Seeds spread

Now's a good time to throw out seeds in the Meadow since James mowed this week and we're getting a little moisture, too. After my spider presentation in Kerrville Monday, Texas Master Naturalist Tony Plutino gave us some American basket-flower seeds from his Mason property so I spread those around. I also had some standing cypress seeds in a paper sack from last year so I threw those out, too. We'll see what spring brings! 

Spider presentation

Many thanks to Floyd Trefny and his fellow members with the Hill Country Master Naturalists chapter for hosting me in Kerrville Monday evening. For nearly an hour, I got to talk about "Spiders of Central Texas" in front of a captive audience of about 65 people, which included my mother, Marcelle. It was her first time to hear me speak on my favorite subject. James came, too. A good time was had by all!

Meadow mowed

(Pre-mow photos by James)

Time to mow, says James. Okay, say I. BUT FIRST, I've got to mark antelope horns and harvest what I can from horsemint and American basket-flower seed heads. A few weeks go by. Finally, a date is set. I do my deeds. Then James does his. 

Presenting, pre-mow and after-mow photos!

American basket-flowers

Thank you, James, for all your hard work! Looks GREAT!

Mystery eggs SOLVED

UPDATED AUGUST 15, 2016 The experts at Bugguide.net have classified these eggs under the genus Microgastrinae in the family of braconid wasps (Braconidae). Cool!

What's chewing up the morning glory

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that something was chewing up a volunteer purple bindweed (Ipomoea cordatotriloba) that's growing on the chain-link fence in our back yard. But I couldn't find the culprit. Until YESTERDAY. For the first time in a long while, I was shooting photos in the back yard for fun (my eyes are better). That's when I spied a beetle on the underside of a leaf.

I got a couple of bad shots. The sneaky beetles either quickly dropped to the ground or flew off. But I was DETERMINED.

Finally, I corralled one in a glass jar and took some pictures. That's it in the photo below. I recognized it as a tortoise beetle. So I got online and sleuthed the species: the golden tortoise beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata), which host on the leaves of sweet potatoes and other morning glories. Bingo!

Here's an interesting fact: adults can change color when disturbed (and when mating). Larvae also cover themselves with fecal matter to conceal themselves. Check out this article: "Glad you ditched the anal fork, Golden Tortoise Beetle."

 A while ago, I went back outside, determined to track down at least one more tortoise beetle for this post. Well, I managed to find not one but two. However, they're a different species that also eats morning glories: mottled tortoise beetle (Deloyala guttata). Fine with me! I think tortoise beetles are gorgeous! And I don't mind them eating up our purple bindweed at all. 

Evening light scenes

Turk's cap

Pearl milkweed vine

Turk's cap

Purple hearts

Society garlic

Velvetleaf mallow

Scarlet clematis

Dragonflies foraging over the Meadow

This morning, I noticed how morning sun rays lit up dragonflies that were buzzing around over the Meadow. For a while, I watched from a distance. Then I walked over for a closer look. That's when I observed tiny flecks of white floating up from the Meadow. Hmmm. Gnats or moths must have been freshly emerging from below in the Meadow, and the dragonflies were enjoying breakfast. Sure enough, if I managed to track one white fleck as it journeyed upward, a dragonfly came by, and it was GONE. Cool!

This and a lot of that

Today, I took my camera outside and photographed some blooms I'd been wanting to share. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been out of commission lately here on my blog. Plus, I'm having eye (focusing) problems, which makes taking photos kinda hard. But I gave it my best shot this morning, and here are some pictures.

In the last week or so, I've noticed dragonflies and damselflies in our gardens. I caught a couple of them relaxing on mulch and flowers. So cool! 

Texas milkweed

American beautyberry

Black-eyed susan

Phlox 'John Fanick'

Flame acanthus

Damselfly

Bromeliad

Gambusia in our stock tank pond

Butterflyweed

Woolly ironweed

Coralbean

You may remember that we transplanted this five-year-old coralbean last March because it wasn't doing well in a front flower bed. It was stunted and chewed on by our local deer. Well, not any more! It's happy happy happy and growing growing growing in the back !

Look again!

I've been on a Sabbatical lately and haven't been blogging. I think it's the heat mostly. That, and we had a hectic spring with lots going on. After everything got done and out of the way, my mental being just sorta collapsed and refused to do much. Very frustrating because I'm used to go-go-go!

So today, here I am. Finally. I'm catching up on a few photos still on my memory card. Like this little fellow. I spotted him last month on our back garage door and suspected right away what he was. Most folks might glance at him and think ANT. And he DOES look like one, right? But look again. This is an ant-mimic jumping spider (male), likely Peckhamia. Talk about cool. Their spider body LOOKS like a three-segmented ant, but it's actually two. Also, this spider waves its front pair of legs around like ant antennae. You can see that in these images I shot.