I was surprised to see a large splash of purple outside, and even more surprised that it was a couple of passion flowers blooming from a vine I thought was dead.
While guiding the questing vines in a direction I wanted them to go, I also saw a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar.
Passion vines are host plants for butterflies, and my vines don’t usually grow faster than they are eaten.
I found a different patch of four-leaf clover in the yard!
And that’s what I have for today. We are rolling into summer which for me means a massive schedule change. There might be more plant and pet posts, or I might actually finish some projects and have something crafty to say. Hm.
My husband built a beautiful rustic style curved stone staircase off our back porch. Our challenge has been getting a handrail to match the curve without throwing a lump of money at it. The first attempt involved cedar sapling trunks, but we didn’t have one long enough, and splicing two together was tricky. When I was wandering our woods looking for hand rail candidates, I saw a grape vine that I’ve been meaning to trim because fungus has started into the side of the bark.
I cut off the vine above the fungal damage, and since that vine was a nice diameter for a hand rail, freed it from the canopy. I then cut away the diseased tissue from the main vine and sealed it with pruning spray.
It took three of us to wrestle the vine into place as a hand rail, but because the vine is supple and we waited until the rain gave it a good soak, it was possible.
We secured the vine with screws. The next step is to strip off the bark and seal the vine core so it lasts a little longer in the Texas weather.
I’ve seen where people have french braided long grasses, so when I wandered through our meadow and saw the waving Spring grass I thought I would give it a try. (Yes, I was completely in the middle of another project for this side quest.)
I did more of a Dutch braid, where the braid lays on top of the joined strands, but it didn’t have as much definition as I hoped. I was also struggling to have enough grass to join in the braid and still get the curve I wanted. So in a few weeks, when the grass is higher, and I need a break from a task that takes me through the meadow again, I’ll give it another go.
I found this wicked looking thorn laying in a parking lot. Most likely it stuck to a tire and fell off in route, and I’d like to say I picked it up so no one impaled their foot, but the was a secondary benefit. Really I wanted to see what I could make with it.
I used my pocket knife to cut the side thorns off. The tips are wickedly sharp and hard, so I wanted to try to make a needle. I approached it as I would for carving solid wood. The center of the spikes are soft though, so the needle hole didn’t have enough support when I whittled both sides down.
If I were to make the attempt again, I would put the needle hole in the outer bark, and not reduce the integrity of the thorn by cutting the bark away.
Critters and Craft 