Wednesday, April 30, 2014

New furniture

Some people buy fancy vehicles or go out to eat every other day or so. Me and James? We like to spend our money on our Wildscape. Yesterday, Dan and Kathy with Wimberley Chairs delivered our pair of new adirondack chairs and ottoman foot rests (cordovan stained). Aren't they cool?

BAM!

 Never a dull around here! We were eating supper last night when–**BAM!**–a white-winged dove torpedoed into our dining room window and hit the ground. "Oh, no!" I groaned to James as he went tearing outside. I couldn't bear to look. "Is she dead?" James tried to pick her up, but she flew off and hit one of our little patio chairs. Finally, he managed to grab her. I took their photo. Then he tried to set her on the fence, but she seemed dizzy or nearly dead. So we gently put her in a cardboard box. We finished our meal and cleaned up the kitchen. When he went to check on her, she struggled to get out. GOOD SIGN! So we went outside to let her go. Slowly, I opened the box. Like a torpedo once again, she shot off. See her in the photo below–she's right smack in the middle, wings bowed downward. End of story about one lucky dove. :-)

I give up

At least, this season I do. Maybe for good. I adore purple martins, but they just won't occupy our house. The sparrows are relentless, of course. Then the starlings showed up. The latter are just plain nasty (so are sparrows) and poop on everything, including the new gourdes we put up this spring. Yes, we have traps. Both kinds. Compartment and repeater on the ground. But I just didn't have the energy this year to fight off everyone. We had the one pair who stayed overnight a few weeks ago, and that was it. Since then, martins have flown over and even perched on our house. But that's it. I'm so down that I've thought of selling my martin stuff, house and all, and put the proceeds toward a chimney swift tower. 

From one frying pan into another....


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Sprucing up the stock tank pond

Only one lonely gambusia had been swimming around in our stock pond tank. And the dwarf water lily desperately needed dividing. So yesterday, James and I made a long trip to Water Garden Gems near Marion. You've got to call ahead for directions (it's tricky to find), and Julie there was so nice on the phone every time I called. After we got there, she took my 'Indiana' lily to a back shed and got to work. Poor lily–it was more crowded than I thought. While she cut it down to one plant and repotted it, James and I meandered around the grounds. Beautiful! 

I liked this ground fountain.
James made LOTS of friends in the koi room. 

He was fascinated with all the fish.





A front tank had gambusia, bullfrog tadpoles and trapdoor snails. I bought two of the latter.

I really liked this container water garden.



A pretty in-ground pond. If we had a LOT of money, we'd hire someone to put one in AND maintain it. :-)

We were back home three hours later with more than 10 gambusias, a repotted lily, a bunch of anarchis and a pot of new parrotfeather. 




Last to go in....fish friends for my lonely gambusia plus two snails–Bob and Nancy. I'm so excited to get the pond back up and running again and looking great.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

What's blooming


Spiderwort
Evening primrose
Jerusalem sage
Texas betony
Prairie verbena
Skeleton leaf goldeneye
Wild foxglove
Blue curls
Snake herb
Salvias
Engelmann's daisy
Calylophus
Another evening primrose
First winecup!
Damianita!
Lilies and bearded irises
Red columbine
Oxalis
Brazos penstemon
Made ya look!

A baby!

We were eating lunch today when a low movement in the back yard caught my eye. A baby bird flying low! It'd likely just fledged. We ran outside and found a baby chickadee perched in the calylophus. I snapped lots of photos. It stayed there for quite a while. Then later, we spotted it perched on the chain-link fence. Good luck, child!

The baby chickadee was pretty well hidden in the calylophus.