Notes to myself

For the past several summers, I've kept a potted ice plant in the back yard. I'd always bring it inside the garage for the winter, but for some reason, it'd never survive. So I have to start over every spring. This year, I bought a 'Peppermint' moss rose from Rainbow Gardens in San Antonio. The foliage is a bit different from what I've grown in the past, but I just love this one. The blooms are so pretty and prolific, too. 

Hmmm, this post has made me wonder about common names. There seem to be plenty for this kind of plant–moss rose....ice plant....portulaca...purslane. 

Becky's gift

Three years ago, we celebrated our 10th anniversary by hosting a garden gala. Becky, a dear friend, brought us two plants–this campanula and a kalanchoe with yellow blooms. The kalanchoe is doing well in a pot. As for the campanula, I didn't expect it to survive past its first winter. Look at it nearly three years later! Wow! Beautiful. Thank you, Becky.

Milkweed update

This spring's winner...

This is a notes-to-myself type of post. I never can remember who comes up first every spring. Last spring, I waited and waited for one of two my butterflyweeds to resprout. I finally gave up. Then it appeared! So exciting. Once again, one of my two butterflyweeds is slow in returning. Fingers crosssed!

No sign of second butterflyweed yet....

My green milkweed (Asclepias viridis) has returned!

One antelope horn (a volunteer) has returned.

But not the other one (another volunteer).

UPDATE APRIL 9, 2019 

 Look what showed up near my Texas milkweed! This looks like a green milkweed. We'll see. For the life of me, I can't remember planting one here. But maybe I did?

 And look who's showing up! My other volunteer antelope horns! O happy day!

UPDATE APRIL 29, 2019 

 

 The second butterfly weed is coming up!

Another milkweed is coming back up, too.

 

Meadow wildflowers

Wildflower sampling

Evening primrose..... Just a samplin' of what's happenin' right now in our Texas Wildscape.

Dandelion

Windowbox wood sorrel

Salvia 'May Night'

Drummond's onion

Pincushion daisy (Fragrant gaillardia)

Tenpetal anenome

Windowbox wood sorrel

Berlandier's sudrops

Spiderwort

Green wild indigo

Stock tank update & birthday yard art

After our zip-lining adrenalin rush Friday, we headed up to Hill Country Water Gardens so I could get my 'Indiana' water lily divided and repotted. I have that done every other year. My lily is nearly seven years old! We also bought seven gambusia as a way of injecting some fresh genes into the family pool.

And check out these cool neon disks! We couldn't resist buying three for my birthday. They're suncatchers called Cazador-del-sol. They light up during the night and require NO BATTERIES. Fun!

Zipping on my 60th

Think think think–what could I do for my big 6-0 birthday? In bed Thursday night, I read some ideas on the Internet. One suggested "Climb something big." Well, I'd just done that recently with my friend, Shena, when we climbed Enchanted Rock. What else? OH, what about ZIP-LINING!? So I did a little research and found three companies near Austin that offer zipping experiences. We settled on Cypress Valley Canopy Tours west of Austin, and I booked two 10 a.m. tours for Friday, March 29. 

Lucky us–we had the tour ALL TO OURSELVES. Our guides, Grady and Ferris, kindly put up with us for nearly two hours as we zipped through the trees on five different lines.

Before we could zip, we had to pass "ground school."

 

Our guide, Grady.

There goes Ferris.

James flies through the trees.

Ferris goes like the wind.

Treehouses are available for overnight stays.

We even got to rappel.

A video of my first zip.

A video of James zipping.