Winter 2008-9

Bah Humbugs!

ESPatch Dec 20, 2008 0 comments

Family: Whites and Sulphurs Pieridae
Southern Dogface Butterfly
Subfamily: Coliadinae
Colias cesonia

The Pieridae are members of the Superfamily Papilionoidea, the true butterflies. Worldwide in distribution, most species are found in the tropics.

This one is is a female. Interestingly the female takes on two seasonal forms: underside hindwing of wet season “summer” form is yellow; that of dry season “winter” form is mottled with black and pink.

I caught this one drinking heavily in my amaranth, It loved it. The subtle pink wing coloration
really picks up on the amaranth seed. I hope she found a warm “spot” to hide in tonight’s cold
temperatures.

I do not think this skinny fellow is going to mak….oh wait it just died…creepy!

Its hot, its cold, its hot again, its foggy and now it is totally freezing again with wind to boot, but hey, it is forcasted to go back up to seventy for Christmas day. Only in Texas!

Our 1890’s house has zero insulation, so when a freezing North wind rips into it you can feel it…no you really can. The wind blows through cracks in our long-leaf pine walls and we immediately break out the blankets (no cut-out eye holes in these though!) http://east-side-patch.livejournal.com/13389.html
The draft is strong enough to move pine needles on our Christmas tree, and if you place your face right up against the wall, this happens…

…and no-one wants that!

The small amount of moisture last week from the fog did plump up the moss on some of my moss boulders:

This boulder had some lichen snow on its upper peaks, and a forest climbing up its hillsides.

“Last to the top is a Von Trapp”.

Rock Cap Moss (Dicranum)

Rock cap moss is typically found growing on rocks and boulders in the wild. It’s a dense, medium to dark green moss that transplants fairly well into shady areas and onto rocks. I had never thought about transplanting moss untill I started writing this post, so how exactly do you do this you ask?

Well you start off by creating a “culture of moss”. You do this by taking a hand full of your favorite moss and put it into your mixer with a teaspoon of sugar and a can of beer or an equal amount of buttermilk or yogurt or both – (there are loads of recipes to choose from). Blend the mixture only enough to break down the moss, then spread it over the area you want it to grow on…like your car, chin, shoulders, dining table, child etc.

Mist frequently for the first few
days until it is established…”Done”
(Note: If the culture was spread on top of a child, be aware that the initial “sprouting” process may cause some initial emotional distress and irritation, but this will pass by the following season). Here is one I successfully transplanted earlier in the year. It has come in quite useful in these cooler days.

“My head itches!”

While I was snooping and crawling aroung with my lens in the moss boulders, I snapped a couple more lichen pictures I thought I would share.

The whitish grey one that looks like peeling paint I believe is
Xanthoparmelia cumberlandia.

Lemon-yellow (chartreuse) Pleopsidium flavum
Lichen looks like something totally out of a medical journal. Like some disease relentlessly spreading over the rocks in its technicolor glory. It is staggering the amount of research individuals have done on these tiny boils of color.

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Dune (1984)
“That is just not funny ESP!”?

Before and After Alien FACE HUGGER Büste von Palisades Toys

Along with the Baron, I found another disturbing character in my yard this last week, a now defunct elephant ear. I have to admit that I did think about draping this over my face in rather a HR Geiger “Face Hugger” fashion with the camera set on timer. Then I had a snap vision of straight jackets, canteen food and lots of white walls. I decided against it …there is always next year.

Rock and “Roll”:

We are collecting the best rocks out of
the future succulent bed, before I cover
them all over in the early spring with
decomposed granite.

So far we have a:

A smoked haddock appetizer…

A rare steak as an entree…

And a flan for dessert.

These small pebbles are really tempting me to continue on my nerdy path into oblivion. I am considering purchasing a rock tumbler. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with these things? or could recommend a good model?

“I am so proud of you (snort)”

A year-end bloomer:

Bulbine frutescens Bali SegaraTemple
Family: Asphodelaceae
Common names: snake flower, cat’s tail, burn jelly plant (Eng.)

This is a popular, water-wise garden plant, especially when planted en masse as a ground cover, or in rock gardens. It is also cultivated for its medicinal properties. This was the only one that has set blooms at this crazy time of year. I planted it late in the year, perhaps this has something to do with it?

Did you know that a fresh leaf of this chap produces a jelly-like juice that is wonderful for burns, rashes, blisters, insect bites, cracked lips, acne, cold sores, mouth ulcers and areas of cracked skin. This plant is ideal to grow and is a useful first-aid remedy for childrens’ daily knocks and scrapes, something there is no shortage off in the patch. The Rastafarian’s make an infusion of a few fresh leaves in a cup of boiling water. The strained drink is taken for coughs, colds and arthritis.

“Tell me you brought the Bulbine, Winston?,
I think were gonna need it!”

“Ho, Ho, and not so Ho……….”

Apparently the “Santa Look”
becomes quite popular in the year 3000.

“I always said it was a matter of time”

Stay Tuned For:

Harry "Potter"

ESPatch Dec 6, 2008 0 comments

All was quiet last night in the patch… well at least it was for a while. We all were settled in to watch our 105th viewing of the new “Tinkerbell” movie, when we realized we were being burgled. There was a tremendous commotion on our back deck, I scurried outside to startle the perpetrator.

“Run away, run away”! “What the………” “Racoooooooooooooooon”!

When I burst through the back door, with camera in tow, this masked bandit jumped on top of our child proof gate in a rather Johnny Knoxville “Jackass” fashion. The gate crashed to the ground, and this is the shot I blindly took of him, scampering down my steps and away into the night dark…

...and this was the carnage he left behind. Fish food “Blub, Blub..So inconsiderate”!
everywhere! I decided not to clean it up as I figured this bandit would be back a few minutes later to finish off what he started.
I was right, the next morning all this fish food was pretty much hoovered up. I now keep the fish food in my outdoor refrigerator.

“Francoise, have you ever seen a more perfect place?
“No Richard, it is fantasteek, all that sweet smelling artemisia!”

I wanted to investigate this tiny hut further but a small sound turned my head to a clearing. I turned my camera (naturally on full macro) and caught these two tiny castaways in the middle of one of their daily chores.
I surmised that the hut had to be theirs, then wondered how many years they had been marooned out here?, cut off from any miniature human contact. I wondered if they had heard the recent rock gig in my Asparagus fern amphitheater.

The cooler temperatures we have been experiencing have been a welcome relief (still no rain though). Imagine my surprise when I happened to stumble upon this tropical micro-climate hidden in the depths of my silver artemisia “Powis Castle”. I was amazed to find this swiss family robinson hut perched on a stone slab that looked remarkably like sand! The tropical vista looked like a scene from “The Beach”.

“Aaargh! this Powis Castle is so dense, how is the fire coming along?”
“One more stick and we are ready to start cooking sis”.
“What is on the menu tonight bro, tell me it is not another one of those spiny crabby “Orb Weavers” that taste like chicken?”

“Afraid so sis”…

“Oh and we also have some potato vine to
accompany it for a little starch”.

I had no idea that the potato on this vine existed so close
to the surface, and that they were so large.
But all he kept ranting on about was a ball called Wilson.

I neglected to mention that I did encounter one other castaway in
the higher altitudes of this patch of Artemisia:

Japanese Fatsia Fatsia japonica.…….Its a fly magnet (zzzoom in)!

“I don’t know what it is about that Fatsia plant,
but I am curiously drawn to it.”

(You don’t want to plant this one too close to a back deck!)

Shade tolerant evergreen shrub from Japan.
Grows best in loose, well drained soil with regular watering and full shade.
Always the last plant of the year to bloom in my yard, perhaps being a native of Japan and South Korea it is simply confused by our seasons.

The creamy white flowers appear in late fall and early winter, offering a final meal to any late-flying insects, unfortunately mostly flies. I have never seen a plant that attracts so many flies, anyone know the scientific reason for this?

An ornamental cabbage arterial tree. “I Vant you”

And finally to the front yard, and a few more purples… Amaranth in all of it’s purple fall color.

“You will read my journal Mr Man” (Misery,1990)

Stayed Tuned for:
“A Purple Harvest”

All material © 2008 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Bah Humbugs!

Harry "Potter"

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