“Stop Larking Around”

ESPatch Apr 16, 2013 8 comments

I don’t know why but I seem to have more than my fair share of strange goldfish escapades. This latest one had me scratching my head, something this goldfish could never do, because this goldfish had been…

…been…

…decapitated!

It also had had it’s tail removed. Brrr.

This cold blooded (ahem) murder was made all the stranger due to the fact that I located the corpse on the side of this bird bath that was looking particularly unattractive being full of post oak catkin sludge, and now apparently a random fish part.

Now I know Kumo has a fondness and a reputation for finding and lodging the odd rotten fish-bit around his collar, but this time I am quite sure he had nothing to do with the crime.

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2012/04/exploding-goldfish/

I know this as when confronted with something and he is guilty, his expression morphs into something like this:

Not that I really thought he could catch a fish, expertly filet it’s head and tail then position what was left strategically on the side of my birdbath.

Gollum I can only assume this is Gollum’s handiwork, perhaps he was looking for some water to wash the fish down?

Moving Along:

Seedpods from my stargazer lilies…talk about bizarre.

What did you expect?

Lots of firsts this week in the Patch.

The first tropical bloom from this butterfly iris.

The first croaks and visitations from our Gulf coast toads,

and the first flowers on my lizard’s tail,

Saurusus cernuus

also called breast weed as it has historically been used to treat inflammation of the breasts and other portions of the body.

As the greenish seeds develop, the “tail” takes on a wrinkled appearance, hence the common name.

Lizard’s tail has distinctive heart-shaped leaves and a curved raceme with many white, inconspicuous flowers.

lizards tail

The flowers have a sassafras aroma to them very similar to Hoja Santa.

A great pond plant but keep it in a container as it spreads aggressively by rhizomes.

This ‘Black Pearl’ ornamental pepper provides some great shade color,

with its eerie iridescent purple-pink flowers.

Larkspur are also just starting to open up this week.

I recall shaking some spent larkspur plants over this bed last year, no shortage in here now!

African hosta,

Drimiopsis maculata

has enjoyed our recent rains.

I divide these every year and dot them any place I have space.

More inconspicuous flowers.

This plant tolerates part sun, light shade and even deep dark shade.

Here is my first line of porch-defense against mosquitoes this year:

Lemongrass.

I am interested to see if this deters them.

Critters observed in the Patch this week:

Bee-Fly

Bombyliidae-Hemipenthes eumenes?

And to finish a very small Mygalomorph hiding under some leaves I was clearing out, perhaps a baby tarantula?

Stay Tuned for:

“Bare-Bones”

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

“The Small Patch of Land that Time Forgot”

ESPatch Mar 29, 2013 6 comments

I am repeating myself.

There is an awful lot going on in and outside of here…

an awful lot indeed.

I put on my backpack, grabbed some

kendal-mint-cake-white-large

and embarked on another expedition, this time into my circular planting bed.

Hacking a path with my machete, the foliage at ground level was dense and foreboding, not much sunlight made it through the dense larkspur upper canopy.

There were occasional breaks in the foliage where water had, over thousands of years, eroded deep gorges and holes into the ancient rocks.

I observed Sedum reflexum growing as large as pine trees on some of the rock faces and massive tarp-like hoja santa leaves that offered protection from the sun.

This particular rock face had vertical drop-offs and treacherous pathways.

I passed what I assumed to be some of this regions indigenous tribes-folk, strangely they did not say a word.

At the summit of this mountain I was surprised to find

these exotic tiny frogs, basking in the filtered sunlight. I observed them for some time until the silence was broken by a loud whooshing sound over the other side of the rock face.

Jings, crivens help ma boab!

What was this place that time had forgot? (Overly dramatic score)

compass_telescope_old_treasure_map-1680x1050

In the next valley there were

towering toadstools and

groves of these “Jewels of Opar”,

though their “jewels” had a lot of growing to do…ahem.

High up in the distance I could make out the silhouettes of more monsters,

monsters that had…RETRACTED PROBOSCIS!

And you all know how I feel about those.

Of course there are other monsters that roam down the decomposed granite pathways in the Patch.

This one has a green thumb.

Yes it was time for me to exit this small patch of land that time had forgot before things got any more ridiculous.

Back to my normal size:

These star gazer lilies sit there most of the year doing absolutely nothing. They burn at the edges in the middle of summer, require some trimming, but once a year, for a very short time they do this:

Which makes it worthwhile…I think.

The bluebonnets have also done amazing well despite the worsening drought situation in central Texas.

I even have one white one…just the one.

White bluebonnets are the result of a mutation in one of the genes responsible for producing the blue pigment of the flower, they are quite a rare phenomena, pink bluebonnets being the rarest.

Finally:

Now the neighborhood kids are getting in on the climbing the hobbit gate act.

The “Oh, I don’t think so” image of the week: