Architecture

“Pain In The Neck”

ESPatch Aug 17, 2014 7 comments

“How you doin?”

Bare with me as I take a quick jog down nerd boulevard to examine one of the stranger activities performed by the damselfly.

Before mating damselflies spend a considerable amount of time ‘checking each other out’ through close physical contact.

The selection of a suitable mate comes down to (as I have learned) the mesothoracic plates on the anterior surface of the females mesothorax, and how well the male bits (cerci) fit with these plates.

Here is a close up of the male’s abdominal fiddly bits,

ebriumFemaleThorax that interface with the top of the female’s thorax:

http://www.enallagma.com/cerci/damselflyMating.html

I found these two with their lock and key mechanism fully engaged in my stock tank. It is believed this interlocking system allows each sex to assess the species identity and suitability as a mate. Coupled together in this fashion they can fly perfectly in tandem.

Here is a video of the entire life cycle of these beneficial mosquito-eating insects:

Talking of stock tanks.

I use this one to catch rainwater from one of my gutters for hand watering purposes.

I flip it over when it is nearly drained and invariable perform an impromptu, non-adjudicated

andros_highland_fling copy

after encountering the scurrying beasties that are always lurking underneath it.

I have recently got into the habit of jumping back when I flip it,

green_snake just to be on the safe side.

This time under the tank my mystery prize was…

Two huge writhing mounds of Greenhouse Millipedes,

Oxidus gracilis

I know they are nothing like the African Giant Black Millipede Bear, and yes, feel free!

Moving Along:

As the Texas heat rises to August temperatures,

DSC07075 copy this artemesia ‘Silver King’ snow drift helps to cool things down.

As does the silvery-‘blue ice’ cypress…(must not focus on the grape vine…

must not focus on the grape vine…

…

Grape Vine2 …argh!)

…oh who am I kidding? It is just hot.

The blooms on this Pride of Barbados adequately sum up August in Austin.

I have quite a few of these around the Patch but this particular plant, in the least favorable of soils in my Hell-Strip, is by far the most vibrant.

Moy Grande Hibiscus also packs some summer heat.

Still, as far as summers go, this one has been relatively lenient, feeling shorter than usual with our late rains.

Plants are still full with no additional watering to date (apart from plants in containers) but more miraculously…I haven’t tied a single iced-turban this year, not one!

As for future winter attire?

After attending the Hill Country Weavers knitting and loom Camp she has it covered.

Happy 7th young assassin.

Finally:

A few before and after renderings of a design I recently generated for a Georgetown residence:

Stay Tuned For:

“Wail of a Weekend”

hqdefault All material © 2014 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“A Change of Scenery”

ESPatch Jul 10, 2014 6 comments

Dragonfly wings,

buried in the sand?

It could mean only one thing,

we were off on vacation,

and we had survived the “6 Harry Potters” worth of car-time to get there.

The 12 hour journey was accompanied by the repeatedly repeated phrases from the parental units trying desperately to hold it together…“If you do that again you will loose the iPad for one Harry, do you understand?” and at every gas station: “Did you go to the restroom…did you go to the restroom?“

And “stop that humming!”

followed by the final blow…

…”you have lost the iPad for a Harry”.

Oh yes, if it wasn’t for the sporadic in-car reading (courtesy of my wife) of the poaching exploits of

I think we all would have all permanently lost it.

We had arrived at Gulf Shores, Alabama.

They jumped out of the car and were on the beach before you could say sunscreen.

I was not far behind them with my fishing rod.

A couple of pompano on my second cast (really it was) caught the attention of this Great Blue Heron down the beach:

I released the fish back into the water but only one made it back to the deep, the other was gracefully harpooned by a formidable beak.

The heron never left my side after this.

It was like the evil penguin on Wallace & Gromit.

Always looming.

This Remora Shark Sucker fish did escape the beak. These funny looking fish have a sucker pad on top of their head that is used to attach themselves to Shark, Snapper, Cobia etc…they are cleaner fish.

If I had known this at the time I may have attached a couple of these fish to the seat-belt-smudged tattoo that ended up EVERYWHERE.

The tattoo apparently lasts a month!

Her hidden agenda at the beach naturally involved lots of these:

and precisely seven of these:

Time to get some refreshment at our favorite hangout…

Let me guess, something to do with Minecraft and American Girl Dolls?

Every so often a buzzer would sound and this would happen which was good as it was noticeably fading the tattoo smudges.

result Final day blues.

Thank you D&J, we had the best time.

We decided to break up the return journey and splurge with an evening in New Orleans at the

hotel-monteleone-new-orleans-hotel-french-quarter-entrance-732x428

In the heart of the French Quarter.

Lets just say it made a dramatic change to the Best Westerns we were accustomed to.

Jaws dropped entering the foyer, and off to the side was the amazing

hotel-monteleone-new-orleans-carousel-bar-lounge1-640x428

Carousel Bar & Lounge where patrons circumnavigate at one revolution every 15 minutes.

The biggest hit was the mandavilla lined rooftop pool

followed by fresh dressing gowns and chocolates that were found on the bed.

Next morning it was Beignets at Cafe Du Monde,

and a walk through Jackson Square with its specimen multi-trunked Mediterranean Fan Palms.

Chamaerops humilis

Hmm, I think I may not have given mine quite enough space – good job they are slow growing.

Are those…it can’t be…

…Oleanders…the size of trees!

This is not what we looked like after the drive back to Austin.