am always happy to make their acquaintance again and rush to get a photo or two before they melt back into invisibility. They will produce some green strappy leaves that blend into the grass, and then out of mind till next fall.