New Mexico Agave, Agave neomexicana Now that’s a deer/antelope/sheep fence! Cowpen daisy, Verbesina encelioides Queen butterfly Tree cholla, Opuntia imbricata Beaked yucca, Yucca thompsoniana Finally I’m starting these west Texas posts! It was after lunch when we arrived close to Fort Davis and the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute and Botanical Gardens. Chris had found the […]
In the Garden | December 2018
Having an extended weekend has meant a little more time to get a lot of different things done as well as leaving plenty of room for laziness. I’ve dabbled around the garden the last few days, more than I’ve done in the last month or so. And that meant taking time to get a few […]
Surprise Pipevine Swallowtail!
Imagine my surprise when I got home at lunch today to find a pipevine swallowtail had eclosed in the butterfly cage! The pipevine chrysalides I have in the cage have been in there since September and I fully expected them to continue over wintering until spring. I still have two monarchs that have been darkening […]
We Got Bees! | Wayback Wednesday
No, we didn’t get new bees, but I was on my podcast’s YouTube channel the other day, something I’ve kind of abandoned but am thinking of resurrecting, and found some adorable videos of Forest. One was the time we went to pick up a new package of bees and the second is him planting green […]
Late November Harvest
I’m usually a lounge-about morning person, sipping my coffee, surfing the internet as I eat breakfast. This morning I was itching to get outside after our week away. It was compounded by the freezes the week before that and general dreary weather the last several weeks. I was outside by 8:30 this morning with a […]
Tagging Monarchs
*Behold, crappy phone photos ahead!* After I started raising the monarch caterpillars last year I read about tagging them with tiny stickers from Monarch Watch so that those counting the fall migration back to their roosts in the mountains of Mexico could attempt to put together the pieces of where the final generations of monarchs […]
Return of the Monarchs
It was another camping weekend. This time we drove an hour and fifteen minutes east-northeast to Lake Livingston State Park for a single overnight camping trip. Being so close to the house permits this kind of camping trip, getting up early Saturday morning and spending the weekend at the state park. Saturday was glorious, still […]
Return of the Orange Dogs
Back in the summer I noticed giant swallowtails laying eggs on our citrus. This was late May/early June and we were still trying to get our citrus trees to rebound from the harsh freeze last year. I still hadn’t purchased alternative host plants such as prickly ash or rue. Luckily another butterfly loving friend had […]
Closing Out September
I know that I write every month (almost) that I can’t believe a month has come and gone. And truly, September breezed by. I feel like we were just having a holiday weekend in Galveston for Forest’s birthday and then bam! we’re celebrating Chris’ birthday while camping. Again, I was a bit lacking in the […]
Lovely Lycoris
The timing came together perfectly last weekend, the blooming of the yellow lycoris and the moody autumnal skies. The lighting was perfect post afternoon rain, when after keeping an eye on the lycoris flower buds for several days, the blooms burst open. I always forget that we have these planted here, tossed into the location […]
