“Please…no more rock tumbling talk…stop already…yawn.”

The day was finally upon us…excited anticipation crackled through the air.

Breakfasts were hurried, clothes were put on back-to-front as we all scrambled out of our back door. It was precisely 10 days 4 hours 36 minutes and 12 seconds since our rocks went into the final phase of their tumbling and polishing, and according to the directions, they should be ready.

The top of the tumbling drum was ceremoniously unscrewed accompanied by a loud trumpet fanfare that was emanating out of my pampas grasses. Eyes darted between us all, air was sucked into nerdy lungs as the top lid was slowly removed…

…even a strange Patch Ent gathered in close.

When the top of the cannister came off there was an audible gasp quickly followed by a collective ewww!

Yes, not quite the shimmering jewels we had in mind, but with a bit of rinsing and cleaning they polished up a treat.

Start to finish in just over a month, the venture has been a true test of patience.

We also have a lot of new and creative ideas as to what will be going into the rotating canister next; toe-nail clippings, sea shells, glass, teeth, Kumo to name a few suggestions of late.

Here is a macro looking through one of the rocks…snort.

Moving on:

Hot days one day,

freezing days the next,

Yes, it is another rather unpredictable winter in Texas.

I almost forgot to mention the bad hair days. As you can see the tooth fairy is having a difficult time keeping up with her incessant tooth dropping…brrr, she can barely make it through a sentence without another one falling out.  At the very least one will protrude out at you at an ungodly angle as she struggles to communicate.

It has been warm enough to wake up the algae in my small pond,

and wet enough to stimulate fresh new foliage on my burgundy canna lilies.

Peas are now growing all over my perimeter fence line like weeds,

and how sweet they are.

The recent precipitation has greened up the Persian ivy,

filled out the loquats with fresh new growth and

lots and lots of fruit.

Lots of shrubs are about to bloom including this mountain laurel,

mock orange,

and my fatsia Japonica.

Gophers are almost ready to be cut back to the emerging new growth,

I think I will wait though until the old growth stops pushing out these unusual blooms. The plant looks like two different plants at this phase.

Finally:

After messing around with an opuntia fruit for some time, stepping on it and prodding it with a stick on the sidewalk, she picked it up, popped it in a plastic cup and added a dash of water…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Betanin in the fruit made a great home-made crimson paint perfect for Valentine’s day pictures.

Stay Tuned for

“A Handful of Sand Dollars”

 

All material © 2012 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl xxx.