Milkweed flowers

Talayote milkweed vine (Cynanchym racemosum)

Climbing milkweed vine (Funastrum cynanchoides) hosting a snowberry clearing moth

Signal fly

I have spotted this interesting fly three times in our Wildscape (twice last year). Yesterday evening, I saw this one "nervously" crawling up and down a blade of grass. Yes, I took a short video (see bottom). It is a species of signal fly called Senopterina caerulescens. Bugguide.net has next to no information on this specific species. It doesn't even have a common name. The website does have some good info on the signal fly family, Platystomatidae. In the meantime, I also found "Signal Fly," posted online by the BugLady at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Nature is so diversified!

Cool seed pods

My Alamo vine (Merremia dissecta) and our surprise Lindheimer's morning-glory (Ipomoea lindheimeri) both put on seed pods this summer. Well, I only got one from the Lindheimer vine. I thought it'd be cool to compare the two pods. Can you guess by looking at the photo above which one is which?

Lindheimer's morning-glory pod (it's smaller)

Alamo vine, left; Lindheimer's, right

Alamo vine seed, left; Lindheimer's seed, right

Below are photos of Alamo vine seedpods. They're so beautiful.

A public thank you

God,

I'd just like to thank you for August. Honest. From the bottom of my heart and the insides and outsides of it, thank you for an August like I've never experienced before. I mean, I ALWAYS dread Augusts. They've ALWAYS gone like this: Burning temperatures. Rainless skies. Wilted plants. Cracked ground. It's just a terrible month to endure. 

But not this past August, which officially ended yesterday.

Amazingly, our temperatures mostly stayed in the 80s and low to mid 90s. We even had RAIN. RAIN? Yes, rain! Not once did James and I "drag the hose," which we usually do every other morning just to help our plants make it through August. Now that I think about it, July was pretty amazing, too. We didn't drag the hose that month either. Thank you, God, for July.

But I confess. I feel a bit guilty when I see other places across the country suffering with wildfires and hurricanes and flooding and tornadoes. All those catastrophic things that weather can cause. Well, yes, I remember. We did have a terrible time with Winter Storm Uri in February. Maybe August was a little payback for all that ice? I guess only You know the answer to that.

Anyway, I just wanted to pause and thank you, God. Thank you for sending us rain and cooler temperatures in August. I'll never forget. And I'm likely going to throw a tantrum next August when everything goes back to Texas normal...

Just joking, God. Honest. 😇

  

Big crab, little crab

 

Toads in holes

So there's a traditional English recipe called "toad in a hole." I've never made it, but some main ingredients are sausage and eggs. That said, we have FOR REAL toads in holes in our Wildscape. I have observed this behavior by Gulf Coast toads in the past: September 2018 in the back yard and May 2021 in our brick flower box. Since May, the toad in our flower box has enlarged his hole and added a roommate, as you can see in my photos below. How sweet.

While out in the front yard yesterday evening, I noticed five or six holes in the ground. Most are no wider than a quarter. I beamed down my phone's flashlight in all of them and found a young toad in one. Very interesting!

O wise cenizo AGAIN

Yesterday morning, James and I were discussing the weather. The day's forecast predicted rain. "Lemme go check the cenizo," I said, half joking. Then I peeked out a front window....

"IT'S BLOOMING," I exclaimed, dumbfounded. 

But would it REALLY rain? I waited and waited....

After supper, radar showed a little system out to the west. So I sat outside by the Meadow and waited some more. The wind kicked up, and the oaks rattled. Thunder sounded, too. 

Sure enough, IT RAINED! Okay, okay, it didn't much, but IT RAINED!

Thursday got some wet stuff

And today? More rain forecasted. Sure enough, here came another little system from the west. It just now rained! O wise cenizo, you're right for the third time this summer. Last summer, this same cenizo across the street nailed it THREE TIMES!

More wet stuff this afternoon