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“All Quiet on the Eastern Front”

ESPatch Oct 23, 2010 12 comments

” I must get out there and keep weeding”.

“Relax ESP, your tour of duty (ahem) is over, you must rest now”.

Phew, what a crazy week it has been in the ESPatch. I have actually been watching all five episodes of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner back to back as a form of deep relaxation and depression educing therapy to bring me down to earth a little. As readers, you will be drawing ever closer to the dramatic finale yourselves with the forth riveting installment at the end of this post, I can sense your anticipation.

First there was the build-up to the Conservancy tour, the grueling midnight weeding shifts that involved Davy lamps, loincloths, and copious amounts of mosquito spray (FYI: the Naboo insist on this attire for anyone in the Patch after dark). Then the tour itself happened, what a mad day that was. I cannot remember a time I have talked for so long, by the end of the day I was sounding like:

Marty Funkhouser.

We had a really good time on the tour and thanks so much to all my Patch helpers, and all who visited the Patch on the day. You can read some great accounts and see some pictures at the following links, if you haven’t read them already. I think I took only two pictures the entire day! :

http://www.penick.net/digging/?p=9584

And here:

http://wwwrockrose.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-knew-it-was-going-to-be-great-day.html

Thanks Pam and Rock Rose! If you couldn’t make it, here is a rather wobbly walk-through of the Patch just before the gates were opened. Oh come on Mr circular-bed Sotol! You can grow faster then this!

My daughter sold enough limonada on the big day to purchase a toy she has had her heart set on for quite some time:

These little bundles of fur are called Zhu Zhu pets and when you first meet one they seem harmless enough. We naturally had to purchase two of them to mitigate a potential war breaking out between our two hobbits.

“They can take oor’ lives, but they will never take oor Zhu Zhu pets”

Have you quite finished William?

They make cute snuffling noises, roam around freely and have character shifts when different accessories are attached to them, naturally. Oh yes, initially they seemed like a perfect non-real pet…no mess, no hair drop…but then the realization of the purchase kicked in, the snuffling noises, the squeals, oh the repetition.

I sit here typing on my laptop with two of these creatures running circles around my feet, their chirps and snuffles long having lost their appeal . I am now seriously resisting the urge to get up, get my metal shovel from my shed, and…well, I will leave the rest up to your imagination…I’ll give you Zhu Zhu pets! (I wonder how long their batteries last)?

A couple of days after the tour we had the friendly crew from the Gardener’s Supply Co come over to the Patch.

They spent the day setting up and photographing planted window boxes on the outside of our house for their catalog. After they had left, we found the fantastic surprise they had left for us near my back deck…

I could not believe how many plants they had left us!

My daughter and I have a long history of: “Daddy, why don’t you ever buy pretty plants with flowers?” “Well, I just prefer foliage plants, that’s all.” “But daddy why don’t you…” and on and on this monologue usually continues. Imagine her surprise when she was confronted by this scene as she went down the back steps, she could not believe her eyes. Her expression says it all.

Guess who was thinking more about the box that the plants came in?

Ragamuffin.

Yes, between obnoxious Zhu Zhu’s and garden tours and photo shoots, it has been a busy time in the Patch of late to say the least,

even this Texas spiny lizard seemed more immune to foot traffic and the camera after the tour and shoot, allowing me to get in closer then usual to this extremely shy creature. This was the largest one I have seen to date.

This plant most certainly got a lot of attention from a lot of people. I cannot tell you how many times I said celosia on the day.

The seedpods are now huge, and visually striking set against a backdrop river of artemesia…jumping salmon!

Bluebonnets are also popping up in the Hell Strip. (Thanks once again RR).

I will finish with a couple of shots of the Salt Lick, an infamous Texas barbecue destination. They have recently opened up a side garden and wine tasting house on the property, selling wine, cheese and pate’…

The central fountain is surrounded by gaura.

A huge stand of lantana and numerous roses and salvia line the perimeter of the garden

Inspiring Images of the week:

Peter Allen is the Marketing Director for UC Santa Barbara’s College of Engineering and Scientific Illustrator/Animator for Engineering and the Sciences. As a pre-medical student at UCSB he got his start doing hand drawn/painted cel animation for Developmental Embryology tutorials in 1984.

His subject matter can range from tau protein mutations in Alzheimer’s disease… to tuna fish. Using protein recognition software and numerous scripts and tricks to get the biological and chemical structures into Maya and Mudbox ready for rendering, or traditional modeling and texturing for the more playful artwork that he does in his spare time.

Drum-roll please…as promised, here is the latest installment of the…

Stay Tuned for:

Pumpkin “Patch”

This was more fun at stop lights then an iced turban in the middle of summer!

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Animal House”

ESPatch Jun 14, 2010 17 comments

This week I have found many new and old visitors alike taking a flutter or a crawl down the winding decomposed granite pathways in the Patch, and I am not referring to the after-effects of ingesting Leah’s sangria, though I could be.

There are hunters and predators lurking everywhere, under and above leaves, in the sky and on the ground,

Hard to spot hunters hunting down the tastiest foliage, like this…

Texas Spotted Range Grasshopper,

Psoloessa texana

you have to look really hard to spot this grasshopper, even it’s eyeballs are camouflaged! I only ever witness this beast if I happen to disturb one, then I have to follow the enormous jump and endure the subsequent heat and mosquito ravaged hunt in a general vicinity to find it again. They have remarkable colored “flashes” on their legs, that I have still yet to capture on camera. The wings look exactly like leaf skeletons.

“Croak…I love grasshoppers…burp!”

The Gulf Coast toads have been busy in my feeder stock-tank the last few weeks…

…laying strings and floating mountains of toad spawn. I always keep a close eye on the amount of toad spawn in my above ground stock tank pond after my “Primordial Soup” escapade a couple of years back. I still harbor night terrors from that episode and the flatulent machine I rented that was supposed to help alleviate the situation:

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2008/08/primordial-soup/

And look…

A baby Jewels of Opar! (at least I think it is). Unfortunately it chose a really bad spot to germinate on one of my pathways, I will relocate it when it gets bigger. Considering how many seeds this plant sent out last year I have only seen three new plants so far and they are in wildly different areas of the Patch!

“All this talk of things eating things has made me hungry!”

(Watermelon courtesy of Pam at digging: http://www.penick.net/digging/). I think we can safely say this melon was a total hit with this “Harry” Pam! Needless to say a whole bunch of seeds came spluttering my way seconds after the shutter closed.

This one goes out to you…

“…your the Pam, your the Pam!” :-)

More tiny eggs are turning up on my Mexican lime tree that, incidentally is making a valiant growth effort after I had to take the wood-cutter’s axe to it after the winter freezes. The Giant Swallowtail butterflies swarm citrus trees, giving them their other common name: “Orange Dogs”. The larvae are bird dropping mimics, and retain this nasty presentation into maturity. Because of their camouflage, they can often be found feeding right out in the open on their host plants. I have a bunch of their larvae at various stages of excremental development…

Papilio cresphontes larva

Yes, not the most aesthetically pleasing of creatures I agree, but a very effective deterrent for any would-be predators, after all who would want to eat ….?

I bet Andrew would also love to get his chops into a few of these brightly colored caterpillars lined up on a skewer! This is the strangely named Io moth caterpillar, I found it lurking in leaves under my ivy.

Automeris io

The feet are very animated.

The larvae start off orange and as they develop turn bright green. The caterpillars are covered in black-tipped spines that cause a lot of pain if touched. It is reported that the Naboo use these spines as poisoned blow-darts on occasion, but that is another story. The spines have a poison that is released with the slightest touch. The green caterpillars have two lateral stripes, the upper one being red and the lower one white. When the caterpillars are ready, they spin a flimsy, cocoon made from a dark, coarse silk. Some larvae will crawl to the base of a tree and make their cocoons amongst leaf litter on the ground, while others will use living leaves to wrap their cocoons with. The leaves will turn brown and fall to the ground during autumn, taking the cocoons with them. Look at what they turn into!

Here are the adult moths female top, male below. (picture courtesy of Wikipedia).

Amazing looking nocturnal moths!

Equally amazing are the

Gulf Fritillary or Passion Butterflies that are now showing up in the Patch

Agraulis vanillae

It is orange with black markings on the tops of the wings. Underneath it has silvery white spots. This one being a lighter orange is a female. I love the contrast topside to underside of these birds, they look like totally different butterflies. Plant a passionflower and watch them turn up!

Incredible coloration.

The Texas Spiny Lizard

Sceloporus olivaceus

is a common resident of most of Texas. It spends a great deal of time on fence posts and in trees like this one in my post oak, searching for food, but can be encountered on rocks or on the ground. This spiny lizard can grow to almost 1 foot in length!

Picture from Wikipedia: pretty fancy!

Colors and patterns typically serve to be adequate camouflage against the bark of trees in its chosen habitat. Their scales have a distinctly spiny texture to them, and their long toes and sharp claws are suited to climbing. I have seen more of these spiny lizards this year then I have ever seen before, not sure why?

Unlike anoles who appear to enjoy getting their faces into the camera, these spiny lizards are really easily spooked and extremely fast. This one “galloped” away and up into my post oak before I could say…

“My beans are finally at the top of the poles, and flowering!”…Or…

“Lots of new growth on my purple hearts and fountain grass!”

The Patch is entering the dog days of summer once again,

my fingers are crossed for a more lenient one then last year.

For now the sun is setting in the Patch so I bid you a warm Walton’s goodnight.

“Night Jim Draco Bob, night Pam, night Jenny(s) (RR the kids loved doing the wooden puzzles), night Les, night Daphne, night Germi (it was great to meet you), night Linda, night Meredith, night Texas Deb, night Diana, night Laura, night Cheryl, night Katina, night Ellie…etc,etc.

Stay Tuned for:

“Shaken not Stirred”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.