Street view

Here's our Pink House from the street. The (non-native) crape myrtle's in bright bloom. This also gives a good perspective of how really old and huge our live oaks are. The last squirrel baby that I rescued (see Aug. 23 entry) was up in the massive oak on the far right side.

This is primarily our "salvia" bed. A pretty heartleaf hibiscus lives on the far left side. We planted it last year, and it's doing really well.

The bougainvillea has taken OFF! It should bloom soon. I was so elated when it came back after we thought it might not survive being in the ground. I treasure this plant because a dear friend–Mark Malone, who died in 2003–and his mother, Mary, gave it to me after I moved into the Pink House in April 2002.

Here are some shots of our plentiful Salvia coccinea and lantanas. We love this bed. You can barely see the birdbath for the blooms.

Clouds of wings

This week, dozens and dozens of queens are visiting our blue mistflowers. Sometimes whenever I walk by, they lift and flutter, like a beautiful cloud. If I'm really quiet, I can even hear the soft sound of their wings beating. These photos can't even begin to capture the wonder of this sight. And when a monarch happens by, OH MY! They are even more lovely than the queens.

(Click on the photos for a better look.)

Inland sea oats

Yesterday, we planted three inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) in the back yard. We saw some at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in the summer , and I thought their seed stems looked so cool, waving and swaying in the breeze. Of course, ours so far just look like tall grass. But give'em some time.

Second owl box up

Finally, after months of sitting in my car trunk, the second Owl Shack is UP. James hung up it up Tuesday. Nice, eh? Cliff Shackelford in Nacogdoches builds his "Owl Shacks" in his carport and ships them statewide. For more information, check out his website, Owl Shack.com. He got a lot of good photos and instructions on how to hang his boxes.

If you search this blog, you'll see photos of Al and Agatha, the eastern screech owls who found our first owl box within a week or so of us putting it up last March. We were pretty sure Agatha was nesting, but then we never spotted any little heads poking up in the box in the evening. Next spring, I bet we will!

Cliff told me that the second box will be used by the male for roosting in the winter. It's located in an oak that's on our adjacent lot.

First caterpillar child

The queens are flocking all over the blue mist flowers along with an occasional monarch. James spotted this first queen caterpillar on the nearby butterfly week. It was about a half inch long. See the oleander aphids in the photo? They're all over the butterfly weed. But so far, it's surviving.

Sign of life

In our front yard, we attached our Texas Wildscape sign to a low black trellis. Every few days, we spot a resident anole perched on it. A day or two ago, she was shedding her papery skin. I snapped a photo or two before she scampered away into the nearby turk's cap.

This evening, I ran for my camera when I saw this praying mantis, also enjoying the view from our sign. They are just the coolest insects!


I still had my camera out when the sun back lit the cat whiskers in our back yard. As I was shooting, some kind of fly or bee zipped into the picture for a few frames. Nature is just so beautiful and wondrous.

James shot this pretty angle of the cat's whiskers....

If looks could KILL...

A photo for fun...

Gabe the boy cat and a neighborhood dog, Henry, who howls at anything.
(Click on the photo if you REALLY want to see Gabe's grumpy expression.)