The Garden Guide

Falling for Fall

It seems like as the years pass, the summers get a little hotter and a little less bearable and the few cold days of winter...well, I've always hated being cold.

Spring is much too fleeting. 

So, every year I fall a little more in love with fall.  What's not to love about mild days and cool nights, right? And the rich colors...

When else can you find burnt orange and amber on the same oak leaf?

Whole trees of crimson.

Sadly preparing for winter one by one.

 

Shimmering grasses.

 

Feather-like tops for blooms.

 

A surprise bright spot of yellow blooms - the norm in summer, but a delightful discovery in fall.

 

Brilliant berries.

And who can resist taking a moment to pause and reflect on the rapidly diminishing year while admiring the watery reflections of fall in the creek?

Winter Vegetable Garden Update III

I am just sick about the state of my winter vegetable garden!  I don't really want to talk about it... much less write about it! (But maybe sharing my tale of woe will make me feel better.)

First of all there are not any pictures of my beautiful broccoli and cauliflower plants, because they disappeared practically overnight.  GONE...POOF!

And then the cute little fluffy tailed "so and so's" moved on to the radish leaves.

And last night they started pulling up the radishes!

Now they are sampling the green cabbage!  Reminds me of a cartoon I once saw in the newspaper where the rabbits were crowded around a garden staring in awe at all the vegetables thinking "Mmmm, buffet!"

I have to wonder...Do they not like the purple cabbage or are they just saving it for later?

It is some consolation that the turnips, beets, rhubarb, lettuce, chives and garlic are untouched and coming along. The carrots, however, were a no show.  The mustard is absolutely gorgeous! And I don't even know if I like mustard.

 

Bold colors contrasting on ruffled leaves.

 

Oh what textured leaves!

Looks like a parachute caught in the wind.

I did pick a few of the radishes that were ready or close enough to ready and got them out of harm's way.

 

So, suffice it to say that I am ready to wage war on the cute little Peter Cottontails.  "Oh Mr. McGregor, Mr. Fudd...I am in need of some assistance!"  It's wabbit season!

Sticks and Stones

I guess trees and boulders is a more appropriate description of what I photographed as we hiked our property on a bright sunshiny day over the weekend.

If you're not familiar with our part of Central Texas here on the edge of the Hill country, we pretty much live on rock shelves filled in with nasty ol' cedar trees.

....see the layers and layers of exposed boulders in the hillside.

 

Up close the boulders are massive!  I wonder how much one weighs?  Its got to be mind-boggling!

A huge tree that has fallen and can't get up!  It is suspended out over the ravine we decided to brave.  Its a long, long way down!

We started down here where it looked like Mother Nature had graciously provided us with stepping stones.  Being more concerned about my camera than my backside...I still slipped and slid most of the way....part of it in an unintentional (but I'm sure graceful) sit/slide!

 

Just hanging out!

Up in between them were rock like formations.  I wonder if there is a name for sideways stalactites or stalagmites?

Could see some actual stalactites in here dripping down from underneath the top rocks.  No photos - I didn't want to look too long 'cause I was afraid something  might look back at me!  So I kept moving....too creepy...probably a coyote's den.

And a little ways down the path, I stumbled across this old trap at the base of a tree.  It looks like it is really old and had been tripped, but it still made me really angry!  

 

An old cedar stump from a tree that got hit by lightning years ago.

 

Glad I wasn't around when this big boy fell!  How 'bout a twist on the old riddle about the tree...."If a boulder crashes down a hillside in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

A giant marshmallow thing growing on the side of a tree.

 

I love the rocks with all the crazy holes in them.  Some day I'm going to convince my husband he should bring one up the hill for me to use in one of my flower beds.  That will be the day!

 

Twisted and torn cedar branch pointing the way out for us.

Now this boulder is amazingly shaped, but the picture isn't that great.  Can you see part of it has been worn away....It just curves down into itself and then juts back out.  The "rim" is probably about 10 feet long.  This kind of thing makes me feel so insignificant in the overall scheme of things....I wonder how long it took to wear away the rock like that?

 

Another step provided by Mother Nature.  An old cedar tree gives us a leg up on our way back to the top.

The Sky is Falling!

Well not really falling...and Chicken Little was an alarmist who had bad timing as far as picking the time of year to picnic under an oak tree!

Actually, the steady barrage of acorns from the magnificent Live Oaks that oversee our property is pretty much over. 

Now they just have a bunch of these little balls. 

I don't know what they are, but they look pretty cool with sap oozing from them.

We're All A Buzz!

Went out and about with my camera this weekend and was lucky enough to catch some busy bees among others!  The bees were easy, 'cause we always have a bunch of them this time of year.

Taking a little break...

Thinking about going in!

Hello!  Anybody in there?

 

Nice landing!

A pretty little butterfly blends with it surroundings.

And last but not least, a teeny tiny bug/fly is perched on my lantana.  Can you see him there towards the top?

Oh, there he is!

Watering the Garden and Napping Don't Mix! Well, atleast not at our house...

The absolute best vegetable garden we ever had was the time we used creek water instead of well water.  Somewhere along the line we got lazy and went back to using well water.  So, at the start of our winter garden we vowed to go back to creek water. 

This is what we use when we need water on some of our excavation jobs.  Not pretty I know, but it gets the job done.

One day we got all motivated and hooked up the trailer, drug it over to where we could pump water up from the creek to fill it, and parked it down below the garden.

Late Monday after the last of our company had left, my husband fired up the pump while I made sure everything was going to get watered just right.  Standing there watching our garden get watered, we realized how tired we were and decided to lay down for a little bit.

Later, just up from our nap, we were sitting on the front porch trying to wake up enough to get busy again.  It was so nice and peaceful and then I realized it was too quiet.  Assuming the pump had run out of gas, I glanced over that way and got quite a shock!  All of my sentences ran together as I tried to understand what I was seeing... "What is that?...Is that a fire?...What's on fire?...The trailer is on fire!" Now that got his attention! 

There's the pump all nice and toasted now on the ground beneath the trailer.  The smell was horrible, smoke everywhere, pvc pipe smoldering, the metal frame popping as we sprayed water on the fire.  What a mess! Needless to say, we'll probably never nap while watering our garden again!  That was one expensive lesson!