What I saw meandering around...

A better pic of the cactus flowers... got this pic when I got home at 6:30 pm yesterday.

and now that I've softened you up with a pretty flower pic... here's something that isn't quite so pretty... Black Vultures. If you can get past their dining habits, they're actually fascinating animals...

And if that isn't creepy enough, they're dining outside the Rehoboth cemetery...

The Black Vulture isn't quite as shy as the larger Turkey Vulture. We do see these a bit further in town.

Vultures are gregarious birds, often nesting in groups of up to a hundred, which split off in pairs to look for food during the day. Often Turkey vultures and Black vultures will share the same nesting areas. They're very clumsy on the ground, but are fantastic flyer's. While they prefer fresh meat, they can eat meat that has started to decompose... primarily because there is not a single known microbe that can survive their digestive tract. There is enough remaining stomach acid in their droppings that it is antiseptic... and if they do get a scratch or cut on their faces or feet while digging through a carcass, they use their own droppings to sanitise it... Other than this habit, they're actually very clean birds, spending much time grooming their glossy feathers.

All rather gross, I know, but they are rather interesting birds which perform a very neccesary function in the wild.

And extremely hard to photograph... they're smarter than you'd think. These were fine as long as I stayed in my truck, but the minute I pulled my door handle they recognised the sound and took off. I'm on the Northern edge of the Black vultures territory, the Turkey Vulture, with dark brown plumage and a red neck and head is larger, shyer of humans, and also common here.

There are some people who can't get past the bias against their dining habits, and sometimes shoot vultures on sight, only to find out that these species are protected under the migratory bird laws, and that they can be fined up to $1500 per bird.

I was taking the trash out for the sanitation workers this morning, when I saw this out of the corner of my eye...


a bit of a surprise actually, it's been raining and a little on the chilly side all week. I had seen the buds last week, but I thought that they'd wait for some sun and heat... this close-up isn't the best, but it is in the wee hours of the morning, so the light isn't the best...

There's a pic of this Echinopsis in this post, back when I first planted the rock garden last March... http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2008/03/winter-hardy-cactus.html I have no idea of the species, as it was sold to me as 'Echinopsis species' If I get any seed pods off of it, I might try to sprout them, but there are many many Echinopsis hybrids out there. I'm not sure what may turn up...

As stated in the above post, this was sold to me as winter hardy to at least 20 degrees... and it certainly survived last winter. And from looking at the pics, I need to get out there this weekend and pull out some weeds...

have a great day everyone...

today it was raining like cats and dogs.

So obviously I don't got any pics.

but I do got a dancing pickle...



just thought I'd throw that out there...

no pics today...

I've been having a rather stressful time since last Friday...

Not going to go into too much detail, but Mom's been in the hospital and managed to give us quite a scare... anyway, now she has a new pace maker and she'll be coming home Thursday.

And I've never been under Aneasthesia, but if I ever am, I certainly hope I don't come out of it cussing at everyone in sight... she certainly did...

But no new pics, and no new blog kind of news. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to my normal cantankerous self soon...

Have a great day... I'm off to work soon...

So, I had some stuff to do in the garden today...

On earth day, I celebrated by buying a plant. Actually, rescuing a plant from Home Depot... I should know better, but I stopped in Home Depot to buy something or other and I dropped by the garden dept, and there'e these little cactus... I got a Pereskia aculeata that was badly in need of attention... I think I used Earth Day as an excuse to buy it...

Now Pereskia aculeata is one of THOSE cactus... Primarily because it doesn't much look like a cactus. They're the only cactus genus that isn't considered succulent. There's an arguement that they're primitive cactus... in other words, this is what cactus looked like before they developed succulent stems and all their leaves evolved into spines... but I'm not going to worry about that. They're a tropical plant, native to Brazil, that produces white flowers and edible fruits on climbing vines... called Barbados gooseberry...

This one was etoliating, and I decided to get it into a better situation this morning at about 7 am.

So I picked a dead branch off my curly willow tree to give it something to climb on, and then grabbed a glazed flower pot to plant it in... and something jumped out of the pot at me...

Now, I should make myself clear... I'm not particularly squeemish about snakes, spiders, lizards and such... but that's based on the general assumption that they don't want to be around me far more than I don't want to be around them... but at 7 AM, fortified only by 2 cups of coffee, I can't be expected to react well when paniked critter decides to do a Kamakasi leap at my face! After he settled on one of the straw bales that I'm growing tomatoes in, I determined that not only is he harmless, I actually don't mind him being here... It's one of the common geckos that live in this part of the world.
They eat huge amounts of bugs and such, but they generally only do it at night so the only time you see them is when they crawl up the sides of the house to catch the insects attracted to house lights. You also see them when you pick up the flower pot they've decided to sleep in. Anyway, after he squirmed into another hole, I continued with my project... And here it is...

I'm not expecting much, but I may get some blooms from it next year, and maybe a berry or two...

The plant, when established well, is a bit on the rampaging side, using its small sharp spines to grab onto trees and branches and scrambling up to 10 meters. It's white blooms make it appear to be more a climbing rose than anything else, when it blooms, and while commercial growers use Hylocereus undatus to make those grafted cactus at Wal-mart, the stems of Pereskia are often used to graft tiny seedling cactus, to make the seedlings grow much quicker. It'll need more water than my other guys, and I do now have another plant that has to come in this winter, but we'll see how it goes...

Meandering around, and a surprise at home...

Had a long drive out today... all the way to Bridgeport Texas... I don't know why they call it Bridgeport... I didn't see a bridge, and there's definitely no port... but there we are...

I saw this rather magnificent stand of Optunia... I wish I could say it was natural, but it's a deliberately planted security barrier... unless you're driving a tank, I seriously wouldn't recommend trying to get through this...

And here's a rather magnificent scrub oak... I've always loved the meandering twisted branches on these things...

And fairly close to my house, there's a cemetary that I realized I'd never visitited... of course, I looked for cactus... But I think that other cemetary I saw them in is an exception to the norm... there's no cactus here at the Rehoboth Cemetery... I intend to look up the word Rehoboth, because I have no idea what it could possibly be referring to...

Thsi is the grave of Mary Miller... the first grave at this site...

And this is the grave of Clara Bell and Cora Lee Whitehead... twins who were born and died within a month.

And here's a distant shot of the cemetary... You can't tell from the pic, but the grounds are dotted with small wildflowers... which is really kind of a relief... I get tired of cemetaries that are maintained like golf courses. A more natural look is far more fitting to these historical sites...

And this was blooming it's fool head off when I got home... My Parodia werneri was blooming! I thought the buds were a couple days away from opening, but the heat over the last couple of days must have spurred them on... These pics don't show the colors well... the blooms are actually darker, almost royal purple...

UPDATE: The name Rehoboth is biblical...

And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." (Genesis 26:22 ESV)

I'm still not sure that I totally understand the reference, but there it is...

Cactus & iris...

Yep, it's another Escobaria missouiensis... but this one ain't in no graveyard... this is the plant that crowns my hen & chick tower... I used to have sempervivums at the top, but the top of the tower was just too dry for them... Most people don't realize the Semps, while succulent, are native to Europe, and can't take a Texas summer without a huge amount of watering... They do all right in the lower, plastic pots, but the top pot, with it's smaller amount of soil and very pourous terra cotta pushed the things to the edge. So I replaced the poor things with these last year.

and this is an iris that's been growing in the back yard so long, that I've forgotten the variety name... I think it's called "Forty-niner" but I'm not absolutely sure. Anyway, it's a nice yellow bloom, late in the season.


And that's about it for today.

I almost forgot... I started Crusader Rabbit, so here's episode 2 in which our fearless hero sets out to do battle with those evil, wicked, mean and nasty Texans... just as soon as he finds them...

By the way, the voice of Crusader Rabbit was done by Lucille Bliss... who later in her life did the voice of "Smurfette"

Crusader Rabbit vs. Texas

Howdy folks... I've had a rather tiring day, and not one darned pic to post...

so I found this... Crusader Rabbit!

This is episode 1 of the first cartoon to ever be produced specifically for television. It's literally a story told in a series of 15 four-minute cartoons, much like early radio serials, all of which are available on YouTube. Not the best of cartoons, they are however fun in a funky kind of way!

The rose pavillion...

Back to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden...

This time the rose garden... I've lost my little piece of paper where I wrote down all the names of all the varieties... so I'm having to depend on my memory here. I have no idea what this ones called...

This is the view looking down the hill from the rose pavillion. The pavilion was built in 1930 or 1931, and was the first public works project built by the government during the great depression... it's really a great little building, and the waterfalls go down the center of the rose beds. The beds are filled with Knockout, Pink Knockout and Blushing Knockout... which aren't my faves... they're semi-double blooms on bushes that are often used as hedges... nice enough though. When you stand in the pavilion, the breeze comes up the hill and you get the best scent from all the roses coming up to you...

After you get to the bottom of the hill, there are beds to the right, and even more extensive beds to the left...

This is a climber named Carnea... an antique rose that was introduced in 1804 or 1805... I was really impressed with it, so I remembered it...

This is one of the squirels... they're very tame in the Gardens, if you have something they want, they'll come right up to you and take it out of your hands... This guy was wondering if I was gonna cough up a cookie, no doubt...

This one I remember because I loved the color... Cinco de Mayo... the colors are just as festive as the name implies!

This is from the bottom of the garden looking up the hill...

And this final pic is the only hybrid tea rose I have here in my yard... Someone gave this rose bush to my mom as a gift, and then she gave it to me... so, here's Blue Girl... even though I think it's more lavender than anything else... pardon the dried edges to the petals... she's in a very exposed area and I think the wind dried her out some...


Hoping you all have a great day!

Cemetary Cactus...

Well, I know I was going to tell you more about my trip to the Ft. Worth Botanic Garden, but I found these today... I've been to about every cemetary I can find, (My dad was a history buff, and we used to enjoy looking for historic burials) and I've waded through more iris beds, crinum lillies and yuccas than I care to remember, but this is the first time I've ever encountered these Escobaria missourensis deliberately planted on graves. Of course, it may have once been very common to plant pincusion cactus over graves. Modern lawnmowers and weedeaters may have destroyed many plantings.

Some of the plants are blooming a decidedly green color...

some are very heavily bearing last years fruit...

and some are blooming a decidedly flesh-tone...

This is my size 11 work boot beside this clump, just so you have some idea of the size of the things...

I'm not going to give the name or location of this graveyard... the reason is that I am more than aware of the retail cost of these clumps of cacti... some of the clumps are at least a hundred years old... and I don't want to tell any cactus rustlers where to find a motherlode, but I did just have to show them to you...