“Up In Flames”

Mist flowers did not bloom as long as usual this year but they still had their fair share of visitors, like this

250ittle_britain_emily

American Lady,

Vanessa virginienis

 

butterfly

Note: The small white dot in the orange of the forewing distinguishes American Lady from the Painted Lady.

sheldon-cooper American_Lady

Another frequent visitor to the mist flowers are these little iridescent metallic bees or

Agapostemon texanus

Agapostemon texanus

 

or is it angelicus?

I don’t know.

DSC04189 blooms

Loquats also have an abundance of flowers this year,

flowers

I think they liked our wetter than usual Autumn.

flowers

Our recent freezing temperatures have ushered in some strange activities in the Patch.

faces

When faced with prolonged periods of time indoors we usually resort to Monopoly and arguing, but the latest trend is the cutting-out of magazine mouths to while away the dark and cold hours.

I took advantage of the latest cold snap to put our Christmas tree up, with plenty of help, naturally.

Decorating

This is an activity that traditionally has me coated in an 80-degree sweat as I fight to a) get the tree into the house and b) wrestle it into its stupid base, tightening those irritating metal prongs that I am convinced are too small to even reach the trunk of the tree.

stand1

As promised here is a slow air fitting for the cold, dark weather we have been experiencing of late.

Grab yourself a glass, adjust your volume and put in some earplugs for “The Dark Island” and the reel “Miss Girdle”.

It got so cold the other day,

burning

I burnt my own strobilus!

https://www.eastsidepatch.com/2013/07/trouble-with-the-old-strobilus/

Well it has been looking a bit peeky for a while now,

then I noticed this oozing out of the center of it:

the-screaming-skull-woman1

Enough was enough.

It was onto the pyre with the old strobilus.

DSC04316 jim-morrison-431x30010

Moving very quickly along…

winter DSC04330

Cigar plant is heating up in the cold,

seedheads

as are the celosia, and up until this week so were the canna lilies.

leaf

The bold color,

flames

its foliage looking like flames,

bog_cypress

what a difference a week can make.

Drum roll and…

frost

 and as for my Hoja Santa…

frost

…well, lets just say that they now look decidedly unwell.

fruit

In contrast my satsumas look about perfect, it was time I gave one a go, and by I,

I mean him.

tasting

There was some trepidation going into the annual tasting ceremony but the satsumas were apparently off to a good start. There was a nervous thumbs up in the middle but the end notes were an obvious let down – a bland blend of unsweetened chewy fruit with a distinct hint of grossness.

tasting

Ah the disappointment.

burning

Oh well,

there is always next year.

sun

Stay Tuned for:

“He’s Checking it twice

 

All material © 2013 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

 

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Meet the Author

A Central Texas Garden Blog. Zone: 8b. Welcome to the East Side Patch. This site tracks the inhabitants of a house and garden on the east side of Austin. All material © 2021 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant) 14th century planet Earth techniques.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • TexasDeb Dec 11, 2013, 8:10 am

    We went ahead and picked all our Meyer lemons off before the freezes began (our plant wraps required a bit of pruning to apply). Fortunately the lemons finished ripening off tree – we had such excess we’ve been sharing with neighbors and friends. That’s a shame about the satsumas – would they make any sort of decent marmalade ?

    Hi TD.
    We should have picked all our Mexican limes before the freeze also, now they all a bit soft although they still taste good.
    Are your meyer lemons in containers?
    I would not want to make anything from those satsumas :-)

  • gail Dec 11, 2013, 8:11 am

    Enjoyed the pipes and the dancers!

    Hi Gail.
    Yes the pipes can have this effect, even Kumo has finally got used to the sound of the bagpipes, in fact…