ESPatch


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“I have been watching you ESP, all this jumping around from live-journal to word press…to now a self-hosted website, I cannot keep up with your blogging activities! I am hanging on to this agave perilously to await your next venture”.

Well Mr Spinner Dragonfly, I have to say, this is my final move…I am officially done.  I hope if you have been following the ESP, and put up with all of these changes and moves around the blogosphere, you have finally ended up here and updated for the FINAL time, your CSS feeds. I apologise for any inconvenience.  Hopefully this new self-hosted format will remain a constant for the next few years, and I can relax for a while, even though I have a whole bunch of code and navigation to learn and implement. I think it is a start in the right direction, I hope!

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“I am warning you ESP…one more move and there will be trouble, you hear me?”

Please drop me a line and let me know what you think of the new patch…your feedback would be appreciated!

ESP.

"Ghost in the Machine"

Frodo

Gulf Coast Toad Eye
The Eye of Sauron has shifted his gaze in the patch…

Feather on Feather Grass
Could the eye be focusing on this tiny dove feather that somehow miraculously was caught by a single strand of feather grass? A feather caught by a feather grass!  Ahh the irony!  Another feather I caught this week had a much more tragic scene orbiting around it.

Feather and Wasp

titanic-winslet-dicaprio_l
This “crying” drowned paper wasp in my rain-water collection tank looks like a scene from Titanic. If only it had found the feather raft in time. Goodbye Jack!

Sauron’s eye actually turned its attention this week to a rather small area of the patch, an area that has for quite some time troubled me.  I just had to wait until the temperature dipped (at least slightly) below triple digits to tackle it.  Today it seems was my “lucky day”, I had a plan…hot sauce festival in the morning, then a couple of iced turbans strapped to my head whilst hauling rocks in the afternoon… a perfect late summer’s day in Texas!

Hardscaping

This area lacked any visual cohesion, it had different elements and a myriad of mediums all colliding at awkward angles, and those radial Home Depot bricks, I have now really come to dislike.  All of this area nonsense had developed over time, and for numerous reasons, but today this was about to change…I was about to restore order, It was time for change.

Hardscaping

Recycled bricks, Home Depot circular bricks AND moss boulders?…something had to give, starting with the location of these two grasses.

Hardscaping

The Home Depot circular bricks began to annoy me over time, I am not really sure why or when this started, but I think it has something to with the fact that, oh yeah,… THEY ARE UGLY!

Hardscaping

SO OUT THEY COMELots of unmentionables were lurking below, and in-between these rocks, along with at least thirty geckos, lying in waiting to eat all of the unmentionables.

Heardscaping

I decided to extend the edging with the same brick laying design I have used in some other beds in the ESP, snaking them around my papyrus filled stock-tank.

Hardscaping

Here is the final, less frantic scene.  Finally the stock-tank looks like it is “incorporated” into the design.  Taking out the grasses has alleviated the sense of clutter…quietness is once again restored in the patch, at least this part of it.  Only another five more areas to tame!  All I need now is for Jack and Rose to angle themselves precariously from the front edge of this stock tank, and I will be finally done with this area.

titanic

“look at that new ESP bed and brickwork Jack”! “Calm down Rose it is only a central Texas garden blog.”

Hardscaping

Now, if I could only get that sticker off my stock-tank!

Moving on…

Texas Red Wasp
Click on any image in the patch then click again for a full-resolution shot.
This Texas Red Wasp looked on intently as I worked on the Patch’s hardscaping.

Texas Red Wasp

It seems like all the activity made it thirsty!  A tiny piece of wayward Popsicle warranted a veritable feast for this old man, perhaps his last supper, and ooo, how sweet it was.

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It turned out that the Eye of Sauron belonged to this gulf coast toad I found under one of my rosemary bushes.

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The “Whirling Butterflies” Gaura, aka, White Indian Feathers are in full bloom to the delight of my oldest elf, (I think she just likes the name).

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I caught this Reakirt’s Blue Hemiargus isola flitting around on the tiny blooms.  

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One of my favorite visitors in the patch…and so tiny.

Odd Chap!
And as for this nosey Damsel? Talking of eyes!

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Happy 2nd “Notty Dreads” and he loves his new dump truck tchnic tchnock! ty.

Stay Tuned for:

“Fahrenheit 911”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by  late  (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.


Inspirational Image of the Week:

Subway Underground Garden
‘Photo curtesy of Ruth and Dave on Flickr’
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruth and dave/407501928/

Underground gardening. This garden is in a subway in Japan. It is surrounded by glass, lit by sun lamps and is watered by misters…amazing.

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