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.

Warehouse bandit!

Last night, I got a call in my radio, and I suddenly realized that I'd have to be awake at 4:30 AM in order to be at a warehouse on time.

This, of course, did not thrill me, as I didn't find this out in time to eat dinner early so that I could get my after dinner walk done and into bed early... So I had to skip my walk. Now, I like my walk. I get to talk to all the dog-walkers in the neighborhood, and, despite the fact that my job involves jumping from the truck bed onto docks and throwing heavy boxes around all day, I don't get steady exercise, it just happens if fits and spurts. The walk keeps my trick knee strong, and compensates for the sitting in a truck seat all day part of my job.

So I was up bright and early this morning, and in a part of town that's covered in warehouses, before most of the warehouses are open...

Now, you don't really realize it, but warehouse districts are entirely different worlds at night than they are during the day... During the day they are loud, unpleasant places, full of rumbling truck engines, banging metal doors and reeking of exhaust fumes.

At night, when the workers have gone home, an almost unnatural quiet envelops them, and as the sun sets, you can hear crickets, and see the quick shadows of feral cats stalking rodents. The pavement glows yellow under the lights, and each light swirls with insects. If you're lucky, and take the time to notice, you can watch the bats swoop in and pick off their dinner...

This morning I was at the warehouse when the night and it's creatures hadn't quite yet surrendered to the day. It's a pleasant enough time, not cool, but the heat of the day hasn't yet begun to bake the pavement. I saw this guy, looking a little scared and confused...

Normally, seeing raccoons, opossums or skunks in the daylight is a cause for concern, as it may mean rabies... but this is a juvenile, and most likely he went wandering last night, became separated from his mother, and couldn't find his way home. Left on his own, he will probably find a hole to crawl into and spend a nervous sleep waiting until his mother finds him tomorrow, or he learns to salvage through the dumpsters on his own.

They're cute as all git-out of course. Many people have succumbed to trying to tame them, with painful consequences later. When Raccoons, no matter how tame they've become, reach sexual maturity at the age of 2 years, hormones take over and they revert back to wild behaviour. I personally know one person who had to have over 100 stitches from the wounds inflicted by a much loved 'pet.'

When things like this happen, the animal, acclimatized as it is to humans, becomes a hazard to anyone around it, and it usually has to be destroyed, a hideous end that could have been avoided by just letting nature take it's course.

I took this pic, then I drove away. No matter what happens to this adorable little bandit, whether it finds it's mother, learns to support itself, or if it dies, it won't be because I interfered in any way.

Dragonfly....

I know I posted earlier today... but I was doing something in the back yard, when this guy flew up... he darted around in a very maddening way before he finally settled long enough for me to take a pic...

Now, I've seen lots of dragonflies in my life, but never one quite so violently red... this picture doesn't do him justice! He almost strobed in the Texas morning sun.

If anybody knows exactly what kind of dragonfly this is, I'd be really, really glad to hear it! Btw, there was another one flying around also, not quite as red, more an orange coloration... maybe it's another kind, maybe they're the male and female of the same species, or maybe the coloration just varies. It wasn't sitting down for no dang pictures though...