Finally School is back in session.

My wife and I had made it through another summer with only a few permanent psychological scars,

and a couple of new minor facial twitches.

One of which I involuntarily tried out as my cranium passed dangerously close to this rather large colony of harvestmen.

Left is a crane fly (and no it is not a giant mosquito and no, they do not consume mosquitoes); center is a house spider and right is our main-man, the harvestman. All of these insects are commonly and confusingly referred to as “Daddy Long Legs”.

The true daddy long legs here is the harvestman which is an arachnid, but not a spider, and now my head is hurting.

Another new insect for me this week is this:

White-striped Longtail Skipper Butterfly

Chioides catillus

 

“Your suffering will be legendary for this ESP.”

These common and wild (pinhead) Buttonbushes

Cephalanthus occidentalis

 

are magnets for a host of insects, particularly skippers, sphinxes and butterflies.

Moving Along:

Everything looks good against the softening backdrop of the hardy bamboo muhly grass.

Muhlenbergia dumosa

Like this crowd of tiny stone crop looking very ethereal in the late afternoon light.

Or perhaps it is a marauding army of tiny skeletons? Ahhh…

I digress.

These yellow bitterweeds are creating a nice splash of color among the muhly in my hell strip,

as are purple fountain grasses that are starting to prime.

It is the time of the psychedelic beautyberry,

Callicarpa americana

 

a time to get into shape for the winter?

“Give me five more irritating rodent!”

Other eventful events this week:

The crowning of Princess Salvia,

and the ripening of some red-hot tom-tom drums, (the Naboo percussion instrument of choice).

There was an event equally as hot this week…

The 22nd annual Austin hot-sauce festival.  This is where Texans eat some of the hottest hot sauce imaginable in some of the hottest temperatures imaginable, oh and was it hot this year.

One step outside of the above breezy structure after dipping a tortilla chip into some “Ass-Burn” hot sauce and trust me, you were…

I really do need to stop embedding this image.

The hot-sauce winners this year:  http://www.austinchronicle.com/Market/HotSauce/

Ever wondered what happens to a stock tank full of King Tut papyrus if it is allowed to dry up and bake for a day in a large tin, under the Texas sun?

Not a pretty sight.

Some of these will recover when I soak the roots but a lot of these will need to be clipped back to the base.

Duranta erecta ‘Sapphire Showers’ (Picotee Sky Flower)

A die-back perennial here in central Texas, this shrub blooms sporadically all summer, give it plenty of room though, it is a sprawler. Supposedly it requires full sun, but this one performs admirably under the heavy shade canopy of my post oak.

Inspirational Images of the Week:

Yes folks it is another tiny cabin in the forest, what is my obsession with these structures?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay Tuned for:

“Distracting Vampires”

 

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