Animals

an-american-werewolf-in-london

“Dude, he must be sweltering in that mask!”

mask

A werewolf I was…

well at least for a few minutes until the stinky latex mask, incessant itching and the inability to really see what was going on around me got to me, not to mention the pools of condensation that were forming on the inside of the mask and the strands of synthetic hair that kept getting into my mouth.

I think I wore the mask the best part of 45 seconds.

Oleander

Evil Morticia had the right mask-less idea.

The Grim

This reaper left a trail of death and decay wherever he wandered, one brush of his gown against this pumpkin made it grow mold, here it is now secreting nasty smelling juices all over our front porch…

Juices

…Happy Halloween!

Porch

Morticia and the reaper had a lot of fun gathering candy and meeting some local charismatic homeowners.

Halloween

They trick and treated past hedges with blinking eyes while I peered into the heart of the resident sago.  I now check every sago I come into contact with for gender, this tends to raise a few eyebrows I can tell you.

Halloween

They procured yet more candy under the bones of this cowboy.

I witnessed a few scary things myself walking around the neighborhood,

Agave

this century plant made my rotting pumpkin situation seem somewhat insignificant, the base looked like a horrific accident but a glance skyward

Flower_spike

revealed where all that plant-energy was going.

flower_spike

A massive flower spike.

It made a great crystalline silhouette.

Nagilum face-palm-star-trek

Although it is called a century plant these agave typically live only 10 to 30 years.

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This bamboo muhly looked very ghostly as it floated and billowed around in the twilight.

Trading

After some insider trading on the candy exchange,

organizing

she wasted no time in categorizing and indexing her bounty,

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she even generated a Prezi spread sheet to summarize her observations.

Snort.

Back in the Patch:

construction

The new house being built at the back of the Patch is starting to take shape. I am glad it is only one story.

eastsidepatch

With all of our recent rains the plants are at the fullest they have been all year.

seed_head_development

Celosia are busy forming bright seed heads that will last long into the winter.

color

Canna lily are still going strong in my canna and papyrus stock tank, as was this warrior at the Celtic festival.

celtic_festival

His favorite fighting festival.

Bamboo_Muhly

Kumo always finds some muhly or feather grass to lie on after a long and exhausting night of barking at the moon.

shhh

Shhh.

napping

Stay Tuned for:

Deep Breath

 

inverted

All material © 2013 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“One Man’s Treasure”

back_garden

The latest nerd-centric activity that has swept through the Patch involves a cell phone, GPS and some local travel and walking in sometimes remote locations to hunt down an illusive Geocache.

IMG_0607

A typical cache is a small waterproof container with a logbook and some toys or trinkets, they can also contain items for trading and some trackable artifacts. This one we found locally is a ‘nano’ cache and only contains a rolled up log sheet.

GPS

After downloading the Geocaching App you pick what treasure you want to hunt down using GPS to get you in the approximate location.

Geocache

Our treasure hunt took us into a local graveyard.

IMG_0589 copy

No I don’t think it will be down there.

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Good exercise this Geocaching.

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We honed into the location and started to look around.

And we continued to look around,

and around.

straitjacket

This part of the process can make you look like you should be in a state hospital wandering aimlessly around and around head down. I personally caught my self mumbling at one point around the twenty minute mark.

Geocache

It took us half an hour to locate it and there was no trinkets or treasure at this particular find just a rolled up log book to sign, but someone was a very happy cacher.

Back in the Patch:

Toad

The light quality has started to have a wintery feel this past week.

bamboo_muhly

Bamboo Muhly and tropical looking loquat catching some rays.

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My Mexican firebushes

Hamelia patens

 

are living up to their name

Hamelia patens

You could warm your hands up on these in colder climates,

ornamental_grasses

and behind these, the slender unfurling panicles of Lindheimers muhly

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri

 

Hannibal-hannibal-lecter

a great native, and a good softer alternative to the flesh slicing pampas.

wet

This soggy toadstool says it all.

With our recent rains they have been popping up everywhere.

Sceloporus olivaceus

When the sun came out so did the anoles and lizards.

I got very close to this usually skittish and very fast Texas spiny lizard,

Sceloporus olivaceus

 

 those long toes are adept at climbing trees.

Sceloporus olivaceus

This was a large one, about a foot in length. Its body temperature must have been low which allowed me time to get close with my camera. The spiny body coloration blends perfectly with the bark and lichen on our large trees.

I will leave you with this sobering image…

detached

Yes, my strobilus finally detached itself this week.

images

It had been lolling around looking sad for weeks now with just a few fibers keeping it attached to the sago palm. I decided to perform the delicate surgical procedure myself and trudged off to my shed for my hook saw and gloves.

image.axd

I am thinking of mounting it to a wooden frame and hanging it up in our hallway.

teeth

Stay Tuned for:

Extraction

 

can-humans-sense-vampires-21511326

All material © 2013 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

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