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Texas is Hot, Hot, Hot...and not a hint of precipitation in sight, perspiration though is a plenty.
It is like trying to garden on Arrakis, only the worms are just a tad
smaller here in the ESP unfortunately...ahh, imagine the soil aeration!
The very bricks themselves are starting to crack under the intense heat,
or could that be from yet another giant timber culm pushing
upward toward the "day star"?
The emerging culm pictured above is the largest I have ever grown,
a real monster (diameter dimensions on a later nerdy post), and that
is a soaker hose providing the moisture, naturally.
I plan to tie something on this culm before it hoists itself 25 feet
above my house, the question is what to sail out there?
The ESP coat of arms perhaps?
(Which incidentally creatively incorporates the face of the Botox Lady,
abstractly, into it's design).
Some boxer shorts perhaps?
Maybe I should just tie some sneakers to it, just to have
people drive by and wonder how someone managed to
throw them so high, so accurately.
OK, I think the heat may finally be getting to me,
and what record-breaking heat we are enduring here in Central
Texas at the moment, and it is only the end of, oh dear, June!
(Insert insane screaming here)
There have already been some heat-strokes...
Blow-Torched Delosperma
'sesotho pink'
or 'Trailing Ice Plant', hanging on to an inch of it's life.
This plant was the picture of health, until the temperatures
entered and have consistently sustained triple digits.
I hate to think how people with all their Saint Augustine expanses
are faring. Texas has a habit of naturally sorting out what
survives in a garden pretty rapidly, wielding a swift and deadly
blade of fire or ice, (depending on the season).
This year is already particularly harsh, compounded by the
continuing drought from last year, and the year before that.
It is not remotely pleasant to stand outside to water right now, even if
adorning a wet turban to curb the heat.
(def: "wet turban" here): http://east-side-patch.livejournal.com/8
I am now watering my natives, succulents, ornamental
grasses and cactus / agave plantings,
just to keep them alive, crazy heat!
Master Gardener Yoda:
“Death is a natural part of life.
Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force.
Mourn them do not. Miss them do not.
Attachment leads to jealously.
The shadow of greed, that is.”
Try telling that to the "Cactus Man"!
This is the happy face I was going for.
Picture courtesy NOAA.
The Cactus Man is not the picture of health he once was.
His demise came from the ill-conceived scalpel antics of
his torturer and general executioner...ME.
I had a premonition the other night that something really
bad was happening to him. I got up, put on my iced turban
to brave the 88 degree heat! (it was around midnight).
I swung through the timber bamboo as the ground
was too hot to walk on, and came to the clearing where
the cactus man had laid down his now decaying roots (ahem).
It is also where I fear he will shortly
pop his spiny little clogs.
It was a harrowing experience.
What have I done?
Doctors notes:
"The subject resembles more of a ghoulish shrunken head at this point,
rather than a prickly pear cactus. The top of his cranium is now pitching
violently backward in obvious distress, putting more tension in and around his
mouth area, apparently this is creating the curling up of his left lip".
I have a Billy Idol impersonating, decaying cactus head, with Spock's voice!
While I was rummaging around in here:
I found this:
Brrrrrrr, (nervous glances to the floor, left and right, knee twitch, jaw lock...you know the drill).
It looks like a real insect.
But. oh no!
It seems even the dragonfly larvae are depositing their own ecto-skeletons in
an attempt to escape the brutal Texas heat. I can sympathize with them.
So what did we do to cool us all down in the patch this week?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ssssssssssssssssssssssss.
Yes, you guessed it, another red-neck pool, only this one requires
no blowing up, a definite plus after last years near-death experience.
Same link again! http://east-side-patch.livejournal.com/8
This one has no duct-tape on it...yet, but the decomposed gravel
always wins eventually!
(Note the attempt at stopping this with a patch
of blanket), we do things right in the patch you know.
Doing okay:
Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine Ipomoea batatas 'Blackie'
shrugs off the high temperatures as long as it receives a bucket of the wet
stuff every few days. One of my most dependable container combinations.
The Chartreuse patch in the middle is Ipomoea batatas ' Margarita' 
Wrought Iron work from a vine caught my eye.
Doing not so okay:
Loquats are now looking like I feel. And how do I feel?
My wife took this picture of me as I took a brief cat-nap this afternoon.
The brief excursion outside to check on my satsuma tree proved
a little more dehydrating than I initially anticipated.
Here is the tree in question, it is turning yellow!
I think this may be due to overhead watering burning the leaves?
But any suggestions would be most welcome.
I would hate to lose all this fruit to stress.
Even the flies are moving slower than usually it seems.
A fine specimen.
Crimson Minimalism:
Considering how depressing things are in the wilting garden right now,
I thought I would finish with a quick and basic scheme I developed a couple
of months back for an Austin downtown commercial property.
.
Before
The main challenge here was to create a more natural passageway
(from both sides) of the property up to the front door.
There is a parking lot to the left of the property so foot traffic was cutting
diagonally across the grass. The proposal breaks up the linear lines
with large sweeping pathways which converge to naturally create two side beds,
and a front island bed. Extremely low cost, with a focus on hardscape,
drought tolerance and minimal future maintenance. The original scheme incorporated
a bottle tree with crimson bottles in place of the central Agave.
Pssst!
And if you want a killer haircut and/or color, call Leah at Crimson
(512) 632 9627
Stay Tuned For:
"My Camera has Melted"
All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and punishable by late 14th century Earth techniques.
Inspirational Images of the Week:
More madness from Diarmuid Gavin.
mwgvnr9zuq
Lots of dragons were zipping around
the ESP this week.
Predating the dinosaur and Jeff Goldblum, this fascinating
insect of the order Odonata (meaning "toothed")
has long been the subject of myths and legends,
around the globe. The dragonfly's syringe-like
appearance has earned it a variety of
bizarre names in global folklore
including "Devil's Darner,"
"Water Witch" and "Snake Doctor."
In European and early-American myths, The dragonfly
was given the name of “Devil’s Darning Needle” because
of a particularly horrific superstition involving the dragonfly
sewing the mouths shut of sleeping children.
Children were told that if they misbehaved,
a dragonfly would sew shut their eyes,
ears and mouth as they slept, (must remember
this for a future idle threat inside the patch).
I surmise this is where the word 'darner' as in
"Green Darner" originated?
This 'skimmer' Dragon is a Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia).
This one is a female, the males have a very different wing pattern.
This is the first Whitetail I have ever seen in my garden, and it did
not stay long. I only managed to get these two shots in, then she was gone.
Please click on, then click again, and then zoom in once more on these dragons
for a really detailed look at their structure, it is worth it!
Excuse the offensive finger!
Another myth warned that dragonflies were in cahoots with
snakes and were able to wake them from the dead or warn
them of impending danger.
In the Appalachians it was considered
bad luck to kill a dragonfly. They were
thought to be the protectors of snakes
and if you killed one, its snake would
come after you.
"Delta four-winger you have been cleared for take-off".
These two blue dasher dragons looked like they were
waiting for clearance to take off on this agave leaf.
Look at this one's cartoon eyes!
And finally in Swedish folklore
It was believed that dragonflies
were used by the Devil to "weigh
people's souls", and that if a
dragonfly swarmed around
someone's head weighing his
or her soul, that person could
expect great injury.
I am watching all gardeners,
especially those with
water features.
Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis)
Amazing body coloration.
"Yeah, baby yeah"!
And here is where the dragons love to perch in the ESP, on the tips of these cattails, (or bulrushes
if you are in the UK). Nesting birds have been demolishing these flower spikes over the
last few months, as you can see, some of them have been totally stripped.
On a culinary note:
In Bali, people call "Sky Prawns?"
dragonflies ‘sky prawns,’
they are traditionally fried with
coconut oil and vegetables and spices.
Dragonflies, grilled, apparently
have a carbonized crispy quality
to them with a subtle, fatty flavor.
Now before you go ewwwww...
Most of us readily consume
shrimp and lobster (which, like
insects, are arthropods.)
How to catch them?
One effective capturing method
in this region utilizes sap from
the jackfruit tree... 
The Jackfruit tree Artocarpus heterophyllus
(The largest tree borne fruit in the world).
The sticky, latex plant juice from this tree is applied
to the end of a slender stick. This stick is tied to
a longer, sturdier stick which is then lowered to
a resting dragonfly, with a quick tap, the dragon
is stuck to the tree sap. The device is called a
onang, and the hunting was done by children.
The catching of dragonflies for consumption
purposes is a very rare practice now in the region
due to the decreasing number of rice fields and
the scarcity of jackfruit trees in urban areas.
"And thats all I have to say about
dragonflies".
Moving On...
Mexican feather grass continues to burn and dance it's way into
the scorched winds of summer. Any time now the seed heads
will start sticking to each other for that really ugly "matted" look.
Then it will time for haircuts all round.
Another feather I have to post one last picture of!
Fragile coral vine blooms, Antigonon leptopus.
This plant always disturbs me as I like the way it looks but it always insists on creeping
up to high branches where it eventually dies, turns brown, and becomes an eyesore.
I only allow select patches to survive in the patch, and I never permit it to climb too high!
Also soaring up high was this damaged Swallowtail, catching
some of the thermals above my satsuma tree.
The swallowtails are busy laying their eggs on the citrus trees
in my middle bed right now. I started planting this cacti and
succulent bed earlier this year. I mostly used divisions from
plants I already had, and a few more from my in-laws containers.
I already had the Texas holey rocks, the large barrel cacti, and
the old cedar carcasses, I just needed to pull it all together.
Middle bed: Jan10, 2009 
Middle bed today, it is amazing what only six months can do, and the barrels are still healthy!
(fingers are crossed).
Some other patch-filled events this week...
This pair was really healthy for a while....................and then...medic!
Large culms are popping up everywhere
on the giants. My oldest giant timber bamboo
that did not produce a single culm last year, is
making up for it this year - eight at the last count!
"Oo, oo, you cannot be serious with this connection ESP".
One very strange looking unidentified moth!
Anybody? Almost bat-like!
And the latest craze in the patch...'Balloon Jousting'.
"On-Guard little brother!" " I will prevail, no matter the personal sacrifice".
"Am I not Maximus the merciful big sis?"
And finally...
"Here's Johnny!"
More horror from "cactus man" next time.
Stay Tuned For:
"The Shining"
All material © 2 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Inspirational Image of the Week:
Garden Art by Bruno Torf.
"Neo, we have a problem.
The sentinels have been deployed
over at the ESP".
"Trinity, those are old passion vine flowers."
"Still, the oracle told me this would happen Neo"
My front porch is full of these sentinels that have shriveled
and dropped off my red passion vine.
From riches to rags.
The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.
And you have burned so very very brightly.
Blade Runner.
This zinnia simply just burned,
it fried to a crisp in one day!
On a lighter note...
Who said this is a drought loving plant. This one has had a lot of water over the course of the last few weeks as I have tried to breathe life into my adjacent cyprus tree (which was dead and now is alive) with a constant drip feed of water from my leaking hosepipe. (I must say the best product I have had for quite some time) ... It leaks at just the right rate!
I have never had a blackfoot
daisy look as healthy,
it is spilling halfway across the sidewalk.
Somebody who is not looking quite as chipper is...
MEDIC!!!
"No! Whatever you do, do not stick that th e..r...Arooooo"!
"Angels and ministers of grace,
defend us...is his face is collapsing?"
Oh no, what have I done!
What started initially as a slight grimace has tragically turned into ...
.
(minus the teeth) - I have created my very own frankenstein.
Medical. Diary Entry....June12, 2009:
Subject: "Cactus man"
DOB: May10, 2005
Prognosis: Premature Aging, facial warts,
and a general softening of the cranium.
Picture of patient 487633-A
Physician's Private Notes:
"I fear I may have been a little too "aggressive"
with my initial surgical procedure. The subject
appears to have a softening of the upper dermis.
Sparse cell clusters correspond to irregularly
aggregated and sparse cells, usually irregular
in morphology and refractivity confined within
a darker well-demarcated area, or, my cactus's
skull appears to be rotting"! Ahhhhhhhh!
Additional:
The patient continues to drift in and out of
cacti consciousness.
If he continues to scare members of my family, with his
disturbing facial expressions I fear more drastic measures
may have to be undertaken, earlier than I originally anticipated.
Moving on...
Variegated shell ginger Alpinia zerumbet 'variegata'
I recently wandered past this patch of shell ginger like I have
done thousands of times, when these blooms caught my eye. My gingers
have never bloomed before! My camera was out of my pocket faster than
Billy the Kid drawing his gun. 
"Faster, huh? ESP." Anyone old enough to remember this one?
The flowers are white, tipped in pink,
and borne in long pendant arches.
This ginger is "supposed" to flower all
summer after the second year.
Mine are three years old.
The individual flowers are reminiscent of small seashells, which
accounts for the common name "shell ginger"...Now I get it! Duh!
They really do. I also think they look like lychees,
what do you think?
"Mmmmmm..................Lychees"!
I would never have anticipated such a tropical, exotic bloom.
To think I just bought these plants for their foliage...
Prince Sago or Emperor Sago Cycas taitungensis
(I hope I have this ID right!) I know it is not a Cycas revoluta (King Sago),
It also has a much more open crown...very feather like.
Cycads, Cycadaceae
are descendants of a very ancient group of
early seed-bearing plants that appeared
on the earth millions of years ago. Cycads
were at their prime during the Jurassic period
where they coexisted with dinosaurs and Jeff
Goldblum, they covered vast areas of the
earth's surface...imagine that!
Really bad for picnics at the time.
It looked like Jurassic Park here at patch the other night, a very tornadic
weather front hit us hard and brought with it some redneck tub
and bucket fillin', well needed, water! (And some good lightning).
Temperatures are up to nearly a hundred again today.
I caught a few little creatures drying off from the drenching...
Move a little to the right please, could you do that for me?
A very "lacy" hopper.
Reakirt's Blue Hemiargus isola
A small butterfly with a big heart. (winces)
Some more events this week...
Hoja Santa has had a rapid growth spurt after the recent rain.
Conifer thingymajiggies?
A shasta daisy springing to life.
Cactus bed resembling an underwater scene
K2 Stone crop, in decline.
Canna, cone flower, rosemary and sage.
Stay Tuned For:
"Smiling Dragons"
All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Inspirational Image of the Week:
Metal business card!
It is only a matter of time until they
contain a host of digital data.
With the temperatures beginning to soar this week,
Central Texas has started to once again
feel like the red planet. This recent heat has
had a really strange effect on the "Cactus Man"...
"My eyes, my eyes, what is happening to me?"
He seems to be developing a rather alarmed "expression" of sorts.
The sun has caused a contraction of the "skin" during the healing
process (post cacti operata), this was especially apparent around the
delicate eye tissues around the cacti paddle.
It appears my cactus pad is unfortunately aging prematurely!
"Damn it Jim, I am a doctor, not a botanist.
I will proceed to sick-bay just as soon as my hair has stabilized".
I knew I should have sprayed him with sun-screen
after his "delicate" surgery (drill-bit, not key-hole).
Still, I am really happy he is developing his own facial features...
It gives him his very own unique "cactus character".
I hate to say this, but the "Botox Lady" had a sly grin on her
face at the "cactus man's" accelerated aging process, I think
she felt somehow threatened by the introduction of this once
handsome chap into the patch.
The rising heat was also causing this Little Glassywing Skipper Butterfly - Pompeius verna to drink rather heavily from one of my cone flowers.
Buuuuuurp!!!
Skippers are named for their rapid, erratic flight, they differ from the
true butterflies in their proportionately larger bodies, smaller wings,
and hooked antennae (like a crochet hook),
Butterflies have club-like tips to their antennae.
Skippers also have generally stockier bodies, with stronger wing
muscles, they are one of the hardest butterfly species to identify;
their markings being frustratingly similar.
I hope I have my identification correct.
On a more refreshing note, these recently watered and fallen california poppy
petals caught my heat stricken attention this week...Ahhh...ssssss!
This year I planted a bunch of these poppies in, and around, my mass planting
of Artemisia 'Powis Castle'. The combination of the silver, the whites, and amber
of the poppies works very well.
Silver and orange, can you beat this color combination?
The intense sun has been great for ripening the limes on my mexican lime tree.
This tree is really producing well right now. Every morning there is fruit strewn
on the ground. Today the "Patch Pickers" harvested these! The flavor of these
limes is amazing, small limes - big flavor. This is the first year this citrus has
produced any fruit of any significance, the same goes for my satsuma tree, and
my tomato plants.
"My precious(es)" So far so good on the tomato front!
Remember last years culinary tomato fiasco?
http://east-side-patch.livejournal.com/3
Inland Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latfolium
A great plant for spring color, foliage and animation. The plant is a valuable wildlife
resource, providing both food and cover. This grass grows great under trees and in
shade. I have mine planted under my towering post oak where it has spread into a
large swath. I have found it easy to control like amaranth, yes amaranth! I let both of
these get to about four to six inches and if I don't like their position, I yank them out,
simple. I have not found this plant to be invasive in my plantings. Great spring,
great fall color...one of the staple plantings in the patch.
The seed heads really do glow when back-lit from the sun.
This scene just gets better as we enter fall when the
seed heads turn rustic brown, and do
what they do best... bob in the breeze.
And what is this?
A mangrove swamp?
Surely not!
The roots of an Ent perhaps?
Or more likely the roots on my clumping Giant Timber Bamboo.
"And mighty fine "Roots"
they are ESP", ahem.
No wonder bamboo is so strong. I once (and I repeat once) tried to
divide a mature clump of giant timber bamboo. I demolished two
shovels and one pick axe...enough said, I was done.
Giant Timber Bamboo Bambusa oldhamii, the culms
look like they are painted...albeit very badly.
I finally did manage to get a few culms separated from the mass,
and interestingly the transplant grew faster and healthier then any
others I have purchased since.
One division was enough for me though, I probably could have
purchased two bamboo plants for the cost of replacing all of my tools,
plus the cost of advil etc...never again!
Beach Vitex, Vitex rotundifolia.
I know this plant has become a real problem in a few coastal southern states,
taking over sand dunes and threatening native species, but mine is growing
slower than a really slow growing thing. It has started to bloom recently though.
I really like the foliage on this little plant.
After learning of the invasive nature of this plant on the dunes of southern Carolina,
I made sure I filled up the immediate planting area with sand...it seems to have
worked a treat!
The cat tails are in their prime right now, a towering containerized
structural plant in my main pond, it returns from the ground reliably
every year, no-matter how root-bound it becomes.
And finally...
Burning Cannas catching the last hot rays of the sun.
Stay Tuned For:
"Botanical Quack"
All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Inspirational Image of the Week:
"Premonition" .
Today, while I was once again thinning out my
water lilies, (it is a weekly chore at this time of year),
this rolled up from my pond's murky depths to
greet me.
Whhooaa!
My first thought went to the Nananaboobo tribe...had they performed some horrible
lobotomy ritual under the glow of a tiki-light near my pond? I knew they were capable of it.
It was about the right-sized brain after-all, perhaps they had captured a tribal advisory?
My mind wandered.
"Brains, more brains".
These water-lily tubers are just plain bizarre, very B-movie!
I should dry one of them out and put it under a tiny glass dome.
Chain Propagation from a Tuber:
Plant one of these brains in a 3 or 4 inch pot, with some soil-and-fertilizer mixture.
Pop it back into the pond with the rim just below the surface of the water. The tuber will
send up a shoot, and the shoot will quickly become a small, floating plant. At the point
where it rises from the soil in the pot, a spreading root system will have begun to develop.
To obtain your plant, push your fingers into the soil below the root system and pinch in two
the shoot which still connects the brain and new plant. The separated plant can then be potted.
In due time the pinched-off shoot will develop a new plant, and it can be pinched off, too,
as soon as it becomes big enough to pot.
My last lily shot....I promise!
With this treatment, an active tuber can produce
three, four, or even more plants right around this
time of the year! You could have your own
water lily nursery in no time!
I just wish I had more water to plant more brains!
Mountain Laurel seed-pods.
One member of my "tribe" is getting very excited about these Mescal Bean seed-pods. They are now as big as they are going to get and as soon as they dry up and rattle, it will be out with the dremel drill and a necklace will be strung (and then quickly wrapped up and given away as a present).
Why quickly?
Well, the Mescal Bean seeds, if swallowed, cause cytisine poisoning, very unpleasant, includes nausea and seizures. Kids are naturally drawn to these seeds due to the bright red, jelly-bean look, but as little as one seed can be fatal. I pick all of mine and discard them before they get too crusty, open up, and start dropping their toxic M&M's onto the ground.
This herb has been used therapeutically since ancient Roman and Greek times, the Greek physician Claudius Galenus first recorded its use.
Equisetum
While I was taking this shot, I could hear deep in this horsetail forest the distant sound
of drums and the faint smell of meat cooking on an open fire...or perhaps it was stobili?
Stobili are highly
appreciated as a
spring delicacy
in Japan where
they are called tsukushi.
Here is the horsetail stobili tsukushi...sprinkle on rice and enjoy!
(photo courtesy of wikipedia).
Another creature of the deep...
comes from this succulent, Haworthia coarctata
The texture on the leaves looks and feels just like a starfish, it really does!
Even the form is similar.
NO, NO, WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T TOUCH THA..........!
Talking of mines, this whimsical
design caught my attention. About
time someone tackled the ubiquitous,
yet inane bath-plug.
This peacock also caught my attention recently at the Austin Zoo:
At the luxurious banquets of European kings and queens of the Renaissance,
there was an epicurean delight consisting of stuffed roast birds one inside the
other ...think "Hudson's on the Bend" on steroids.
The outermost shell invariably was the glorious peacock.
When I was a kid, our neighbors "up the hill" (well it was Scotland) used to
keep and rear a whole assortment of fancy birds, it was almost a zoo, both
inside the house and out. As a child my stomach would sink with the news
that we were to have dinner next door. I used to dread the steep winding
walk up the hill, as about half way up, without fail, their dogs (including a
massive, and I mean massive, St Bernard, and numerous black labs,
and a few others) would barrel down on us, using the slope and their
inherent slobber to their advantage. I felt like prey.
This used to turn into a twice daily nightmare
when my neighbors would go away on vacation leaving
our family in charge of looking after all their birds,
and animals.
They had a large flock of guinea foul that as
a teenager I loathed...they would,
without fail, every morning...(way too early),
wander down the hill and as a flock stand right
outside of my bedroom window to start their
incessant screaming and chattering. They also had
the most aggressive bird I have witnessed to date...
the dreaded brown eared pheasants,
they really were pure evil, we all
hated entering that cage.
I relay this story as one day, just before my neighbors returned
from vacation, we went out for the day. On our return we pulled
into the driveway to witness a mass of eyed feathers scattered
all around our golden labrador's kennel...we feared the worst.
The dog had grabbed the peacock by it's tail feathers,
and I mean all of it's feathers. Luckily for us the bird lived,
albeit minus it's tail. Not being superstitious, we had peacock
feather arrangements all around our house for the next
thirty years.
It is believed the peacock feather has an evil eye at the end.
Argus, of Greek legend, says a hundred eyed monster was
turned into a peacock with all its eyes in it's tail. In the West it
is generally believed feathers brought indoors for
decoration are unlucky.
Another flamboyant feather-er in the patch this week belongs to my...
Pride of barbados. I got a few e-mails asking what the blooms
looked like after my last post, so here it is.
(Absolutely the last POB pic of the year too!)
I have been cutting the new paddles off this cactus for quite a few years now, to force the base node to swell. I must say this takes ages! The subtle undulations of form in these paddles create a tiny art installation.
A very animated scene.
So why try to swell a single paddle you ask?
Well to cut some tribal faces into them, naturally...
"My God Man,
you're serious!"
After I had located and sterilized my surgical scalpel,
I put on my scrubs and made the first shaky incision...
The first eye teared into existence, then the second, and finally
the mouth, at this point I think the cactus had an allergic reaction
to the general anesthetic. There was a lot of "ewwwing" going on
at this point...totally ridiculous!
I found a large drill-bit actually worked best for carving the eyes,
(must remember this for future cacti facial constructions).
I am going to wait a while to see how the "wounds" heal before .
I resume my "procedures."
A Hahahahahahahaha!
I wonder if you could graft one of those
tiny water lily "brains" to the top of one
of these carved enlarged paddles?
Perhaps the lily roots would get enough
moisture from inside the cactus to survive?
Now THAT would be twisted!...
A cactus with a crazy face carved into it,
with a tiny brain "living" on the outside of it,
adorning water lily blooms as a decorative
element for it's bald, green scalp...
I have to try it, no rest for the wicked!
Now, where did I leave that scalpel?
Other things going down on the East-Side this week...
Fresh new growth on a Sago Palm.
The bi-coloration at this time of year looks really tropical.
The smell from this wisteria makes me hum old Bauhaus tunes,
and rake out my trusty old black Goth cape.
Even a lone anole, lodging in the underbelly of a canna lily,
came out to see what was the source of the aroma.
"Mmmust get over there"!
This decaying sunflower must also have an alluring aroma, at least for this nasty chap.
It was really funny watching this bug as it leaned and contemplated the jump,
accompanied by his little friend "ant", who was egging him on.
Remember the bog cyprus that I cursed
a few postings back?...
Well I looked in on it closely today, I couldn't believe my eyes,
fresh new growth had started to push out all of the brown!
I think my ten days of continuous IV "drip" treatment is working.
This poor little tree has been through fall and another spring
already and it is only June! I bet it can't wait for the winter to
finally have a long, well-earned dormancy!
June is the time for these though. These sun-golds are producing reliably right now.
Onto another orange...
I have never noticed that on landing the two smaller front feety thingies,
retract sharply and tuck up around the neck. This dragon finally got
comfortable with me standing next to it's favorite resting
spot on this canna lily.
Check out his goatee!
(Libellula croceipennis)
The females are a light brown color.
I also caught a shot of one of their baby dragons,
this one really was tiny!
Note the two distinct stripes on it's abdomen...What is this, anyone?
click to enlarge
Don't be silly ESP, a dragon it may perhaps be,
but this one only has two wings!
And finally, there is a new photographer taking over the ESP blog,
as you can see in the gazing ball...
I am retiring from active service.
Stay Tuned For:
"Tricksy Hobbits"
All material © 2009 for east_side_patch. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Inspirational image of the week:
Designer: Diarmuid Gavin..a balloon sellers dream garden!
Stumble It!
