- Red

Retrospective (6/3/2016)

Patch #127 Toadstool ...

with thanks to Amy Meissner for the ID ...

Original Post

I finally found a red linen blouse at the thrift store ...

filling a chromatic hole just in time to consider how I might make a patch to remember these ...

which, in a wondrous bit of synchronicity, you can also find in Amy Meissner's most recent blog post here:  http://www.amymeissner.com/blog/unicorn-heart

- Weed eaters

Retrospective (6/3/2016)

Patch #126 Monarch caterpillar ...

Stitched from this photo ...

taken a couple of weeks after the original post was written.

Original Post

As I work the land, the phrase "a weed is just a plant you haven't found a use for" often runs through my head.

Case in point, the briars which I used to cut back without mercy are now known to me as dewberries ...

As I love these tart little pops of juiciness, I now leave the briars untouched in order that there might be more next year ...

in spite of the fact that the vines catch around my ankles as I walk through the high grass.

My land management mission today was frost weed discouragement ...

Frost weed is actually a native and not a bad sort in and of itself. Butterflies are fond of the blooms and the foliage is obviously fodder for someone.

However, large stands of frost weed compete with the prairie grasses ...

So these days I cut back the tall stems, giving the grasses a fighting chance, but also enabling the frost weed to send up a second, lower growth in time for flowering ...

Sadly, our milkweed is not nearly weed-eaten enough. Even though the current blooms are swarming with butterflies ...

the large, healthy spreads of foliage like this one are an indicator that there haven't been nearly enough Monarch butterfly caterpillars eating them ...

Still, the Monarchs are not completely absent, as this series of ever-closer shots reveals ...

While I've always left milkweed undisturbed for future Monarch egg-laying, I did wage war against the thistles several years ago. Knowing that eradication is a fool's errand, still I hoped that pulling out the non-native invasives would encourage growth of the Texas thistles so loved by the native birds. Fortunately, that gamble paid off, as most of the current thistle crop is the good kind ... 

But as I walked the path back to the house, my eye was caught by an unfamiliar form: a fluff of feathers with the delicate architecture of its supporting structure revealed ...

a reminder yet again of the fragile balance that governs our existence. 

- Weave me the sunshine

Retrospective (6/3/2016)

Patch #125 Rainbow ...

Original Post

We went to the Wildflower Center with G, letting him choose the way as we came to each fork in the pathways. Finding ourselves in the little art house beside the butterfly garden just before lunch, the sun shone down through the top of the glass door, painting a rainbow on the wall.

G has seen this before. "Catch the rainbow in your hand, Nana!" And so I did. Then invited him to do the same ... which he did, again and again. Had we let him, I do believe he would have stayed in this one spot all day.

And as I wrote this post, an old Peter, Paul and Mary tune played in my head, the second line changed to fit the memory:

"Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine

Out of the door and then
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow
Fill my cup again"

"Good-bye rainbow."

- Spring training

Retrospective (6/3/2016)

Patch #124 The Zilker Zephyr ...

Original Post

Back in Austin ...

takin' the Z-Train ...

The Zilker Zephyr

- Quotable quotes

Judy Martin has done it again ... this time posting a wall-full of unfolded vintage handkerchiefs that triggered an "Aha!" moment.

There's some backstory on all this to be found in the Retrospective I wrote today and added to the original post for April 16th: http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/04/take-to-highway-again.html

And here's the actual list of self-ish quotes I've been accumulating ...

Judy's post prompted me to see my stash of handkerchiefs as leaves in a book of quotes ...

Recalling the conversation with Don, with its unintended double entendre, I came up with this as the title ...

Patch #123

And subject as I am to magical thinking, I counted the number of quotes and the number of handkerchief pages. Would you be surprised if I told you there are 16 of each?

P.S. Speaking of Quotable Quotes, Nicole Throckmorton, a good friend from Eastern Virginia Writing Project days, is going to be a contestant in the Jeopardy Teachers Tournament this Tuesday night. If I had to guess, I'd say she'll do really well. Take a look and see if I'm right.

- Bowled over

We had our first taste of Acai Bowls when we went to the Outer Banks, but not our last. Acai (pronounced ah-sah-ee) is a South American berry that can be purchased in frozen purée form. Blended with frozen bananas, fruit, nut butter and/or almond milk (among other things), it makes a healthy, non-dairy base for granola, nuts, fruit and other (more decadent) toppings.

We were hooked. Upon returning home, I tried to find Acai at the food store, to no avail. Undaunted, I looked up alternatives online and came upon multiple recipes for ...

Patch #122

the ingredients for which I had readily available ...

with this happily free-styled result ...

Yes, that's dark chocolate ... it has lots of antioxidants you know. Not to mention it goes extremely well with almonds and homemade granola.

On a related "knocked my socks off" note, I'm belatedly reporting that Don has discovered he can paint ...

He calls it color-by-number, claiming he just follows the lines in weathered wood ...

Hmmm ...

whatever you say, dear.

By the way, I'm writing this from the breezeway, following a report that something has taken up residence in the hammered copper pot we bought last month. Patience was rewarded with a sighting of our newest neighbor ...

who scolded me no end for disturbing the peace.

- Goin' to Carolina in my mind

Retrospective (5/1/2016)

Patch #121 maps the road from Ocracoke to Corolla, about 100 miles as the crow flies ...

which bears a striking resemblance to the Sandhill Cranes depicted on February 26 http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/02/deep-knowing.html. I take this as a good omen.

And though I have no doubt that my heart has two homes, I find a perfect symmetry in the fact that beach road 12 ...

and ranch road 12 ...

mark the east and west boundaries of our upcoming journey.

Original Post

Another week, another month of Texas Hill Country weather patches ...

7 inches of rain in April, far above the average 2 inches ... harbinger of both wildflowers and mosquitoes in abundance.

Eighteen rows of one-inch patches ...

a pattern of days and how they went. The biggest challenge has been recording the Hill Country weather when we aren't actually here to experience it. True, timeanddate.com gives a sense of what we missed when we take off for a week or so. And the rain gauge (usually) has enough capacity to hold a week's worth of rainfall (although we pushed the limit during our St Louis jaunt).

Still, I wonder how I would manage the weather patches if we were to go on extended road trip ... for two months, say. So it is that the seam of this week's patches is stitched in Carolina blue ...

What if ... ?