Fire-pits & Giggles

ESPatch Sep 28, 2019 1 comment

I have been messing with these old Butler bricks for quite some time…as you do.

I have salvaged them wherever I could…stacking them here, stacking them there,

ancient monuments to remind me of an uncompleted project.

The first crop circle I built with them had a few seats around it and was occasionally used as an unusually painful campground when my kids were smaller.

When I decided to expand on the area, and with the removal of my stock-tank fish pond, it became clear I would have to take the bricks back up and start from scratch with a new center point.

More bricks were salvaged during our recent remodel and the removal of this brick patio.

I did lose a few Butlers to concrete and broken corners.

I decided to go with an in-ground fire-pit this time round.

This works out great as we now use it as a fire-pit in the cold months and a table straddles the pit in the summer.

The crack in between the bricks is like crack for the weeds, apparently. They grow as fast as I pull them.

Only another two more rings of bricks to go…of course it isn’t finished.

I keep getting distracted by things like this:

Ugh, and this:

I mean, what manner of nonsense is really going on on this branch?

These two old rosemary bushes, although healthy in this picture, had developed a lot of dead and brown growth at their bases.

And here they are after I attacked them with the Fiskars.

Wizened rosemary bonsai trees!

With the long hot summer drawing to an end and with minimal precipitation this Fatsia Japonica…well,

lets just say it has looked better.

Some of this summer stars have been the Mexican Honeysuckle,

Lonicera japonica

knockout roses and ‘hardy red’ oleander.

Burgundy Canna remains cool in the heat and it has been a bumper year for the Pride of Barbados.

These plants can take the excruciating and prolonged summer temperatures,

myself on the other hand…

even Kumo looked a little peeky after spending an afternoon outside.

On that note I will leave you with a modern design I worked on for a new build near Mopac in Austin.

Modern Patio — Floating Bench / Steel Planter

Stay Tuned For:

All material © 2019 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

The Hypnotist

ESPatch Oct 5, 2018 3 comments

Shut your eyes…deep, deep breaths…and relax!

You are thinking happy thoughts, thoughts from your childhood, thoughts that do not involve the remodeling of the Patch, nail guns or the continuing prevalence of spray painted succulents in large box stores.

Your mind is set free, free from the burden of backyard refrigerator focal points.

(Okay not quite)

Free from the billowing of plastic draped walls,

and the 7 month rustle of a Tyvek bathroom doorway.

Your breathing is getting heavier and your eyes are beginning to close, first the left then the right, you are falling into a deep, deep sleep.

In this sleep the things that annoy you fall away.

You are no longer concerned or disturbed at just how many stickers can a pair of slippers pick up while taking the short walk to take out the trash.

Or why there is a huge festering slab of fungi growing at the base of one of your knockout roses or why an even stranger stand of Chocolate tube slime mold (hairy stemonitos) has taken up residence on an outdoor table leg.

Brrr.

Even the disturbing amount of weeds are no longer your concern.

Oh, who am I kidding?

Look at this mess!

Chocolate tube slime mold?

Seriously?

3-2-1…You are awake, feeling totally anxious and overwhelmed.

(That’s more like it!)

Yes, this is what 7 months of complete neglect looks like. I think it looks worse than what it is, at least that is what I keep telling myself.

Loki is having a great time exploring her new weedy paradise.

Cat in the Canna.

Her first venture outside…on a leash!

There has been so much going on inside our house with our remodel I have hardly ventured outside…not to water, not to feed and certainly not to weed. Oh and don’t get me started on how bad the mosquitoes are this year.

I don’t even consider venturing out onto the front porch at this point without first taking some rudimentary precautions.

The new den, all finished!

Remodeled bathroom…got to take that sticker off the window.

Our old living room has now become our dining room.

It fits well with our distressed new ship-lapped walls.

Back outside the Patch the Gulf Muhly

Muhlenbergia capillaris

are in full swing,

one of my favorite native grasses.

This and Lindheimer Muhly…I cant decide.

Mist flowers are also entering their prime,

bringing with them clouds of American Snout butterflies.

Libytheana carinenta

We have a bumper crop of Celosia this year.

Oh and one scary clown.

Stay Tuned For:

“Hairy Roger”

All material © 2018 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

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