Photo description: five leaf clover held in my fingers
I was doing my usual scan for four-leaf clover in a clover patch in my front yard, and spotted something new. I thought maybe it was a couple of separate clovers intertwined, but no, the patch produced a five-leaf clover. As this is my first sighting, and the specimen was pristine, I did pick it from the patch and put it in a press for posterity.
Five!
Thank you to all our veterans for your service and sacrifice for our freedom and country. What you did and are doing matters. Thank you.
My hypothesis that my Thanksgiving cactus blooms due to drops in window temperature that triggers the leaves touching the window was blown away this month. The cactus has bloomed and we haven’t seen any temperatures below 68. Hm.
Photo description: bright pink Thanksgiving cactus bloom in September
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.
Photo description: purple Passion flowers blooming on a steel fence
While guiding the questing vines in a direction I wanted them to go, I also saw a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar.
Photo description: Gulf Fritillary caterpillar eating a passion vine leaf
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!
Photo description: straight down look at two four-leaf clovers and two three-leaf clovers with sparse grass and brown leaf litter
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.
Photo description: orange and white fungus on a large muscadine grape branch
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.
Photo description: sealed main vine, approximately 7-8 inches in diameterPhoto description: muscadine grape vine freed from the woods and dragged to the back yard
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.
Photo description: grape vine installed as a hand rail on a curved stone staircase
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.
Critters and Craft 