One rainy day, our children decided to explore our house in more detail, our eldest, was curious about the wardrobe in our empty back room.

She soon discovered that it was a portal to a snow-covered forest with a landscaped garden that featured a focal gas-light garden “room” in the center.  It was here she met a faun, named Tumnus who, as it turned out, was a garden critic for an alternative world magazine. He invited her to his home, and overly manicured formal garden for afternoon tea.

He told her that the land is called Narnia and it is ruled by three ruthless witches, witches who ensure that it is always Winter.

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/about-the-esp-witches/

So that is where the ESP witches spend most of their time! no wonder I never see them, they are escaping the Central Texas heat in the frozen world of Narnia, those crafty witches.

“Are those farmers’ Almanac books Mr Tumnus?”

Lacewings and their larvae devour Aphids as if there were no tomorrow.  Lacewings have a liking for the warmth and comfort of a house during the autumn and winter months, you can often find them indoors, lounging on lazy-boys, watching holiday specials.  This one was being particularly vain, grooming and muttering how beautiful she was on my bathroom mirror, she needs to meet “The Lady”.

My burgundy Cannas and Hoja Santa are also proud of their looks right now. The recent rains have made them spring to new heights. I like how the Giant Timber Bamboo leaves look (right), in front of the Hoja Santa, such a great spiky/round contrast of foliage.

The texture and color on the burgundy Cannas make them a must-have in the Patch. I have a number of these containered, stately dark lords dotted around the ESP.  I do like the way they look, and if placed in a sufficiently large “Texas” container, they do perform extremely well, even in our hottest months.  I give my pots a good top dressing of home-made compost every year to replenish the soil as the continuous summer watering washes out the nutrients from the soil.  These Cannas will die back to the ground with the first freeze, which should not be too far away.

This pilot risked an emergency landing next to a large stand of Hoja Santa, after almost hitting this satsuma tree.

Today was to be harvest day. I noticed a couple of bugs drilling holes into some of them, and realized they needed to be picked, immediately.

We counted 97! I am sure the tree will spend some time relaxing after being relieved of all this weight. I think we will be tired of satsumas after this harvest.

Reconstructing a pharoh…

Photograph: Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt, and National Geographic Society, 2005

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities has worked with CT scans to recreate what King Tutankhamun’s face would have looked like when he was alive. Three teams of forensic artists and scientists—from France, the United States and Egypt—each built a model of the boy pharaoh’s face based on some 1,700 high-resolution photos from CT scans of his mummy to reveal what he looked like the day he died nearly 3,300 years ago.

Giant Papyrus, King Tut or Egyptian paper reed.  This one is about nine feet tall. My goal is to totally fill this tank up.

Cyperus papyrus

I started out with a single clump of papyrus and I have been dividing it around the interior of this buried stock tank for some time, long enough for some stubborn grass seed to blow in.  I now have to go in about four times a year to snip this grass back, it is too embedded into these roots and stalks to extract it. Oh yes, this is almost as annoying as the grass that insists on growing tight up the side of my barrel cactus.

Arrrrrghhhhh!

These Artemisia hills behind my stock-tank “Tut” (try saying that one a few times) are in their prime right now. They will soon get too leggy and be ready for a good winter whacking back.

But for now this frosty waterfall of a plant remains quite fitting for this post’s Narnia theme.

Nearby, a “borrowed” scene courtesy of my neighbors distant and quite magnificent palms. You can make out the ESP property line fence in the foreground behind the pampas grasses.`The grass on the right…

is palm grass, or bristle grass, a native of India.

Setaria palmifolia

This plant has become a troublesome weed throughout much of the tropical and subtropical Pacific region, and it can be here in Austin.  I know, I have first hand experience of this when I left one to go to seed a few years ago, my neighbor had about eight new palm grasses in no time at all!  I now go around and cut off the seed-heads as they develop to ensure it does not become a problem. I love this tropical grass, it just requires a bit of taming…well worth the effort.

As I rounded the corner next to the Artemisia I was confronted by this hobbling gatekeeper who shuffled out from behind my copper canyon daisy. She demanded a candy toll before pulling open the squeaky metal gate, granting me safe passage to go to the pond and feed the fish.

Observations this week…

The water beads on this tiny succulent seem to be under some form of enchantment spell that enabled them to defy the laws of physics.

Giant Timber bamboo culms.

So after this season, the culm-count that have jumped the bed is up to two…but do I care?

The jaws of a gerbera daisy

And a pink daisy after a shower, or is it a jam, good enough to eat, tart.

My smoker barbecue pit this week turned into an ESP “campground” for no apparent reason other than it is there and it is a somewhat triangulated structure.

Another hider, so this is where flies go in a downpour. This hoverfly made sure it was staying totally dry as the rain came down.

Stay Tuned for:

“Wind in Our Sails”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“In the event of a water landing, I have been designed to serve as a flotation device”

And even more rain in Central Texas…and even more mosquitoes, although I have noticed that they are getting slower, their desperation for the red matter making them easier to swat. There are also some mosquito-monsters, what is that? Is that a? You have got to be kidding me… some are so large, getting stung is like getting stabbed with a knitting needle. Hey, everything is bigger in Texas.

The rain had beaten down this swallowtail butterfly to the ground, along with some Mexican Bush Sage. When I approached, as if on cue, the bird moved a wing ever so feebly, like a surrender flag.  It was a tragic scene.

I managed to get the butterfly on a small twig where I then placed it up higher, next to one of my gazing balls, to get a breeze and dry it’s wings off.  As soon as a breeze hit it’s wings, it immediately struck a pose.

Like a huge flying mantra ray, or a solar sail in orbit around an alien sun, it sat in that spot for hours, slowly fanning it’s wings. The next day it had gone, perhaps an anole ate it? Perhaps it dried off and flew away? I will never know.

Uhh ohh…(sirens go off)

NERD Alert, NERD Alert, NE…

It seems as though my Giant Timber Bamboo has developed barnacles, bamboo barnacles!

Small ones, large ones, exploded ones, If you have Giant Timber, the chances are you have some of this, a US import from the East.

Try saying that one at a party to ensure everybody looks at you like a freak for the rest of the evening!  The Asterolecaniidae, or pit scales, are an unusual group in which many members can cause “pits” to occur on their host plants, usually Bambusa.

Many are considered as damaging pests on their hosts, sucking the sap from the culm sheath and stems. (Adjusts glasses) This is one of the more common pit scales. The coloration of this scale is light green to light brown with a cream colored to orange margin.  It has a waxy covering making it difficult to eradicate…I don’t even try. Snort

My front porch has been consumed and I mean consumed by this Passiflora Coccinea or Red Passion Flower this year. The vine escaped its usual winter die-back fate last year due to the particularly mild winter we had. This years growth on top of the old growth has created a vine of monsterous proportions, it is attempting to engulf my entire front porch. If we do not have a cold winter this year I fear my front door may become unusable.

It is like the carnivorous Mexican vine in the movie “The Ruins”.  It is even trying to get into the windows!  I will let it for now because in the mornings when the sun shines on it, it creates the best shadows to wake to, very jungle like, and I do like jungle.  I am just happy that it is not planted on the side of our house with the Tahoe hole in it, or I firmly believe it would already be inside the house, covering the TV and our Lazy Boys with it’s green tendrils.

House of Vines, originally uploaded by: jasohill

Could this be the fate of the Patch should we not get a good freeze this winter?

Staying on the subject of rather large vehicles, driving at high speed into the sides of houses, this is the current scene in our living room right now. The recent cold fronts we have been experiencing have created the need for some creative improvisation, oh yes when the colder wind picked up recently it was whistling through here. It made watching a movie feel more like an outdoor retreat. What was our creative improvisation?  Well as you can see, it involved copious amounts of Duct Tape and some plastic leaf bags to achieve this deconstructionist aesthetic. I have to mention that these bags are constantly sucking in and blowing out, it is like living inside of bellows.  The Botox Lady had a really strange look on her face when I walked past her from the shed carrying the roll of Duct Tape.

Another over-achiever that has really sprung this year (its third year) is this Buddha’s Belly Bamboo,

Bambusa tuldoides ‘Ventricosa’

I am thinking of taking out the white pomegranate shrub on the right of it to offer the scene some more breathing space. I have never really cared for this shrub, it has a scrappy curled look to it’s foliage, like it is perpetually thirsty.  Apart from the white blooms it develops in the spring, it mostly just sits there, bothering me, yes, I am afraid the woodcutter will return with his sharpened axe in the very near future, what do you think? Do I just hate “curly foliage”?

It is not like the Belly Bamboo does anything more spectacular, but the foliage just works for me as an imposing tropical backdrop to these variegated agaves.

I cannot describe how many insects are on this Amaranth at the moment. It has rendered my center pathway almost unusable. Clouds of moths,wasps,hoverflies,wasps,butterflies,bees surround you should you sweep past the colorful plant. It is quite staggering.

This one was particularly large and spiky, the body of the fly glowed ruby red.

The insects seem to get drunk on the Amaranth necter, not caring at all about the camera.

Arrooooooo!

Lots of fall color right now in the Patch courtesy of Amaranth, cigar plant, Philippine violet and Mexican bush sage.

We went to the Mueller playground at the weekend and spotted some of Austin’s very own Monk Parakeets, they were everywhere!  As were their feathers that kept falling out of the tree as I took this photograph.

Somebody got to work immediately collecting the colorful feathers.

Myself?…Naturally I was hunkered down next to this amazing specimen of Umbrella Plant

Cyperus alternifolius (Unbrella Papyrus)

I may just have to bury yet another rather large rubber container and get this one going. It would look great buried in the middle of a bed as a center-piece with an under-planting of…wait, I think I know just the place!

Finally…

A freshly emerged damselfly?

The Bog Cyprus in my main pond has started to brown and shed, so it is out with the net…

“Let the boring scooping begin!”

I hope you will check out the new ESP “character listings” at the top of the green side-bar under “Pages”. Let me know if I have missed any important details or if I have excluded anyone you think should have a presence there.

Cactus Man, Cactus Man where art thou?

Stay Tuned for:

“The Leaf, the Witch, and the Water-feature ”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

Painting of the famous rhyme Little Red Riding Hood by French painter Fleury Francois Richard (1777-1852).   Louvre Museum.

We recently were talking about this rather surreal tale in the Patch, (my eldest hobbit is reading “Little Red”) so I thought I would check it out in a little more detail. As it turns out there are quite a few different variations of the story, variations teachers would never dare to read to you in school, for fear of being arrested, and making prime-time news.

In these older variations the antagonist is not always a wolf, but sometimes an ogre or a werewolf, making these tales relevant to the werewolf-trials (similar to witch trials) of the time. I could go into detail here with the infamous “Peter Stumpp” case, but I won’t, for fear of making everyone spontaneously vomit. Lets just say Peter makes Hannibal look like a vegetarian!

“Served over grits perhaps”?

In these early renditions, the wolf usually leaves the grandmother’s blood and meat for the girl to eat who then unwittingly cannibalizes her own grandmother.  In some versions, the wolf eats the girl after she gets into bed with him, and the story ends there.  In others, she sees through his disguise and tries to escape, complaining to her “grandmother” that she needs to defecate, (you can’t really blame her) and would not wish to do so in the bed, (pretty quick, albeit nasty thinking on Red’s part, in my opinion) The wolf reluctantly lets her go, tied to a piece of string so she does not get away. However, the girl slips the string over something else and escapes.

My, what big eyes you have!

All the better to see you with, my dear…

My, what big donkey’s ears you have Grandma!

All the better the hear you with, my dear.

My, what big out-of-focus teeth you have Grandma!

All the better to eat you with, my dear!

Little Red Riding Hood  makes the clearest contrast between the safe world of the village and the dangers of the forest, something that the Naboo are only too well aware of.

Moving mysteriously on…

My Copper Canyon Daisy,

Compositae Tagetes lemmonii

finally gave it up this week and started to bloom. It looks really good with a shady, dark, back-drop.

I caught this small Goldenrod Crab Spider on the same plant, at first I thought it was one of the plant’s unopened flower buds, it looked almost identical especially with it’s legs tucked in…a remarkable adaptation and camouflage, that I can only think is by design?

This spider was extremely shy and looked almost tick-like in appearance. Another first in the ESP.

This purple plant continues to confuse me as to it’s identity. I checked out your suggestions Germi, but it still looks different.

The underside of this plants foliage is even more impressive than the top side. It really looks like it has been pimped…”pimp my plant”? It has the most iridescent metallic coloration that wouldn’t look out of place on a motorcycle tank, complete with the blood vessels, naturally. The plant does form some unremarkable, tiny flower/seed-heads at the very end of it’s leaves, you can see one of them in the first image.

The burgundy plant makes a really great cutting combination combined with Mexican Bush Sage.  Yes there are those confounded yellow snippers again that cause all the arguments and continously “finger-nip” the Shire’s hobbits.

Now, if I can only figure out what exactly this is, I could go and get another one… I love this Gothic plant!

While I am on a roll with unidentified plants, I thought I would throw this little rocky-looking one into the decomposed granite mix.

This Satsuma tree is currently providing fruit at almost every meal time.  The Hobbits take great delight in picking a few (it is on their level afterall), taking them indoors, peeling them and subsequently devouring the fruit from their evening plates…it is the best!

Talking of Hobbits…

Bilbo Baggins usually picks the Satsumas off the small tree with his unusually large right hobbit foot…(very dexterous are those hobbitises’ feet like that).

My other Frodo has been busy in my middle-bed, hunched over with the “Jewels of Opar” creating a cool pattern on the back of her tee-shirt. (You knew I had to get the plant in this post, somehow or other!)

Now I know how to photograph the “jewels” of this hard to photograph plant, they need a back-drop!

What is she doing? Conversing with a tribal member of the Naboo? Paying respects to the Cactus Man? Mopping the Botox Ladies mouth?  Tell me the Botox lady has not manipulated her into this unimaginable task!

Oh no, none of the above…thank goodness. She carefully went in and planted her very first succulent, a cutting from her “JuJu” and she did it all by herself…I had goosebumps. I did not want to say anything about her over-watering it afterward, but being the control freak that I am…I had to.

Hey, she has to learn!

Stay Tuned for:

“Baggins & Tape”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

What better at the end of a hard days work in the garden, then to sit down on your back deck, to savor a deliciously refreshing, ice cold… “Value Lager”?

Life doesn’t get any better, or generic, does it?