East Side Patch

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:

“When the North Wind Doth Blow”.

All material © 2008 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

"Purple Harvest"

ESPatch Dec 13, 2008 0 comments

What could this be? “This image perplexes me”
Bruised fingers perhaps?
A rare exotic disease?
No, today was my purple harvest day and it was a bumper year,
and this was the state of my fingers after picking the illustrious bounty.

I shook one of my amaranth seed heads and a few plack pearls fell into my hand…it was picking time.

I went down to Home Depot and picked up these two day laborers to
help me for a very reasonable price. Half an hour later we had a couple
of vessels filled with picked seed heads…now for the fun part…not.

Amaranth seeds are plentiful, each seed head has hundreds of tiny seeds buried deep in tiny little husks. On initial inspection it seems like you would be able to simply turn the seed head up side down and shake? Oh no, that would be way too easy. I have developed a unique shelling technique, but it is way to nerdy to get into detail here. This extracting process is labor and time intensive, it took myself (and my day laborers) a full morning to shell these containers.

This was how the tray looked after extracting the seed, a lot of color and a lot of empty husks.

Here is a close up of the shiny seeds looking remarkably like Hematite. I also developed an interesting technique for separating the empty husks from the seeds, this resembled a “panning” movement of the tray. I felt like a gold prospector. This scene on my porch must have looked totally mad, note to self:
I must invest in one of those old prospector hats for next year’s harvest, that, and a rock tumbler.

“I’ve got my good eye on you ESP, you little whippersnapper”.

Here are the husks separated into a bucket

After taking a brief break, I walked back outside to catch one of the day laborers acting like Groucho Marx, messing around in the discarded seed head bucket. I had to let them go…ridiculous!

And the end result of all this labor?

A full bag of amaranth seeds, I would have sown these today if it wasn’t for all the wind we have been having.

Moving along…

The Post Oak tree is starting to show it’s winter structure again, it’s final leaves are falling fast. Still some decent color in the yard considering it is mid-december.

Talking of color:

My first cayenne peppers are now turning brilliant red.

“Sharing the stillness of the unimpassioned rock, they share also its endurance; and while the winds of departing spring scatter the white hawthorn blossoms like drifted snow, and summer dims on the parched meadow the dripping of its cowslip-gold — far above, among the mountains the silver lichen-spots rest, star-like, on the stone.”
— John Ruskin

I’m a “Lichen” these miniature plants…(Oh Dear) , I think that old prospector must have accidentally dropped some gold dust out of his pan on this one.

Looking like a hubble telescope topographical image, the colors on this lichen on one of my moss boulders is incredible. Lichens are important partners in nature’s ecosystem. They are an early colonizer that reestablishes life on rock and barren disturbed sites. Lichens play an important role in soil formation over much of the earth. As lichens colonize rocks, they trap dust, silt, and water. I believe this type of lichen is a Crustose lichen. I can’t believe I am identifying lichen!

Oh and I forgot to mention they have great names too, (snort) (adjusts glasses):
Powder-tipped antler lichen; black-eye lichen; bloody heart lichen; cowpie lichen; elf-ear lichen; five-o-clock shadow lichen; hairball lichen; naked kidney lichen; tattered rag lichen; and blackened toadskin lichen; rock pimples, earth wrinkles, angel’s hair, freckle pelts, fog fingers, dragon’s funnel, tar-jelly, and old man’s beard, and fuddy dunster to name but a few!
Okay so I made the last one up.
Phew!

I have some bad news, my Donkey’s Ear has become infected! Poor thing. The good news is something has started to happen on the flowering front, though it is not what I was anticipating at all. I was expecting the blooms to pop open more like flowers instead of this slow alienesque emergence. This plant has done so many unusual things this year…

…from its unusual martian looking self-propagation technique, to the more recent hoisting up of this fine burgundy candelabra (right).

My Dwarf Miscanthus is now over half way through its transition from green to painted streaks of purple and brown. Ornamental grasses are a mainstay in my yard, they keep a winter garden looking full when most things have died back.