papyrus

“On The Chain Gang”

ESPatch Aug 1, 2010 12 comments

My Pride of Barbados have put on a terrific show this year, getting, along with my amaranth, the tallest I have ever seen them.

Here are a couple of them (and I do not mean the hobbits) that start off in the shade, then, fight their way up and up until they find the full sunlight…a good incentive for them to stretch their legs it seems.

That blue tee shirt was actually my tee shirt when I was his age, they don’t make them like that anymore, 100% polyester and a potent concoction of petrochemicals…still, I have to admit that it has held up well enough to now become an heirloom!

There it is, in the early 70’s, on holiday in a caravan park in Wales, UK.

That hat is a winner big sis, do you still wear it around town? …You should :-)

“Look aunt sally, she be wearin’ my Welsh vacation ‘oliday hat”

“Strangely, I thinks I knows that Caravan Park ESP”.

As you can see my sister had a matching tee shirt with her name emblazoned on it, it was apparently the craze back then for families to occasionally dress in the same outfits. (Or perhaps we just couldn’t remember who we were?)

If memory serves me correct…I believe we also had matching ponchos at one point, yes I said ponchos, but I flat-out refuse to post that picture.

This is the amaranth that is apparently on some form of steroids in my hell-strip. I have never seen amaranth this size at this time of year, even the seedpods are at a late September length.

The fungi have also been reveling in our (so far) moist-for-Texas summer:

I said fungi!…

This moist storybook scene sprouted up in my papyrus stock tank.

I have a couple of these moon-flowers growing up some large bamboo poles at the entrance to the back garden, they have loved the late afternoon rains and frequent soakings, one has even reached the top of the pole. I grew these from seed planted out early May, they have and continue to put up a great night time show as a backdrop…

to my datura.

This is the twisted ice-cream cone of the moon-flower, just before blooming.

Moving on…

I feel like I have been “On the Chain Gang” this past week, initially digging my way through the earth to prep three fall planting beds, then this familiar sight rounded the corner…it could only mean a couple of things…

Pain and sweat!

A full truck load consisting of 12 yards of my “favorite” substrate, decomposed granite, and another truck loaded with boulders, beach pebbles, and mulch turned up on the previously posted design scheme I am currently in the process of implementing.

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/2010/07/12555/

I thought the rounded blue-white rocks would work well strewn around the base of this young Spanish oak tree. I love these Mexican beach pebbles, in fact I like them so much I have ordered another 1/4 ton! They also totally change character when wet, going to a much darker shiny dark gray/blue state. I need these in the Patch!

I strangely felt some granite already stuck in my teeth before I even started to hack at the granite mound’s snow-capped peak that at this point looked insurmountable. I made a makeshift base camp on a lower shelf and started to mentally prepare myself.

The wheel guard on my wheelbarrow immediately fell off and it’s tire once again deflated in its now customary defiant manner. (It always does this when a delivery from Custom Stone pulls onto a work site.)

I need a new wheelbarrow, though with the amount of sweat, blood and toil I have gone through with my “old unfaithful” I could never get rid of it…oh no, it will end up having holes drilled into it and perhaps planted? Or maybe I will mount it on hooks and attach it to an elaborate pulley system where I can hoist it up high on my living room wall… like a moose head?

“Naturally I prefer the hook idea ESP”

The digging began and continued and continued and con…, with frequent resting points in “base camp” to cool off with a traditional iced turban or ten. More on this excavation next week, if my arms and hands are still capable of typing.

Here are a few creatures that were spotted in the Patch this week (sadly, no more Naboo sightings): http://www.eastsidepatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ESP-garden-2-copy.jpg

A dragonfly and an anole not talking to each other. I wonder what they argued about?

I tried the newer sinking dunks today (left) to kill a few thousand of these wigglers…

A day or two later I noticed a greasy, oily film had appeared on top of the water. I think I will revert back to the doughnut brand. I also like that you can see these floating dunks disintegrate over time, they sort of let you know when another application is required.

I bet you already know that the oldest known mosquito with an anatomy similar to our modern species was found in 79 million year old Canadian amber, 79 million!

While I was inspecting all my rosemary plants, I noticed this jumbo jet of a moth, hanging down on one of my prostrate…prostate…oh whatever…rosemary sprigs.

This is the stout body of the Nessus Sphinx Moth.

Amphion floridensis

These are a class of day-flying moths sometimes known as Hummingbird moths because of their flight characteristics. The median band may be very pale or almost absent, or it can be wide and even double banded. The rustic brown coloration and wing shape of this bird is superb.

Moi Grande Hibiscus and phlox still putting out blooms!

Stay Tuned for:

“It Ain’t Half Hot Mum!…ESP on Tour”

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

“Nose Boulder”

ESPatch Jul 24, 2010 18 comments

“Gross Alert”…”Gross Alert…Condition Red”… Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

The other day we were having a late lunch / early dinner accompanied by our hobbits. We had the usual “musical chairs” kerfuffle as we always do facing the simple, but apparently daunting entity…a rectangular table with four chairs surrounding it! It is like we all have to subliminally agree who sits where like a family of dogs battling to get pole position in the basket. The despair on our twenty-something waiter’s face was tangible, I was him in another life. Once finally settled, the same waiter came back to take our food order, as he approached the table, I noticed him, noticing my youngest, extracting a rather stubborn… (I had no idea mining had prematurely started…it wasn’t scheduled) “nose boulder”, a boulder that, if frosted, would not have looked out of place on the North face of K2, oh yes, it cast a sinister dark shadow over the table on its rather ungainly and secretive birth. My appetite receded.

With the substantial “ore” now presenting itself proudly on his unsanitary stalagmite finger, my wife was on it before I even had chance to move in slow motion toward it, moaning a long drawn-out Hollywood “Nooooooooo!”

As fast as the unmentionable was was smothered by a napkin, a reaction ensued that nobody, including the restaurant kitchen staff, waiters, front of house, could ever of anticipated…we had apparently unleashed the…

with our nasal-prospecting denial…with one final desperate lunge across the table he tried to re-obtain his “precious”, out of nowhere he screamed out…

“Hey!…I was gonna’ eat dat!”

A silence fell over the establishment.

Moving quickly on…

I walked around to my stock tank early this morning, optimistically hoping that perhaps it may have showered during the night. Not yet quite awake, (pre-coffee), I walked up to the tank to take a look.

As I peered inside, this fledgling blue jay erupted with a horrific scream that could have woken the

I was amazed how such a small bird could deliver such a decibel level. I scooped it up into a bucket and quickly released it before it could gather itself and emit the ear bleeding racket once again. The bird’s parents immediately flew into a nearby tree and started to call for it.

After my shattered morning nerves had returned to normal, I wandered to my papyrus stock tank. I had recently added a couple of canna lily transplants and wanted to check in on them.

This worm has a winter tree-lined avenue scene on the side of it, complete with white fluffy clouds.

Canna lilies are mostly pest-free, but like these recent transplants they sometimes fall victim to the Canna Leaf Roller, a particularly disturbing and destructive olive worm. This is the larva of the Brazilian skipper butterfly

Photo by the Massachusetts Butterfly Club

Calpodes ethlius

also known at the Larger Canna Leaf Roller. The worms cut the canna leaves and roll them over to live inside the cozy domicile while pupating and scoffing down on the leaf, and can they scoff! Look at my new cannas!

It has been a week of finding new insects in the Patch, three to be precise, the next one was waiting for me as I turned over one of my rotating compost bins…

Perhaps a long horned beetle of some sort? Check out those front feet.

And finally…

A Squash Vine Borer,

Melittia cucurbitae

found where else, but on one of my squash plants. The adult squash vine borer are active during the daytime and rest on the leaves in the evening, different from most moths that are active at night. The borer is a caterpillar as a nymph and a moth as an adult.

The moth is often mistaken for a bee or wasp because of its movements, and the bright orange hindleg scales. The females typically lay their eggs at the base of leaf stalks, and the caterpillars develop and feed inside the stalk, eventually killing the leaf. They soon migrate to the main stem, where they will reap complete havoc on the plant, eventually killing it.

World Exclusive…

A Naboo tribesman has been captured on camera, and you will not believe who captured this never before seen tribal member. On a recent visit to the ESPatch, Ivette Soler… http://thegerminatrix.com/ took this spectacular photograph, a photograph that will go down in the horticultural historical records as the first ever glimpse of this reclusive, sometimes cannibalistic tribe member.

You have to zoom in on this infamous discovery…I could not believe it myself…a warrior peeking out of the amaranth stems, is that a tribal headdress on the right?

You didn’t really think I was making them up did you?

After all of my moaning about my tomatillo plants, getting huge and just sitting there…doing basically nothing. Imagine my surprise when I was greeted by this scene today! It seemed like this happened over night, small lanterns were hanging all over the plants, and there were lots of them, all different sizes.

And to think I almost pulled them out. With the now forming tomatillos has come another curious creature that apparently likes to eat them…

…and quite aesthetically apt for this post title.

This is either the larvae of the Three Lined Lema Beetle, or the Three Lined Potato Beetle, it is really hard to tell unless you can find the eggs and so far I haven’t.

Yes folks, you guessed it, these tiny slugs with their swollen bodies and black heads have an annoying habit of piling their own excrement on their backs…they really do. What an extreme defensive measure (involuntary gag reflex).

Note to self: Must never try mimicking this larvae, no matter how threatened I ever feel.

Other exciting news on the vegetable front:

I have a pole bean, I have a pole bean!

And a few egg plants.

And one or two caterpillars! Annie, they love your sunflower!…I have never seen such a hairy congregation, any guesses as to what they are? I did try to pick the brain…

of this dragonfly, but he appeared to have already had his brain removed? Brrr.

My pokeweed fruit has matured to indigo, the stems turning quickly from green to this crazy pink. It appears the birds have already found them.

And Finally…

I have a new resident in one of my water lilies, sporting a sort of full-face, Hitler-esk mustache. Some unsuspecting insect is in for a bit of a scare, when alighting on this bloom. Oh yes, this image did make it to my “Looks like” page:

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/visual-comparativies/

Stay Tuned for:

“On the Chain Gang”

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