Merry Christmas to all...

Just a few shots around the neighborhood... we had three whole inches of snow last night, so I was just itching to get out and take some pics... unfortunately, the snow was accompanied and followed by high winds, so we didn't get any pretty accumulation on the trees...

The first pic is some mistletoe growing about 20 feet above me in a neighbors mulberry tree. It's not a great shot... When I pointed the camera up, there were a whole flock of robins. They sat, gave me take time to focus, and the split second before I took the pic... they flew off.

Little boogers.


This is my rather pitiful excuse for a Christmas tree... it's really not so bad. It's an Italian Stone Pine, Pineus pinea. A juvenile tree about 3 years old. In a couple of more years, he'll start growing longer, greener needles... If he survives. They will survive here... they're hardy to zone 7 and I'm on the line between 7 & 8... and they'll do very well through our summers, being drought resistant. But they're not really the best tree to have around... they grow into an umbrella, flat topped kind of tree. And too big for my little suburban yard. The trees are the ones that produce edible pine nuts that you pay way too much money for at the store.

I'm thinking that I could bonsai it... or maybe just grow it in a larger pot until I can figure it out, or find someone with a yard big enough.

The biggest problem will be getting him through the winter until spring, when I can do something with him. They really need a whole lot of light, and they usually won't survive inside until spring. As soon as it thaws though, I'll shove him in the coldframe. I'm not gonna shock him by throwing him out there right now though...

here's a shot of a mourning dove all fluffed up in the sun...

And finally, in the sheltered alley, some show accumulation... but not a pretty picture.

And that's about the best I could do today... I thought of getting one of the cats to come out and play in the snow for some shots. They informed me that I was quite insane, refused to discuss it further and would have locked me out of the house if they could figure out how to turn that little knob...

I had planned on going to midnight mass last night, at the church I've been attending recently, and plan on actually becoming a member of in the New Year. But the snow started yesterday afternoon, and after it ended, the wind kept up. Which means the friction of the wind melted the snow on the roads, and as soon as the wind died, it froze. I was still gonna risk it, but I was hearing sirens about every 30 to 45 minutes {I live fairly close to a major street. Whenever the sirens would go by, Dad used to joke that they were playing the "Cooper Street Blues" }

I decided that Baby Jesus was a forgiving sort, and would be more than willing to overlook my absense.

Instead, I curled up next to the truly obnoxious 5 foot tall cactus lamp, with a good book (Will Self, The Book Of Dave) and cats curled up on me. I had a very nice, mellow and blessedly peaceful Christmas Eve.

Seeing as I grew up in a household with a sibling who was later formally diagnosed as bipolar (except they called it Manic-Depresive then) peaceful holidays are my preference. I don't have a huge amount of warm fuzzy childhood memories about Chirstmas, and I have a hard time faking it for everyone elses sake, so I tend to let everybody else have their fun, and I'll have mine.

And all that is probably more than you needed to know, but there we are.

The point is, and I DO have one, is that I truly hope that everybody out there is having a wonderful holiday, no matter how you choose to celebrate it...

African Violet blooms...

Well, it's hardly Christmas themed, but then that's 2 days off... I know I talk about cacti mostly, but I inherited Moms African violets. Not that I have any names for the things, Mom was violently opposed to name tags. And it's true that I tend to water on a Cacti / Succulent schedule... I grow these in a 50 gallon terrarium.

The origional purpose of the terrarium was to root cuttings of plants, which I could then take to the flea market to sell. These got stuck in there after I repotted them, and they got a little wilty. So I stuck them in the terrarium and treated them like cuttings. They promptly began blooming and they've been thriving ever since.

It breaks all the rules... They get water all over the leaves, (It's hard to water over a foot and a half tall piece of glass without splashing some) but they don't develop brown spots... I have no idea why. Maybe the higher humidity has something to do with it... someone suggested that the water on the leaves may be a problem because of it drying on the leaves, where the humidity in the case keeps it from drying. Sounds just as good as any other reason. I don't worry about it. It's working, so I ain't arguing about it.

This seems to be a semi-dwarf variety... the leaves are small, but not as small as a miniature, and it has lots of happy little grape colored flowers.

little goth bob says...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

And, I just had to include a Christmas video too...


hope you like it.





And just for the record... this is my officially post number 300.

Wee Haw! Party, Party, Party!

Applesauce Fruitcake Cupcakes...

This is starting to look more and more like a cooking blog isn't it?

The truth of the matter is that I'm testing recipes right now... I wanted some really good cupcakes to go in my fruit baskets I hand out at Christmas. These are applesauce fruitcake cupcakes... and they bear absolutely no resemblence to the gummy bricks that you get in the mail called 'fruitcakes'

This is one of my basic recipes...

1 cake mix (use dry without the water, eggs and oil from the box. Just dump the mix into the bowl, and throw the box away. Seriously. Forget the box.)

1 can (or 1 1/2 cups) of any pureed fruit

any chopped dried fruit or nuts you want...

bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes.

for this I used

1 yellow cake mix

1 1/2 cups applesauce

1/2 cup chopped dried pineapple

1/2 cup chopped dried cherries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts and I threw in some cinnamon too... just for the heck of it.

It probably would have tasted better with a 'spice cake' mix... and you could use those candied citron things if you want it to be more like a traditional fruit cake... they always freak people out though. No one knows what they actually are. Well I do. They are the candied rind of a relative of the watermelon called citron. If you really wanted to... you could candy watermelon rind and use that... or you could do like my Grandmother did and candy orange, lemon and grapefruit peal. But really, I'm better with any old dried fruit I can find.

These aren't as sweet as most cakes, but they're sweet enough to taste good.

You're also not adding the eggs or oil from the cake mix, so they're considered low-fat... I can't say they low sugar, because the fruit you use may have some sugar in it, especially if canned, and the mix itself has some in it also...

Anyway, have fun.

Mistletoe for Christmas...

well, it's not a rant but it's also not a prickly plant either... so I'm not sure why this ended up on my blog...

I've talked about The Tradewinds Social Club, the bar that my friends have opened recently, and where little Goth Bob's cousin lives.... They have a rather pitiful tree in the parking lot... it's been cut down repeatedly so as not to block the Billboard. So the poor bedraggled thing is stunted and twisted and not in a cool bonsai-like way either.

It is also is heavily infested with parasitic mistletoe. I parked the truck next to it last night and climbed up in the bed to pick some... so that I could make these for the flea market...

I'll probably get a couple of bucks for each of them. Not bad when I get the plants free, the cellophane, the cotton (which is watered and wrapped around the bottom of the stems) and the little glitter twist ties at the dollar store. I'm sure that if I did the math, I would find that I've got less than 10 cents invested here...

I've never been really sure why people are so fond of the stuff. It's really not that attractive a plant...

Not to mention that it's poisonous. I understand that some Native American peoples used a tea brewed from the leaves to induce miscarriage and perform abortions... but I really really don't think experimenting with it would be worth trying. I suspect it would be one of those potions that could just as easily kill the woman as well...

I may, when I find the time, do a little research on the plant to find out some other interesting stuff...

UPDATE: I was doing a little research with the purpose of possibly writing a bit of info on this plant when I came upon this article on the U. S. Geological Survey site... quite frankly, it tells you everything I wanted to tell you, and more.

nothing much at all....

I haven't been blogging much. It's not that I'm ignoring you, it's that there's absolutely nothing to say... everything has been a bit of a grind lately...

The pic is from a dart game we had at Tradewinds Social Club... I'm not much of a dart player. The fact that I was playing darts, kinda shows you how bored I was. Quite frankly, I throw the things and if they even hit the board, I've achieved a lot... but my opponent did this...


That's right, he threw a dart, and it got stuck in the end of the previous dart...

And that is the most exciting thing that has happened this week. Sad, huh?

The guys over at cactus blog gave my prickly pear cactus jelly recipe a mention. Woo Hoo! I've been watching their blog for months... they're very knowledgable.

We had our first snow of the year on Wednesday. It started out raining, then it snowed, then it rained. More a wet, cold, muddy mess than anything else. And, of course, if it's a wet cold muddy mess, then you know, I had a flat tire in the middle of it... And the guy who sold me the truck last September had replaced the jack with one that I swear was made for a tiny little Honda. And it didn't have a handle. I was not happy.

Last night, we had our first freeze. I'm sure I lost some plants outside. The worst was the Stapeliad gigantea... I was madder than all gitout, until I remembered that I had taken cuttings- well, I'd taken some branches that had fallen off and put them in a pot inside. So I didn't totally lose the thing... I think my big sanseveria is gone too.

So, I guess things have been happening. But not a lot I was really thrilled about...

And, BTW, for some reason my blasted computer won't cut and paste... I was trying to cut and paste the link for the Cactus Blog, and it won't cut and paste at all... it does give me a little blue box for Accelorators, which I've never used in my life and I don't want, so I had to type in that link by hand. Dammit.

now... this is what we're talking about...

home-made Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly...

also known as a mouthful of sweet-tart yummilisciousness...


The reward for making jelly is what's left after you fill the jars... you just put it in a little bowl, make some quick biscuits and eat it up... I mean, you don't want to waste anything, right?

See the previous post for more...

Prickly Pear Jelly begins...

And the jelly making process has begun!

You start with fruit on the cactus...

then you pick you a bunch of them... I picked over twice what you need for a batch of jelly... you don't actually need many, about a quart, but I always make extra juice... you can freeze it in 2 1/2 cup bricks to make a batch later.
The color of the inside of the fruit is so amazing... it always surprises me, even though I've cut hundreds of these things open in my life, that magenta is always a shock...
halved, covered in water, they'll be brought to a boil then cooked till tender. This is absolutely necessary to extract all the flavor and goodness...
And now, the fruit is in a jelly bag, dripping juice into a bowl... which I would have took a pic of, but quite frankly, it ain't interesting...

As my regulars here know, my Mother passed away recently. I'm actually dealing with it well, but Thanksgiving was a bit of a downer... all my normal holiday rituals and routines just went out the door.

I was lucky in that my 'adopted' family made sure I didn't spend it alone. I had my turkey day with Robert & Grace, their three grown daughters - who grew up calling me uncle and my mother 'Grandma,' - their husbands and a whole passel of kids...

I took a batch of pumpkin - cranberry muffins with me.

Of course they told me I didn't have to bring anything because they were raised right.

And, of course, I had to bring something because I was raised right.

It's one of those Southern catch-22's. We don't worry about it, we just live with it...

Anyway, it's one of my uber-simple recipes... take a can of pumpkin, a yellow cake mix and a bag of dried cranberries. Mix them together... sprinkle in some cinnamon, bake them in lined cup cake tins at 400 for 18 to 20 minutes.

Surprisingly good....

It occurs to me that I'm going to have to construct my own traditions now.

I think making this jelly, which Mom and I used to make together, will probably become a part of it...

I've had nothing much to say, it's actually gettting almost boring here...

but, I found this video when I was looking for another one, and it gave me a laugh or two...



This December marks the 10th anniversary of Madeline Kahn's death, but fortunately we have videos and youtube to remember her, and her classy sense of humor.

no pics today...

quite frankly, I'm entirely too pissed off.

I would like to take this opportunity to make a public announcement...

I have now officially exceeded my maximum load bearing capacity for bovine excrement.

I woke up this morning to find that the truck had been broken into, so I'm off to get repairs in a few minutes... no radio (which I will live without for a few days) no GPS system, which quite frankly has to be replaced as it saves a huge amount of time and effort when I'm working, and a new window...

Unfortunately, the city has, in their infinite wisdom, decided that it would be a great idea to put low cost public housing across the street from my neighborhood. This kind of crap is becoming entirely too common... There are just too many idiot teenagers wandering around with no supervision. I remember being a teenager. A big part of being a teenager is getting away with anything you can. I understand this... but it seems to me that a big part of being a parent should be impressing upon said teenagers that you're not going to get away with certain things...

I have witnessed 15 year old girls having fist-fights in somebodies yard across the street, I have called the cops when I saw a pair of young men going from mailbox to mailbox looking for checks, I have opened my door to find young men begging for money... and I'm ashamed to say that I even placed a bet in the neighborhood pool when a 15 year old girl down the road got pregnant and didn't know exactly which guy the father was... it could have been a white guy, a black guy, or a mexican guy. (No asians, she's evidently a bigot... although I have to say here, that a little discrimination might be a good thing in some situations...) I'm not gonna say which it turned out to be, but I won $20.

Now seriously folks... exactly how much bull is one person expected to take before they pick up a stick and start swinging? Admittedly, it's not been a good year for me, and a lot of this is probably that I'm just tired, but what the hell?

Jelly waiting to happen...

The "Blue Pad" prickly pear in the back yard is beginning to be covered with fruit, and I'm starting to work myself up to making jelly.

Over the last few years, making Prickly Pear jelly has become a tradition around here. I helped Mom make it the last few years, because she had some problems standing in front of the stove for long periods... but this year, if it's gonna get made, I'm gonna have to do it myself.

To be blunt, there's no huge rush. The fruit will actually hold on the plants through most of the winter, and they don't all ripen at once...

The fruit below illustrates various stages. The tuna on the bottom, where the bloom scar or 'eye' has turned purple, is completely ripe. Above it is a fruit that's just turning color, and at the top is one that is ripe and usable, but the green-brown eye says that in a week or two more it will build up natural sugars and juice. Right now, it would be a little bit insipid.

Luckily, we'll have a few more days of warm sun yet... we don't usually get our first freeze until January, and, if I can talk myself into it, I'll have plenty of little jars of jelly to put into homemade fruit baskets for Christmas.

Prickly Pear Jelly is a wonderful thing... what it actually tastes like depends on what exact species of opuntia you use. The ones you get at the store don't have a great full flavor, IMO, but these produce a jelly that is deep, glowing magenta in color, and taste much like raspberries and cranberries mixed together.

The pics aren't too impressive. I think the ripening fruit is probably more exciting for me than anybody else... but I was a little at a loss for a post, so there we are.

And now I have to go, as Charcoal Briquette Cat has decided that the computer chair is hers, and she's ready for her nap... she can get quite testy about these things...

Just checking in...

howdy folks... haven't blogged lately, so I took a few quick pics, just to see what was around... This is the last of the portaluca... many of them have already gone to the great beyond, what with nights dipping down so low... they performed wonderfully all summer, so it's time to move on. I'm sure that the seeds are scattered all over and next year I'll have plenty more.

The agave is doing what agave does... more or less just sitting there looking threatening.

The yucca however has decided to grace us with a candelabra...

and the geraniums, after the summer heat, have revived and are blooming well... usually, we just let these die in the winter frost, but this year, I'm going to see if there's room in the cold frame for them.

I'm doing pretty good actually... Went to have a drink with an old friend that I haven't seen in person for years. We've been talking on facebook though... we went to the historic Belmont Hotel... to have a quick drink... no real chance of having too much to drink though. Hotel bar prices are too much for me... I can highly recommend the hotel though, seriously nice staff, and $109 a night for a wonderfully decorated boutique hotel in a building that's considered a grade A example of 1940's Art Moderne architecture really isn't that bad...

Decorating is kinda on my mind lately. What happened is this...

I am inheriting the family house. Fine and dandy.

So the other weekend, I was sitting here at the table, looking at this pic that my Mom had on the wall... it's a seriously ugly piece of crap. I hate it. I have hated it since the first day I saw the fake-Victorian-over-sentimental-so-cute-it-makes-you-want-to-retch thing. Mom knew I didn't like it. We agreed to disagree over it, and it hung there and turned my chair away from it so I wouldn't have to look at it...

So, I'm sitting there, noticing it for probably the first time in years, because I'm seriously good at ignoring things, and it suddenly occured to me.

I don't have to keep it.

Away it went into the flea market pile.

Next went the lace curtains.

3 more pictures.

2 ugly end tables.

And now, I'm giving a small shelf of obnoxiously cute porcelain pigs the evil eye...

And, I'm kinda casting around for ideas of what I want the house to look like now... Still not sure.
Probably modern, maybe some southwest thrown in... to make the cacti at home.

The ugly drapes will have to go, but they have to stay for the moment until I can decide what's gonna replace them...

unknown episcia & drunken voodoo dolls....

Well, that title should get your attention...

Anyway, we'll start with the NOID Episcia... this was given too me as a tiny cutting that had been rooted in water... for far too long. It was kind of ill looking... and I didn't think it was gonna make it.

I planted it in one of those self-watering violet pots. I know, they're absolutely horrifying things, they make plant roots rot, and all cause fungus gnats and there's a whole list of reasons why nurserymen and african violet fanciers will tell you that these are the horticultural equivalent of placing people in the iron maiden... but the fact remains that mom grew lots of african violets, both in these pots and in regular old pots... and the ones in these pots did pretty darned well. Especially if you're asking me to take care of the things, since I water on a cactus schedule rather than a tropical one...

The episcia did good... this is 6 months later. It hasn't bloomed yet. Primarily because it's in a window with an exterior sun screen... Which I hate. But, in this part of the world, they seriously cut down on air conditioning bills. Which I like. It is growing dark green leaves and pink veins. The person who gave me the origional cutting said that it had red flowers... which is hardly surprising as most flame violets do... although there are pink, yellow and orangish varieties out there....

I may, some time in very early spring, take some cuttings of my own to root and sell for a couple of bucks each at the flea market. We'll see. As dramatically pretty as the plant is, it doesn't really suit me.

And now for the drunken voodoo doll... Some of you may recall Little Goth Bob, my little friend who wanders around my house... This isn't him. This is his cousin, Little Lounge Lizard Bob.

Little Lounge Lizard Bob is about 10 years old, and I made him as a good luck charm for a friend of mine who was opening a bar. It was a rousing success... He has now opened a new bar, and I was amazed to see that Bob had followed him... if you're ever in Dallas, check out the Tradewinds Social Club in Oakcliff, and make sure you say hello to the wooden guy waving to you from the ceiling over the bar...

Pear Leaves.

Well, after the last two rants... I decided I just needed to show you a pretty picture.

We don't get much fall color here, everything goes pretty much from green to brown, with an occasional forray into yellow. But the ornamental Ambassador and Emporer Pears at least look kind of interesting on the way....

These are just some leaves I found on my morning walk around the block... I spread them out on the scanner. They're kind of cool, individually, but a whole tree full of them just looks ill... Anyway, I'll take it as I find it...

RANT ALERT!

Just a quick post before I attack the house. This place hasn't been seriously cleaned in longer than I'm willing to admit. But posting for my wonderful blogging friends is a perfectly wonderful excuse to procrastinate a little.
The Blue Girl Rose is blooming in the yard... this is the bush that sombody gave to my mother, and ended up in my front yard. I posted about it before but nothing too important...

Last night, I went to some darned seminar about 'wellness' products... a network marketing thing. A friend of mine is involved in it, and they just wanted to 'share' it with me. I listened to several motivational speakers telling me all about how wonderful everything is... I don't know if you've ever been to these things... but here's the rub...

They stand up there and tell you about the miraculous effect of their products in their lives. Just to let you know, the products include magnets in your shoes, mondo expensive matresses{with magnets included in the stuffing} some machine that makes hexagonal water {?} special air filters, dietary supplements, red-wave lights, and every other silly thing you've ever dreamed of. Then a bunch of people stand up and tell you how all these wonderful products have cured their MS, diabetes, back injuries and general malaise. Then the speakers come back and tell you that they make no medical claims, even though they just did.

Then they tell you how as a GOOD AMERICAN you are almost OBLIGATED to be a successful network marketer... (even though the company itself is based in Japan, it's still evidentlyvery much AMERICAN to spend your money on things made in other countries.) Then they make some amusing plays on words, then they tell you how stress is killing us all, and how they're soooo happy to SHARE (for a price) this OUTSTANDING SUCCESS PROGRAM with you so that you can have lots of money and spend all this time with your children (family values is a big marketing tool for this bunch) etc, and so on and so forth, and would all the Special Guest please stand up so that they can give you an application and a small plastic bracelet, at which point I felt a hand on my back pushing me out of my seat, whereupon I informed someone that if they didn't remove their hand from my back they were going to draw back a bloody stump and we'll see if that magnet in your shoe cures that...

Now, I'm pretty open minded. If my next door neighbor, or my cousin, or someone I actually knew was cured by strapping a magnet to their butt... I might be impressed. But I'm sitting here in this room, invited by someone who is telling me what a wonderful, successful and healthy life they're leading, even though I know for a fact that they've been laid up fighting the flu for the past 4 weeks. And on the other side of me, is some guy I've just met, telling me what a wonderful, successful and healthy life he's had since begining these products, even though not 30 minutes ago he was talking about these awful migraines he's had for the past 2 weeks... (I'm thinking the magnet headband might be giving them to him...) and scattered throughout the room are dozens of people who keep telling everyone how this WELLNESS program has helped them sooooo much, and, quite frankly, they don't look well... I mean, maybe they are well, I certainly don't know. But what's the point of being well if you look like you've got one foot in the grave and the other foot on a banana peel? Quite frankly, given a choice, I wouldn't mind being on deaths door, as long as I looked good.

After all this, I did a truly American thing, and went to a bar to have an alcoholic beverage and a good rant to any poor soul in hearing distance.

And now, I have to clean the house...

I'm trying to be a good blogger...

but the planet doesn't seem inclined to cooperate with this endeavor.



The pictures are just things in the yard... nothing too exciting, but I finally figured out what was with the camera, so I decided to take a few shots...



But here's what's been happening... Last week, I drove all day on a rather slow Monday. Then I got an order to pick up on Tuesday and drive all the way to Austin... aproximately 200 miles. Good $$$, so 7 am Tuesday, I'm picking it up and gone, back in DFW about 3:30... (and I suppose I should mention, it rained each and every inch of the way... not a nice polite rain either... we're talking a no visibility near biblical deluge type of rain) and then straight home... (this is why couriers charge so much for longer trips... one is all they can do per day as opposed to 7 to 12 smaller ones...)



Wednesday, I drive small trips all day, and dispatch suddenly calls and says they have something that has to get 250 miles to Houston, do I want it? Well of course I want it. I'm thinking I'll pick this up, get into Houston about 7 or 8 PM, find a bar, have some fun, check into a cheap motel and drive back tomorrow....

So they send me the order. Turns out it's a round trip... extra $$$, but now I have to deliver the machine part to the factory, pick up the bad one for repair, and be back in Dallas before 5 AM. No R&R, no fun, no sleep. That's just annoying.

But, on the way back, at about 2 AM, I did stop along Hwy 45, which is rather desolate... there's not many towns directly on that Highway, and spent a few minutes stretching my legs, which is very neccesary if you're driving for a long time and late at night. It gets your blood moving and helps keep you alert. Since you're away from city lights, you can look up and see stars, and even pick out part of the milky way. Quite a sight to see actually... I saw 4 shooting stars in the space of 10 minutes.

so, I get back into Dallas about 4 am, get the part where it's going, and I miss the next days work entirely. I'd driven more than 20 hours, the only thing getting delivered was my butt into a bed. And BTW... this is my birthday. Weee Haw.

Drove Friday. All day. Till far too late...

Drove Monday. All day... for not much actually...

And today, I had to take off to go sign papers for the estate. Calling somebody else to find out why they're taking automatic withdrawals from Mom's account, even though they saw the Death Certificate over a Month ago... Not the end of it unfortunately. I'm gonna be dealing with all this stuff for the next 6 months it appears.

And it's an absolutely beautiful day outside, of the kind that we have very few of in the Dallas Ft. Worth metroplex, and I'm stuck trying to do this @#$%&*!

As I mentioned before, my birthday was last week... the 1 month aniversary of Moms death (a fact I mention because several ever-so-thoughtful-weasel-people made special phone calls to point it out to me, so evidently it's very important!) I spent the day sleeping between phone calls from afore mentioned weasel-people and the evening at a friends house having an extremely informal dinner.

Actually a wee bit too informal. It was me, a friend from High School, and the computer. Specifically, some guy that she'd met online who lives in Cairo, Egypt, and who's face kept popping up in a chat window on her computer screen...

"Isn't he cuuuuuute?" she asked.

"If you're into sasquatch." I answered.

and I went out last weekend to see some people.

No one I knew,

just people.

Any people.

I didn't care.

and that's how I've been spending my time....

And that's all for my rants today... I interspersed it with some decent pics, so it shouldn't be too depressing....

later.

I'm a bad bad blogger...

I haven't posted in seemingly forever. But it's not entirely my fault...

1) it's been raining. For over a week now. Seemingly incessantly. Very annoying. I hate taking pictures in the rain.

2) even if I liked taking pics in the rain, my camera seems to be messing up.

3) And I haven't really had anything to say. The rain has drowned out even my ranting ability. Just a big damp blah.

But, I have been reading all of your blogs, so I'm not ignoring anyone.

I'm just here.

Thought I'd let you know I'm still kicking.

Hildy's done it again...

The Cereus hildmannianus has bloomed again tonight...

Just thought I'd show it off a little...

Stapelia gigantea in bloom...

Well, just to prove how distracted I've been lately, the first bloom on this plant, a couple of days ago, I didn't even notice until after it had faded... but I dutifully watched this bud and this morning it was obviously going to open today...

The blooms open in the afternoon, and stay pretty much until noon the next day... and yes they do smell like hamburger that's been left outside for some unknown reason, but the smell isn't unbearable as long as they're outside and you're more than 3 feet away. If you look closely, you will notice a carrion fly on the bloom... these are the plants pollinators.

Not that there's any pollination going on here... either they require a specific carrion fly polinator from their native land, or they require cross pollination and this is the only one within a mile, because for the last three years I've had plenty of blooms and not one ever even tried to produce a seed pod. I'm not that concerned... they're so easy from cuttings I can't imagine the neccesity of a seed.

As mentioned this is the second bloom this year. There are quite a few more buds beginning to pop out on the other side of the plant, but we're looking at a couple of weeks before they're likely to produce.


And now, I feel I should respond to the many people who expressed their condolences on my last post... Thank you all very much. I truly appreciate the kind thoughts and the concern expressed...

Rain Lily

I must apologize for my absense on the blog, but this has not been a good week for me.

At 11.30 pm Tuesday, my Mother passed away, and I was, understandably, terribly upset.

I won't go into the details here, but the last year of her life hasn't been the best, she was getting progresively weaker. This is in many ways a release.

But I wasn't able to get on the blog much. The week has proceeded in a surreal kind of clarity. Today, the sun came out, after a solid week of rain, and I was able to finally come back to reality.

These helped... The Zephyrantes candida, also know as Fairy lily, Toad lily or Rain lily have burst into bloom, just as they do every late summer and autumn after every heavy rain.

They spend much of their existence looking much like a row of Monkey Grass, but thier white, crocus-like blooms explode almost overnight.

These were blooming when my father died 5 years ago. September isn't the best of months for our family.

I was sitting outside under the willow tree today and I looked over to these blooms, and I remembered that after he'd passed, Mother and I were sitting in almost the exact same spot, looking at these flowers when she told me, "Life is for the living. It's time we got on with it."

Mother was a little on the blunt side. Not as blunt as my Grandmother, who once told one of my aunts, "You can't crawl into the grave with him, so keep going and your turn will come soon enough," but these flowers, the late summer sunshine and that memory have worked together to remind me that I was still alive. In many ways it doesn't seem fair, but life isn't. Yes I will mourn, and yes I will miss my Mother, but she gave me a lot of love and caring when she was here, and did everything she could to make me a strong person, and it will not honor her if I don't keep going, and hopefully pass that love, caring and strength on to someone else.

Not the most cheerful of posts.

cactus in the rain...

First, just so I won't be accused of Prickly Pear abuse, I would like to point out that the neglected Optunia humifusa from the previous post has been potted up in his own 5 inch clay pot, and will soon, no doubt, be happily growing along... the dead looking pad in the middle is typical of the species. Old pads die off as the new ones grow and root... the miniaturized pad that's lying on the soil surface already has new roots going into the ground at least an inch. The new pad that's growing up from the old roots will probably end up regular sized for the plant, what with new soil and the right amount of light, so it'll grow out at least 4 inches... we'll see.

It's been raining for 5 days straight! All my neighbors keep gushing about how we need it... I keep reminding them that I grow cactus, and I don't need it! The Pavonia keeps opening up it's blooms though, even if they do end up looking a little droopy from the water...

And Charcoal Briquette Kitty does not like this one little bit...

But the lower temps and extra water have prompted Hildy (Cereus hildmannianus) to put out some new buds. 15 that I've counted, although they're low on the plant and hard to find among the Prickly Pear pads that surround the pot. There may be more. And more buds may yet form higher on the plant... we'll see.

I will be picking up a new (used) truck tomorrow. Sorely needed, I assure you. My little Isuzu in about on it's last legs, but I'll probably keep it until I'm sure the new one isn't spending too much time in the shop.

I don't like spending money. I'm not particularly good at it, and it's kept me in a tempermental, worried fit over the last few days. Silly of me, but there we are. But I've bit the bullet... and now it's done.

negelected prickly pear

Most of us have one of THOSE spots in the yard. It's that spot between the fence and the shed, or behind the garage. That place where you shove things until you can deal with them later, and then the classic adage, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," kicks in and you just plain forget about it.

Or maybe you remember it, when you're shoving something else out there, and you think, "Oh, that's right, I wanted to do something with that..." then you walk away and forget it all over again.

This is what happened here... This started out as a small seedling of Optunia humifusa that someone gave me, and I shoved in this pot and shoved it in a location out of sight, between the house and the pillar that holds up the 4 foot wide eave of the house....

Now, somebody gave me this little seedling 4 years ago. And it's been sitting there, on top of 1 inch of dirt, in the shade of the eaves without any water and totally negelgted. Not bad, huh?

Of course, the pads have stunted to about 1 inch wide, and it's fading to yellow... but it is surviving and I'll probably do something with it eventually... Which is pretty much what I said 4 years ago.

Optunia humifusa is a prostrate cactus that spreads through fields, never getting more than one pad high. The newer pads root where they touch the ground, and the old pads usually die off... It does have very pretty sulfer yellow blooms, and light pink fruits that birds like but aren't really edible for people. Varieties of this species grow throughout the US and into Canada.

I've seen fairly nice displays where they're used as a ground cover, but the habit of the old pads to turn brown and die off, means that it requires maintenance, and the spines and rather viscious glochids on this species make maintenance a painful proposition... which is probably why I stuck it in the corner and tried to forget it.

But, this guy has proven himself very resilient, and I'll probably reward him with a real pot and real dirt and hopefully, he'll end up looking decent.

I'm still here!

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

I haven't posted lately.

life has been a little overwhelming and quick paced lately, I'm afraid that any spare time is spent doing an impersonation of a gelatanous mass.

So, no pics... no amusing annecdotes... I ain't got nothing.

But, I had to post something, so here's a song from Australian singer/songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke.



Currently, she's one of my faves... hope you enjoy it!

Ambling around...

Well, I haven't had a lot to post about lately, so I guess I'll talk about a cemetery. This is one of the Pioneer cemeteries in Dallas, on the edge of an old township called Letot that was swallowed by Dallas in the late 50's. For a bit of information about this cemetery go here.

Basically, this is a family cemetery containing 15 graves. The Mooneyham family settled in this part of Texas in 1844, making them one of the earlier settlers. One member of the Letot family is buried here, but most of them are in the "Old Letot Cemetery" about a mile away. Both are wedged between warehouses now... The only remnants of the community of Letot are these two cemeteries, and the Letot Baptist Church, which was sadly in need of repair the last time I drove by it. The Letot Elementary School was still standing at the beginning of this year, being utilized as a warehouse, but was torn down this summer.

This particular graveyard is not listed as a historical marker, while the Old Letot Cemetery is, and is under the control the the Dallas Historical Society.

It's been a rather interesting week... The most interesting experience I had this week was delivering human body parts to a research laboratory. Now, I've done that before. Or I'm assuming that's what was in those boxes. It doesn't really bother me, they have to get to the labs somehow, and it might as well be me... to be perfectly blunt, I've delivered Haz Mat that was far more hazardaous than this...

Usually you pick up a box that say Hazardous Material on one side and Human Tissue Samples on the other and you just take it. You don't know exactly what it is, and you just get on with it. It pays well, and it has to get there in a hurry. This job however I picked up at the airport. Now, any Haz Mat that is on the airplane has to be clearly marked as to the contents.

So, I'm driving around a box with "Human Eye Tissue" sitting in my front seat.

I don't know if it's just me, but as far as disembodied people parts go, eyes are right up there on top of the creapy list. Probably because when you talk to somebody, you look into their eyes, and you can communicate with someone with just a glance... eyes just seem more alive and human than other things. I don't know exactly why it's creepier than other things, but I do know that halfway to the delivery, I suddenly got a feeling that that box was STARING at me.

Anyway... that was the highlight of my week.

I so need a new job...

night blooming cactus - again...

Haven't had a huge amount to blog about lately. Guess the doldrums are just pressing in... But Hildy, (cereus hildemannianus) finally came through... now, as to the actual species name of this cactus, there has been a bit of a discusion about that over on Mr. Subjunctives blog which is very informative. Actually, it's a great blog in general, I highly recomend it...

I've always called this Cereus hildemannianus, and I probably always will, so there we are... Click on my label at the bottom of this post, and you can see previous blooms and posts about him.