Wildlife Wednesday....July 2014...

Tina over at  My Gardener Says...

has started a new meme.

She's hosting 

Wildlife Wednesday, 

the first Wednesday of each month.

We have a lot of wildlife here.

From tiny bugs, to large four-legged critters.

There is always an abundance of wildlife.

We're never without the ever present deer.

Among the other four-legged creatures....

This little possum was in the cat's bed, on the porch.

And, the battle with the squirrels continues.

As it does with the raccoons.  Sorry, no photos of them or the armadillos.

There are lots of birds....

Cardinals, and Titmouse (is more than one Titmouse, Titmice?)

and lots of Sparrows....and, more.

A Green Heron, thinking he's hiding.

And this month, we've seen more of the Egytian Geese around.

I think maybe they've decided this might be a good place to live.

And the very efficient clean-up guys...

Black and Turkey Vultures. 

And, this guy wasn't in our garden.

But, we've seen them around here.

This one was in Lake Texana, east of Victoria.

Our daughter and family are camping there, 

and we went down to spend the day.

We didn't see any of the alligators.

But, that's ok. 

 At least we don't have alligators here.

I'll have more to show you next month.

Be sure to visit Tina, and see what others have to show.

What kind of wildlife do you have in your garden?

***********

'Til later...

Take care..

~~Linda~~

Happy First Day of Spring....

Spring is here.

Says so, on the calendar.

There are signs, that it is true.

The Robins are showing up.

The Agarita is blooming.

And, the Does are eating for two...or three, or...

Do you have signs of Spring, where you are?

I sure hope so.

***********

'Til later...

Take care...

~~Linda~~

Wide Shot for Foliage Follow-Up...

I am way behind posting on here.

I'm late posting the

Wide Shot,

to share with Heather at 

Xericstyle.

But, since most of this garden is foliage,

I'll combine the Wide Shot with 

Foliage Follow-Up, with 

Pam at Digging.

This winter, has made a mess of some plants, like this Sago Palm.
There's still some green, so hoping it'll perk up with new growth.

The same for this Foxtail Fern, on the porch.
I've left the frozen parts, for protection.  But, I think it's about time
to get them outta there.

There are some places on this Golden Barrel, that look a bit bad.
But, it's still firm.  This poor thing was under water, for about six hours,
when we had the Halloween Flood.
Along with the cold, I'm surprised it looks this good.

Other things look almost un-touched by Winter.

This 'prickly pear' could be the wave of the future,
in Central Texas gardens.
The Rosemary and Mexican Feathergrass, have held up really well.

We replaced the Color Guard Yuccas that had either washed away,
or been messed with, by the deer.  Deer love to pull things up.
That's why we have old tomato cages over these.

I found a Sotol at Natural Gardener, on sale.
The girl said it just had 'cosmetic damage'.
Hope she was right.  There was only ONE good root, when
we planted this.  Then, it blew over, with our 40 mph wind, after this photo.
Now, it also has a tomato cage.

The pansies are doing really well.

And, the Rose Jasmine has been blooming.

We got a new bird bath, that we nestled in a Gold Dust Acuba.
I like the colors together.

And, another bird feeder.  It's been getting a lot of business.

These bags say 'mulch' on the back.
But, these are 2 cubic foot bags of garden soil.
We spread 20 of them...along with some bags of compost.
Whew!

I'm hoping that Spring will really arrive soon, and I can stop taking
these in and out of the garage.

And, finally...
guess who needs to go to the beauty parlor.
It's been too long.

That's what's going on here.
Be sure to visit Heather and Pam, for more good gardens.

And, oh...

Can anyone tell me what this is?
There are several coming up.  I'd say Texas Persimmon.  But, these have been green all winter.
Texas Persimmon doesn't stay green....the mature trees, anyway.
The acorn is to show the size of the leaf.

Hope you're having a good weekend.

***********
'Til later...
Take care...
~~Linda~~

This and That....

It's been a while, since I posted.

It's been busy around here.

Lots of weeding and cleaning up, getting ready for Spring.

We had some out-of-town guests, and took them over to see 

The Painted Churches.

Then we ended up in Gruene, for an early dinner.
Can't go there, without going to Gruene Hall.

We had this little guy come into the yard, one morning.
He was acting a bit strange.  Not aggressive...just like he felt bad.
He rested a while and then went off.  We thought he was ok.
Later, Animal Control (I wasn't even aware we HAD Animal Control here) came.
They went down to the creek with a cage.  Then they came back up with him inside.
I'm hoping they helped him.

We got the privilege of replacing the water heater.
Luckily, it only flooded the front porch, through the overflow pipe.

I couldn't help myself, and after a few days of 70s and 80s,
my daughter and I went to some garden centers, and I planted.
Mostly some 'Color Guard' Yuccas and some rosemary.
But, also some geraniums.

Silly me!
I forgot to cover the geraniums, and they froze.
So, I can buy and plant them again.

Such pretty, warm days, make you feel like the cold is over for good.

The Red admirals were flitting around everywhere.

We had some dense fog, the first day of March.
It was warm and humid.

Then, ANOTHER cold front.
We went from 75F to 25F, in just a few hours.

Out on the porch,
we have a fountain, that the birds love to come to.

Standing there, looking out into the Grove,
this little Titmouse came for a drink...not two feet away.
He didn't notice when I moved to take his picture.
They're usually very timid.

We were lucky enough to miss the ice that they got to the east and north of us.
We did get some hail, and sleet, and enough rain to bring us to .75 inches, for the year.

All in all, except for this yo-yo weather, it's been a good year, so far.

I've been doing good, with my
Project 365....so far.
The photos here, are for that.  I've been posting them on my
Photo Blog, and Flickr feed.

That takes up a bit of time, editing, etc.

So, that's what's happening here.
Have you been getting ready for Spring?
It is coming.
I promise.

***********
'Til later...
Take care...
~~Linda~~

Beautiful Visitor....

I posted this over on my photo blog, for one of my

Project 365 photos.

But, thought I'd share with my garden friends.

He's a Red-shouldered Hawk.

Just beautiful.

I'd just set down on the porch, after pulling a few million weeds.

He flew threw the Deer Grove, and up into a tree.

I'm glad I had my camera at hand.

He posed quite nicely, and the sun setting on him 

added to the beauty.

Have a great weekend.

***********

'Til later...

Take care...

~~Linda~~

Another New Feeder...

This crazy winter continues.

After cold and damp and temperatures not out of the 30sF,

we had a day of sun and almost 80F!

We spent the day outside, working in the garden.

There is a lot to do out there.

The new bird feeder arrived.

Not all that pretty, but maybe it will last.

It rotates when something heavy gets on it.

So, squirrels are thrown off.

And, large doves.

I kind of like the doves.  I prefer the small ones, but we seem to have 

mostly Whitewing Doves.  They can empty a feeder, almost as

fast as the squirrels.

This one just couldn't understand why he couldn't get that seed.

There was some thrown on the ground,

so they got something, after all.

The feeder is attached with a clip, on a long chain.

If raccoons can get this one down,

they can have it.

The day was so nice,

the moon decided to show up early, to enjoy it.

We ended the day, on the porch,

watching the sunset through the trees.

We're having another one of those days, today.

More work in the garden.

Then, tomorrow we're forecast another round of 

cold and damp.

Ugh....

Hope you're having a good day,

wherever you are.

**********

'Til later...

Take care...

~~Linda~~

We Got Lazy....

We like to feed the birds.

They're fun to watch....

flitting around, jockeying for a place on the feeder.

And, it makes a great place to get shots of them.

The photo above is from a few weeks ago.

This was yesterday.

This is today.

Another feeder bites the dust.

It was in many pieces.  Brittle plastic, made more brittle by 

freezing temps.

We have an on-going battle with squirrels and raccoons.

I gave up counting how many feeders they have ruined.

This one I found at a garage sale, for $5.00.

The last one they tore up, cost WAY more.

We've tried ones designed to keep those rascally critters out.

But, how to keep them from taking them off the hooks,

and throwing them to the ground?

I refuse to give up.

We like watching the birds.  

So, we'll get another feeder.

We just need to remember to bring them in at night.

***********

'Til later...

Take care...

~~Linda~~

This and That on Thrusday...

Yesterday was drizzly, all day.

8-365

The day before, the low was 12F.

Yesterday, it was 39F

And, today it was 54F!

As they say....If you don't like the weather in Texas,

just wait a minute.

Whitewing Dove

After a bit of fog this morning, the day has turned out to be 

beautiful.

Squirrel harassing Maggie

I got out and took a walk around the back.

The creek isn't running much.

It's quit coming over the cart path and waterfall.

It stops here, in this pond area.

It must soak into the ground here.  

Looking back from the pond, through the Deer Grove, to the house,

you can see that the rye grass is still green.

This tree, which didn't make it through the drought,

fell a while back.  When we had the Halloween Flood,

the water rushed through here, to just beyond the first upright

trees you can see.  WAY to close too the house, for my comfort.

Back up to the house....the sun makes the bottle tree look like stained glass.

The hummingbird feeder our oldest granddaughter gave me for my birthday

dropped its feeding tube.  But, it still makes a pretty ornament.

Makes 'stars' on the siding.

9-365

From the other side, the sun shining through it is just beautiful....

like the day.

***********

7-365

By the way...here's my offering for #7 of my 365....

silicone potholders.  A gift from our daughter.

I love them.

*******

'Til later...

Take care...

~~Linda~~