Just Some Things.

Not a lot to talk about just now, except that I'm on vacation for the next 10 days. (WEEHAW!)

Anyway, I've been taking a lot of pictures with my handy dandy cell phone and not putting them up.

Here I present: SKY

Have I mentioned that it's been raining lately?

Prickly Pear cactus. The pads are protected by some serious spines, but they're edible. They're called "nopales" in Spanish, and taste sorta like green beans with, I think, a little okra thrown in. In times of drought, ranchers will bulldoze tall piles of the cactus in pastures and then burn off the spines. The cattle can eat it after the spines are burned off. Some of the cattle learn ot like the cactus pads so much that they'll try to eat them before the spines are off. Not a good thing.

This is it's flower. Pretty, isn't it? Cactus have some of the loveliest flowers. When the fruit sets, they look like green wine goblets. They're attached to the pads, and have a small declivity on the top. They also come equipped with spines. Thier fruits are purple/red when ripe and full of seeds. They're tasty though. My grandfather showed us how to pick and eat the fruits. We just had to cut the fruits off the pads into a bowl, then sit down with a pair of tongs and either burn off or peel off the spines on the skin. The fruits are not sticky sweet, but is a treat. They make a wonderful jelly.

Nature goin' on

Remember when I said there was probably a lot of nature going on in my backyard that I didn't know about?

Well, I know about some of it now.

See, it's been raining.

And frogs?

They like rain.

Rain is their aphrodisiac.

They get so dang happy that they sing allllll night long.

I'm beginning to miss my neighbors fireworks.

Y'all. I mean, REALLY.

There must be one fellow that's truely lonely, cause he's been singing (without an answer one would presume) for several hours. And why would he lack for company? I just don't understand it. 'Cause, y'all, he's got voice. And projection. And even a little rhythm.

But he ain't got no lady frog.

Wait a sec.

He musta got lucky, 'cause I don't hear a peep from him!

Oh, wait. musta been a false alarm.

Hold on..........there's two voices now!

OH, voices stopped again.

Someone got lucky!

Dang. I bet there's gonna be another bazillion tadpoles in my pond again.

Rain. Love. Nature.

I've got it all, y'all.

'Night.

Things You Find Out About Your Neighbors at 12:34 am

1. Some of our neighbors have cats.
2. Some of those cats are fertile.
3. Some of those fertile cats know each other. Loudly.
4. Many of our neighbors have small yappy dogs.
5. Many of those yappy dogs like to bark.
6. Especially at fertile cats.
7. Charles the Dog likes to bark too.
8. His bark is louder than the yappy dogs.
9. He bays. Loudly.
10. This makes him very excited.
11. He does come in when called.
12. When Charles is excited he likes to tell everyone.
13. He's smart enough to shut up when threatened............er... I mean corrected.
14. Small yappy dogs don't shut up.
15. For a loooonnnggg time.
16. Many of my neighbors sleep very soundly.
17. Perhaps many of them are deaf.
18. A couple of them are having a party.
19. They don't seem to mind fertile cats and yapping dogs.
20. They had some leftover fireworks.
21. They like to shoot them off late at night.
22. Many of the fireworks are very loud and go off with a bang.
23. I hope they were fireworks.
24. My cat is smart enough not to go outside at night.
25. No, Lady Spit Fire is not fertile.
26. A Vet almost lost some fingers in the aftermath of making sure she would not be fertile.
27. A Vet now always uses self dissolving stitches.

Something I Have Learned About Myself.

1, I really hate getting woken up late at night.

Looking Around

I was looking in the site stats and found this website, in a language I do not recognize. In amoungst the posts, however, was one in English. Y'all. I love it. I really do. It is this poem.

I put up the link to the site in hopes that someone could identify the language. I'm curious.
This is the post, verbatim:


the best poem 2005
This poem was nominated poem of 2005 for thebest poem, written by an African kid!!!

When I born, I Black,
When I grow up, I Black,
When I go in Sun, I Black,
When I scared, I Black,
When I sick, I Black,
And when I die, I still black.

And you White fella,
When you born, you Pink,
When you grow up, you White,
When you go in Sun, you Red,
When you cold, you Blue,
When you scared, you Yellow,
When you sick, you Green,
And when you die, you Gray.

And you calling me Colored ??

Aly El Sahly

Morning.... Good Morning even.....

Sometime last night I hit my 10,000 mark.

We got rain yesterday, and a power outage, which spooked the dog bad enough that he drug out an old pair of shoes of mine to chew on. Sigh.

Fortunately?? It was a pair he'd already wrecked havoc upon. Then, he found a pair of nice fuzzy slippers and was going to town on them, when 'Pup came home.

'Pup yelled. Reached for the slipper.

Chuckers growled. Baaaaaaaad move on his part.

'Pup growled back, meaner, louder and angrier.

Chuckers dropped the slipper and spent the rest of the evening trying to get back into 'Pup's good graces.

We talked about putting Chuckles outside all day. He'd have food, water, shade and even a really nice dog house. Problem is? Chuckles don't wanna go outside.

Hummm

Maybe he ain't QUITE as dumb as we figgered.

Or maybe, he's learning.

Blooming

Things bloom at surprising times, in startling ways and with unlooked for gifts. I planted this rose this spring, and it didn't take off right away. I'd only chosen it because it was cheap, (almost dead) and promised a rose of great perfume, if not beauty. When it put out it's first bloom a few weeks later, it was only so so in the looks department, but the smell was nice. Then, the temperature got hot, and the plant went almost into dormancy. I even pulled off a couple of buds so that the plant would put more energy into growing.

After the rains recently, I let the buds develop.

Not bad, huh? And no. There is no photoshop involved. It really is this color. The perfume of the bud is even more intense. Sometimes, it's the smallest of things that gives the greatest gift.

A few other things are in bloom too.

The bouganvilla is finally blooming a bit. Oh, that's a crepe myrtle in the background, across the street from my house.

Big Big Big plant. Split leaf philodendron.

Caladiums planted about 3 weeks ago. Just before it started to really rain. I had very good timing on that one..lol.

My front yard is doing rather well.

Backyard is presentable too.

This a pink canna. It's small and going to live next to the pond.

I put a few of my extra pond plants into a couple of bowl water gardens. I also equipped them with a few tadpoles, and a mosquito killing "dunk".

The new water feature is shaping up well. I need more rocks, but that'll have to wait until a trip to the Austin area.... maybe at the end of this month.

And OH!

More nature occuring in my backyard.

A cicada husk. I think 'Pup took this picture. I like it!

Do'ya remember them bazillions of tadpoles in my pond? I think I may have found a couple of the parents. I was watering and some of the run off ran into a little hole under a border. I'd wondered who lived there. Now, I know. (And I'm real glad it wasn't another snake.)

Y'all have a nice summer.

YIKES YIKES YIKES!

The good Sr. and Sra M came to visit us this afternoon. Sra M needed to apply for some full time jobs on the internet and so came with her info (yes, both he and she are legal, with citizen children), and so we started.

FYI: If you apply for a job on Costsco's site? You will be answering 26 PAGES of questions.
By comparison, academy asked a mere 51 questions. We only got the two applications done for the afternoon.

While we were hitting our heads against the computer.........err I mean happily filling out all bazillion questions, 'Pup came in and said that the good Sr. M had a story to tell about what he'd found trying to eat the fish in the pond.

Oh, that's the latest version of the pond, with the good Sr. M sitting on a bench.

This is what he found (and killed).



















Here, allow me to show you a close up:

I suspect there's a lot of nature going on in my backyard that I don't even know about.

Oh, there are about 4 bazillion tadpoles in the pond too. The latest round of rains has set off a general mating season for all things amphibian. People, we're talking about frogs up to my ankle if they all develop. The fish seem to be ignoring them. I'm feeding the fish, because there doesn't seem to be enough skeeter larva or algae growing yet. Btw: Rainbow Dace? Are aggressive little devils.

This is a mosaic plant. I wanted a water lilly, but I fell in love with this plant's leaves.

There is another plant that I scavenged from my half barrel pond. It's the two little heart shaped leaves.

I'm very happy with the new water feature(s). Sitting by them is very relaxing, with the sound of water gurgling and splashing. I love watching the fish.

I don't really mind that there was a snake in my backyard. It is/was a ribbon snake and non-venomous. But, at $2.00 a fish, it ain't welcome to a fish dinner.

I hope all is well in your world.

Uhmm a little loss of time now...

Recently, I got a chance to take some pictures of my good Sr. M's back yard.


The good Sra. M. gave me a quick tour. He's not doing the projects I've done the last 6 years because he's not had the time and money I (used to) have. They have a (I think it's mesquite) tree that makes the pods hanging down. The seeds are edible, tho Sra. M did say that some don't care for them. They weren't bad. They tasted.. kinda nutty and green.

She also showed me the produce garden. Sr. M planted along the edge of his back yard. It's fenced off to keep their little dog from cavorting in the garden. We supplied the fencing, some that we'd used early in the backyard project (I've been fixing up the backyard for 6 summers now!) when we had to convince Brain that even tho that nicely dug up soil was nice and cool and soft, it would not be a good thing for him to use it as a napping spot.




She also donated a nice cucumber. Ours hasn't produced anything. A combination of late planting, a lack of good sun and I've not yet found a type of cuke that really likes containers.

They've got a very large back yard, and I confess to looking at all that space and designing in my head. I'll never be more than an amature landscape designer, but even us amatures can dream.
A Maguey plant. Yes, it's the kind that tequila is made from. I think they planted this one as a reminder of home.
A fruiting tree, not fruiting yet. I think she said papaya? I could be wrong. I often am...sigh.

And his tomato plants are doing well too.

I didn't mean to be absent from posting for so long, but real life (or as I found the debonair Ellison describe it: the Meat world), got in the way. I've been taking pictures though and I thought I'd just post some of them, with a little comment along the way.

Other, similar posts will be on the way.