Hell-Strip

Disturbing forest Ents,

unconventional attire, the smell of kettle corn and turkey legs, the sound of distant doodle-sacs, it could mean only one thing.

We had arrived after driving our trusty steed down the dusty “old potato” road at the Sherwood Forest Celtic Festival

http://www.sherwoodforestfaire.com/

In the middle of Texas!

Guinevere wasted no time finding the hair braiding tent,

while Arthur (and Excalibur) held session at the round table.

But the stars of the day were so little you could barely see them,

ladies and gentlemen I give you the…

 …Pignut Flea Circus!

Imaginations ran wild watching these highly trained Irish fleas performing acrobatics, trapeze and walking the high wire.

Oh and should you need a break for a while…

I intend to integrate a couple of these into my hardscaping.

Back in the Patch:

The harvest moon rose over more unsettled weather this week,

and another couple of inches of well needed rain.

This was the view from my computer table before the rain.

Note the Mex. bush sage in the foreground.

There is no hiding their legginess now!  This had me laughing all the way to my truck.

Toadstools emerged overnight,

and nearly all of the blooms on this yucca were beaten off the stalk,

lodging in tight at the base of the crown…oh that’s just great.

Well I am not going in there.

Salvia is currently in fine form, and this Barbados cherry,

Malpighia emarginata

 

 is filling up the entire back garden with its cherry/honey fragrance.

The rain has greened up the muhly in my Hell-strip,

and pushed datura into a flowering frenzy.

This next insect looked like it needed some of the nectar.

This is a Rustic Sphinx, and it is one very large moth in the Sphinginae family.

Manduca rustica

 

They are very fond of desert willow, moonflowers and petunia. I found this one crawling around on my front doormat, looking decidedly unwell.

The next character was very shy and required some coaxing which in turn made it difficult to get a steady shot.


What I need is a camera with a retractable fake finger adaptation, though that would surely get me into trouble.

Myrmeleontidae – Antlions

 

Although they resemble dragonflies or damselflies they are not related.

 

Finally some grossness:

Captain it appears that this sand cherry is under attack?

 

Stay Tuned for:

“Notre Dame it’s got Cold”

 

All material © 2012 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

Finally School is back in session.

My wife and I had made it through another summer with only a few permanent psychological scars,

and a couple of new minor facial twitches.

One of which I involuntarily tried out as my cranium passed dangerously close to this rather large colony of harvestmen.

Left is a crane fly (and no it is not a giant mosquito and no, they do not consume mosquitoes); center is a house spider and right is our main-man, the harvestman. All of these insects are commonly and confusingly referred to as “Daddy Long Legs”.

The true daddy long legs here is the harvestman which is an arachnid, but not a spider, and now my head is hurting.

Another new insect for me this week is this:

White-striped Longtail Skipper Butterfly

Chioides catillus

 

“Your suffering will be legendary for this ESP.”

These common and wild (pinhead) Buttonbushes

Cephalanthus occidentalis

 

are magnets for a host of insects, particularly skippers, sphinxes and butterflies.

Moving Along:

Everything looks good against the softening backdrop of the hardy bamboo muhly grass.


Muhlenbergia dumosa


Like this crowd of tiny stone crop looking very ethereal in the late afternoon light.

Or perhaps it is a marauding army of tiny skeletons? Ahhh…

I digress.

These yellow bitterweeds are creating a nice splash of color among the muhly in my hell strip,

as are purple fountain grasses that are starting to prime.

It is the time of the psychedelic beautyberry,

Callicarpa americana

 

a time to get into shape for the winter?

“Give me five more irritating rodent!”

Other eventful events this week:

The crowning of Princess Salvia,

and the ripening of some red-hot tom-tom drums, (the Naboo percussion instrument of choice).

There was an event equally as hot this week…

The 22nd annual Austin hot-sauce festival.  This is where Texans eat some of the hottest hot sauce imaginable in some of the hottest temperatures imaginable, oh and was it hot this year.

One step outside of the above breezy structure after dipping a tortilla chip into some “Ass-Burn” hot sauce and trust me, you were…

I really do need to stop embedding this image.

The hot-sauce winners this year:  http://www.austinchronicle.com/Market/HotSauce/

Ever wondered what happens to a stock tank full of King Tut papyrus if it is allowed to dry up and bake for a day in a large tin, under the Texas sun?

Not a pretty sight.

Some of these will recover when I soak the roots but a lot of these will need to be clipped back to the base.

Duranta erecta ‘Sapphire Showers’ (Picotee Sky Flower)

A die-back perennial here in central Texas, this shrub blooms sporadically all summer, give it plenty of room though, it is a sprawler. Supposedly it requires full sun, but this one performs admirably under the heavy shade canopy of my post oak.

Inspirational Images of the Week:

Yes folks it is another tiny cabin in the forest, what is my obsession with these structures?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay Tuned for:

“Distracting Vampires”

 

All material © 2012 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

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