Dragonflies

"The times, they are a changing."

ESPatch Oct 5, 2008 0 comments

How many blogs must a man write down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ‘n’ how many seeds must a white (gardening) glove nail
Before the bermuda is canned?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must I post a dragonfly
Before I’m forever banned? (from the livejournal “gardening forum”)
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

“Heeeee! cooler temps”!

“Hahaaa, cloud cover!”.
I love these two little clay guys, I picked them up at the Great Outdoors a couple of years ago. Pretending that the carrot head is biting down on my finger, followed by the customary “ow, ow, owing” just never seems to get old in my household, (a big white van will pull up soon). The detail on these wall ornaments still amuses me, right down to the tiny little bug that resides on the carrot. Okay the the Skip Richter comparison is a bit of a stretch, but come on, you can see the “down to earth” resemblance in the eyes, when Skip laughs, can’t you? (Sorry Skip)!

“ESP is a sick and twisted little man”.

The times really do feel like they are finally changing the last few days. The winds of fall change are upon us after a particularly brutal summer. These backlit canna lilies, in all their blazen glory, are showing the first signs of their impending crusty demise, a true pointer that colder weather is lurking around the corner.

Canna lily look like a feather? …so bad!

The honey bees are going crazy on the Amaranth which is in full flight right now. In Greece, the Green Amaranth (Amaranthus viridis) is called “vleeta” and it’s a popular dish. It’s boiled, then served with olive oil and lemon like a salad, usually alongside fried fish. Greeks stop harvesting the (usually wild-grown) plant when it starts to bloom at the end of August.

Sticking with the purples, the Mexican bush sage (this sage is native to Central America and Mexico) is putting on quite a show right now in my front yard. I have the regular (left) and the the bicolored cultivar (right). This one has to fight a little harder due to its’ slightly shadier position under my vitex, as such, it tends to be a little …

…ahem,
leggier?

Another hot item right now is the Mexican fire bush blooms.

On a cooler note, a recently watered canna leaf. I wish I could say it was real rain, but I have forgotten what that is.

Some more fake rain on the papyrus.

The blooms on this philippine violet always cool down a scene. The plant is native to India and Burma and is related to the shrimp plant and the ruellia, or Mexican petunia. This plant to me, just has a little more class!
Fantastic fall plant, mine typically gets to about 4ft tall, with great, and I mean great foliage color, before and after the bloom. Note to brain…I need to get a few more of these.

Why you little spiny orb weaver you!
The spiny orb-weavers Gasteracantha are a type of spider. They are also commonly called Spiny-backed orb-weavers, due to the prominent spines on their abdomen. These spiders can reach sizes of up to 30mm in diameter (measured from spike to spike).
Less prominent this year, these little chaps remind me of beach-buggys or..

Atv’s. You have to admit that this little spider looks seriously rugged, stylish and off-road sporty. The “Top Gear” guys would be proud. (BBC America)

Other sightings in the yard this week:

This was the smallest and youngest anole that I have ever seen, on my pond cattails. This little dinosaur was extremily shy, he kept running around the opposite side of the cattail as soon as the lens came anywhere close. I did manage to coax it into a couple of shots. Click then click again for a close up.

I would love an identification of this dragon – brown all the way.

This tropical water lily smells as purple as it looks. If the color purple had an aroma it would be this!

The color of this “warty” pride of barbados
seed pod caught my attention.

Golden bamboo as it looks through
our front window…great in the wind!

Stay tuned for:
“Costa Del Orbit”

"Oysters on the Half Shovel"

ESPatch Sep 10, 2008 0 comments

“y see y got to pick a pocket or two me boy, or its the orphanage with
you. You see, you av to pay yer way in ere, just like me other scally-wags.
We be a family see?” …
“Now stop asking for anymore gruel, and get your pegs to that east-side-patch and steal those jewels for me…Now! you hear me?
The Dodger will show you the way”

My “treasure”…and this is really the tip of the glass shard bounty, if I really wanted, I could have doubled this amount of “loot” – unbelievable. I did find a rather attractive marble though, probably originating from the same period as Oliver Twist.

“Look he has found me marble,
of all the places for it to
turn up.”
And what about that rusty shoe artifact.

“look, over there, back central, do you see it?
Is that my long lost prosthetic foot Gigolo Joe?

“I believe it is, he also has dug up my old
recharge station”.

“Now, if he will only find the rest of me.”

So here is the area all my bullion came from, pretty much all dug down apart from under the beanstalk, yes, I still have not felled it yet. I took the grade down by about a foot and a half with my half shovel, which should give me plenty of room to work with, considering the height of the boulders. My plan is to loosen the “lunar floor” before I go in and start rebuilding the soil. I am thinking a good layer of gravel followed by a concoction of decomposed granite and thunderdirt, with the very top layer mounded to receive the lavender mass planting. Right now I am leaning toward the “Provence” cultivar, but suggestions welcome for soil amendment and plant variety. The dumping ground for all the dead soil I removed is not too attractive right now, but I will deal with that later!

I now have a new mountain to plant on, perhaps an Alpine forest?
“What a simply marvelous idea, but children, I really do worry about the soil quality”!

“The hills they are dead, with a mound of dirt-ick.
With glass I have dug, it is up to my ears”…etc. etc.

Staying with the Alpine forests for one moment…

This group of conifers I planted 15 years ago! I created a really acidic soil and they took off! these are now 10 inches tall!

Ok, okay, but my Asparagus ferns do perform
a great live show on stage.

“Now look here, I have got my eye on you!”
Keep clicking on the right image to zoom in, the wings are amazing. The eye on this dragon actually moved just as I was about to take its picture, looked straight into the lens.

Same dragon, this time on the end of an agave spike, gazing ball in the background.

All this gulf toad needs is a violin in his “hands” for a Beatrix Potter moment.

I am happy to report that my pond is once again thriving after my recent scare. The fish are back to full health with no more casualties. I have a new respect for how delicate the balance is, in this environment.

Other strange anomalies right now:

Perhaps the doomsday theorists have something after all? “Err dad, w,w,w,when did you say that new partical accelerator was going to be switched on?”

The big circle marks the location of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European particle physics laboratory in CERN. The tunnel where the particles are accelerated is located 320 ft underground and is 16.7 mi in circumference. The LHC went online last Wednesday.

After years of construction, $8 Billion, dozens of set backs and an effort that has included some of the smartest minds in particle physics from across the globe, the rather large “START” button has been pressed.

The ultimate goal of the LHC is much bigger than just observing new particles, namely finding a single formula to unify the four known forces of matter (the strong and weak nuclear forces as well as electromagnetism and gravitation via something called the Grand Unifying Theory, or GUT), but you already knew that.

The GUT would ultimately allow physicsts to relate all four fundamental forces of nature. This knowledge will provide mankind with the real potential of harnessing otherwise unattainable sources of clean, renewable energy, as well as the manufacturing of materials which are light, strong and custom tweaked into a variety of uses for applications across the spectrum, making even more advances possible for mankind. It is literally the Holy Grail of science endeavors.

The project is not without controversy, however, including some who say that the LHC is a Doomsday device that might destroy the planet by creating Earth consuming mini-black holes or generate strangelets and other strange time related oddities.

What?

The metallic colors on this deceased Scarab beetle were staggering, it looks like it has been spray painted by the “Trick my Truck” team.

Holey rocks in the succulent bed.

My Pampas grasses have bloomed this week, perhaps I will forgive them for breaking my shovel.

I almost missed this Pink Canna bloom, hiding behind it’s tropical leaves and some wispy Papyrus. It really had an “organ” feel to it, in part to it’s coloration, but also because it was nestled between large “lung” like leaves – something straight out of a medical journal.

“Its the yellow bells Esperanza, Its the yellow Bells!”

Like a tropical scene from a lost world, the decaying agave landscape is inspiring.

Middle bed scraping through the long summer.

The trunk of this giant elephant ear reminds me of a Tikki mask. here is a picture looking down into one of its emerging leaves…a giant green cave…Ahhhhh!

On that refreshing note..

Stay Tuned for:
“No More Iced Turbans for me?”

Dragonflies

"The times, they are a changing."

"Oysters on the Half Shovel"

Get new posts by email: