The Texas sage are in full glorious bloom! But not in our yard. We planted a bush shortly after we moved in, and it is growing well now, but it has one bloom. One lonely little bloom. While the neighbors’ and the bushes in town are in dazzling display. Maybe next year our bush will join the exhibition.
I keep my phone on my pocket while I’m working in the yard, and often use it to document flora and fauna. We have lived here over two years and I am still finding new things!
Today I give you the lawn mower surrender. I don’t know if some poor soul actually thought he could mow the growth at the lake side and the vegetation rose up for a hostile take over, or if a non- environmentalist was sick of mowing and she chucked it in the drink. Or maybe it was a fast and furious lawn mower race with an epic three mower crash and it spun off into the water while the sodden jockey pulled himself from the mud, leaving only bubbles behind. Who knows? It was visible at a local fishing hole because the water line is low. I thought it a compelling juxtaposition. (It was too far into the muck to safely remove from the lake. When the water line rises again, it will probably catch hooks and the vegetation be blamed. The reeds will probably snicker. So will the fish.)
The standing cypress flowers are going bonkers in our meadow this year. We have at least a dozen three foot tall stalks bursting with bright red flowers. The bees and hummingbirds like them too!
I was wandering the woods, pulling out saw briar and poison ivy along my paths, and I saw a tree with spectacular leaves. I took a picture and ran it through the iNaturalist app, which suggested that I may have a mulberry tree. Squee! There is a spectacular mulberry tree in town, and I’ve been plotting where to plant one, so to discover it growing in the woods is the absolute best. Then I found another one. They are both young trees, one about 8’ tall and the other about 5’, and growing in the partial shade of some mature oak and cedar elm, so I’m not sure how they will do long term or for fruit production. I cleared out the vegetation underneath them to give them a better chance, and found two more small saplings! Now I’m hoping for a mulberry grove…
Critters and Craft 