“Purple Rain”

ESPatch Oct 14, 2009 24 comments

“Oh come on ESP…a REAL grasshopper”?

“That’s right ‘Hopper’, and I can pull that CAD face too, look! Oh, and if you bully those ants one more time”?

I caught the real thing lurking in the subterranean environment deep inside one of my large agaves. Is he squinting his beady eye at me?

This character jumped onto one of my decomposed granite walkways, this shot highlights his camouflage capabilities:

A master of disguise! I tried and tried to get the red flashing on his legs, his most distinguished feature, but to no avail.

These blue fingers allow no escape, can you guess who they belong to?

“Stay away from the fingers, don’t go into the fingers”.

Interesting how the color gradates through the lily…there, I told you.

Madame Ganna Walska, Nymphaea x, tropical water lily. I thought I would post these pictures as the plant is about to go dormant, it’s growth has slowed considerably, it’s flowers getting smaller. It is a matter of time now before the plant starts to shrink back into my ponds murky depths for the winter. It has served the patch well, albeit if a tad aggressively since the spring.

Staying on a similar color scheme…

Fall Aster is living up to it’s name and dominating the areas I have it planted with its cheerful blooms.

I like the Artemisia and fall aster combination, silver and pale purples always work well for the “Patch Palette”.

Here are the “Powis Castle” hills in the distance, I need a couple more asters dispersed in the artemisia to really make this scene work. See the little green succulent to the lower right?

This plant has now earned my full respect, breezing through our drought with no additional water, The patch has a couple of these vibrant plants, I want more. This is…

Limón talinum

…and it houses thousands of garden jewels that resemble a chemistry model. The plant is native to the West Indies and Central America and has common names of Fameflower and Jewels-of-Opar. Knowing that a plant has a common name synonymous with a mythical ancient city full of riches should offer a clue that someone thought very highly of this plant at some point in time. This plant made it through last winters mild conditions, I have my fingers crossed for this year.

If you are a fan of Tarzan, then there is a distinct possibility that you have heard the Jewels-of-Opar name before. Edgar Rice Burroughs mentioned the forgotten city of Opar in 1913 in his second Tarzan book, The Return of Tarzan, and then in 1916, he wrote Tarzan and the Jewels-of-Opar.

Opar is located deep in the jungles of Africa . Portrayed as a lost colony of Atlantis in which incredible riches have been stockpiled down through the ages, the city’s population exhibits sexual dimorphism caused by a combination of excessive inbreeding, cross-breeding with apes, and selective culling of offspring. Consequently, female Oparians are physically perfect, while male Oparians are beast-like brutes.

“MMUUSSTT GET MOORREE OF THIS PLAAANNNTT”

The ruler and high priestess of the city is Queen La, who on her first encounter with Tarzan falls in love with him, and subsequently carries a tikki-torch for him. Tarzan, already committed to Jane, naturally, spurns her advances with the most likely phrase “Me Tarzan, you not Jane”, thus endangering his own life, as the religion of Opar condones human sacrifice…poor Tarzan.

More purples…

Another purple taking center stage at the moment is the Mexican Bush Sage. The plant has taken a bit of a beating with all the Texas rains we have been having and it is flopping here and there, with a bit of dryer weather it should perk up, I hope.

This plant is full of life right now in the patch, bees, sphinx moths (too elusive to capture as yet) hover flies, anoles – you name it, it is on it. I have a fair amount of this plant, I love it’s naturalistic, free-for-all aesthetic, and who can resist the fuzz?

Here is some more Bush Sage planted in my front garden.

Another purple just now coming into the limelight, and one of my all-time favorites is Amaranth. This plant exists all over the patch and like the Mexican Bush Sage, it is a creature and insect magnet, and it will remain so for quite some time. Insects swarm this plant. I gather the seeds and distribute every year then allow the plants in the more “appropriate positions” to reach maturity.

There were three Gray Hairstreaks hanging around on the freshly emerged purple seed-heads.

Strymon melinus

as well as a multitude of other insects.

This line of amaranth lining one of the patch’s central paths, sprung up to great heights while we were on our trip to Scotland, it amazes me just how fast this plant grows with a little bit of moisture. This must have grown about three feet in less than the same weeks.

Rosemary in bloom This prostrate rosemary also has it’s fair share of the insect population, the bees are going wild over the blooms. It looks like it is covered in snow right now, it has so many blooms. Behind it is my small satsuma tree completely full with fruit.
This next shot or two I need your help with…I believe we have some new “little people”, smaller than the Naboos, much, much smaller, living in the Patch.

At first I thought these little Pixie Hollow baskets full of metallic rounded pebbles must have something to do with some tribal Naboo ritual or offering to the Gods, but the tribal member in charge of tribal relations, communicated via a series of elaborate mouth clicks that these had nothing to do with their tribe. Although this simple communication between us was brief, it took the best part of an afternoon. I was now even more confused.

Where had they come from? What will these seeds grow into?

I have checked all the adjacent plants but none of them develop seeds like this. Does anyone have any ideas what these are? (Apart from the obvious fact these baskets were manufactured by fairies in Pixie Hollow that is). Can you tell I have watched “A Bugs Life” and “Tinkerbell” 14.25 times (each)?

Here is a wider view of the area, there are loads of these rustic baskets.

I must say with the damp soil conditions, it has been perfect conditions for a pride of pixie’s to move in.

These were particularly colorful toadstools.

Moving on…

The emerging interlocking blood-stained jaws of this agave always demand respect.

Is that spinach?

All my purple heart is now blooming after the rains, and this tiny, super-shiny

Syrphid Hoverfly

wasted no time at all getting stuck into the egg-yolk goodness.

Here is another trying to stare the camera lens out, The wings on these little flies are spectacular in their iridescence. They look like cartoon flies.

“Bzzzzz…Utter nonsense ESP”.

Golden thryrallis

has been blooming steadily throughout the summer with only the minimal amount of supplemental water. A great deep shade plant for a splash of golden color. I have two of these planted under my large Post Oak.

And finally…

Greg’s blue mistflower,

Eupatorium greggii

which is about to pop, butterflies love this plant.

And behind the mistflower, looking like an old-fashioned Victorian Christmas tree, the most enormous ornamental pepper I have ever grown. This is one plant, and it is going to look great when all the individual peppers turn their many colors.

Fish petting area in the patch. My youngest cups the goldfish in his hands, I fear for them knowing that a toddler “squeeze” may be on the horizon for one poor fish, even though I keep drumming it into him to be gentle. He spends hours gazing and throwing things in this pond, you can see toy tractors, pans, cars etc, it looks like a wrecking yard on a clear-water day. The rock on the right has turned into his “pond perch,” he straddles it like Tom Sawyer while he whiles away many an hour in the Patch, tickling and naming the individual fish in his own two-year-old vernacular.

Stay Tuned for:

“Panic in the Patch”

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

“On the Bonnie Banks, the sequel”

ESPatch Oct 6, 2009 14 comments

No trip to Scotland would be really complete without a trip to a castle or ten, would it?

Whatever you do, do not look up there!

I did warn you!… Getting tarred, a common inconvenience of the medieval day.

This stronghold is called

Caerlaverock Castle

I have been to this castle many times, the first time on a school outing! With its moat, twin towered gatehouse and imposing formidable red sandstone battlements, Caerlaverock Castle is the epitome of the medieval stronghold. The castle’s turbulent history owes much to its proximity to England which brought it into border conflicts.

The first castle on the site was built around the 1220s, an earthwork fortification surrounded by a moat in the marshes to the south of the present building. I visited this site, but there was not much to see. That very basic defensive structure was replaced by this substantial castle, built by Sir Herbert de Maxwell around 1277. It was this structure which was besieged in 1300, the castle’s most famous event.

Here is Caerlaverock Castle in 1900.

Being very close to the border with England, Caerlaverock had to be defended several times against English forces.

“Ach, I’m in love with this castle already, I see a strength in yer robust castle walls.”

Edward I of England

The Siege of Caerlaverock was conducted by Edward I of England who had at his side eighty seven of the most illustrious Barons of England.

“And just why wasn’t I invited”?

The Maxwells, under their gallant chief, made a vigorous defense, but in the end the garrison were compelled to surrender. It was only then that the English found out that there were only about sixty men inside the castle, these men had defied the whole English army for a considerable period of time. Some of the captured were hanged from the castle walls and the rest were allowed to walk free. The castle remained in English hands until 1312.

These old castles are great places to visit, especially out of season when they are very quiet. Being out of season also eliminates the potential for any screaming, reenactment shenanigans, that seem to happen more frequently in the summer months. No, this is the time of year for me, a freshening breeze, very few tourists, just the lonely call of curlew or the chatter of a group of oyster-catchers is really all I want to hear walking the grounds of this gloomy castle.

Back at the parking lot, our driver was patiently waiting for us in his small European car ready to take us back to our cottage. Although one of our clan decided to ride her bike home at break-neck speed…

It was all going well until she became more interested in the dials than the road, I quote “to see if they were turning”!

Easy Rider.mpg

On the way home we had to pull the little car over to the side of the road to allow this herd of sheep safe passage into an adjacent field.

I snapped this through the vehicle’s tiny window.

Back at our cottage, zzzz

Morning…another breakfast of champions, another mild cardiac twinge…then it was onto a local estate for a spot of conker hunting (or ‘Buckeye’ hunting here in the states). When we were kids, armed with polythene bags, we would do our rounds around some of the older horse chestnut trees in our area (we knew exactly where they were), they were the trees that would deliver some of the largest, and most prized conkers, and there were some monsters. When they are lying half open like the one below, they remind me of storybook dragons eyes.

Conker Photo courtesy of Matt Osborne see some more of his great shots :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32681588@N03/

Horse chestnuts nuts from the horse chestnut tree

Aesculus hippocastanum

are rich in starch and not suitable for human food due to the presence of saponins, which are soap-like chemicals. They have been made into a food for horses and cattle in the past, by soaking them first in lime-water so reduce their bitterness, hence the horse in horse chestnut. The Common Horse Chestnut is native to the Balkans.

According to a letter which appeared in the Daily Telegraph, conkers are an effective way to keep spiders out of the house: conkers, placed in the corners of a room and behind pieces of furniture, reduce the number of spiders venturing into the room. Well nobody told me that, I would have filled the bathroom up with them at the cottage! Brrrrrrr.

After poking holes through the conkers and threading them onto boot-laces, we would take them into school the next day to wage knuckle rapping battles on the playground. Players take turns to strike each others conker until one breaks. Today playing conkers in schools is banned due to the legal consequences if children are injured from shards while playing the game. A few schools still allow the practice if protective goggles are worn! I guess I have never thought playing conkers as a dangerous sport.

The name comes from the dialect word conker, meaning hard (related to French conque meaning a conch), as the game was originally played using snail shells. The name may also be influenced by the verb conquer, as the game was also called conquerors. There is even a conker world championship held every year, in fact, if you get a last minute flight over the pond you could watch it live this Sunday:

http://www.worldconkerchampionships.com/

Although we did have a few traditional games of conkers most of the ones we collected went into the creation of this chunky necklace…a great “hit”.

The estate where we picked the conkers is Called Hoddom, and guess what, yes it also has a castle on it, you cannot swing a conker in Scotland without hitting a castle you know. It is a popular stop for fishermen and houses some spectacular views. A fair amount of Hoddom castle is now derelict, it’s only occupants being a large number of crows and jackdaws that swoop and scream around the castle’s towers in a very Hammer House of Horror fashion.

The grounds are host to masses of rhododendron bushes, and the occasional witch.

Few people who visit Britain’s countryside when

Rhododendron ponticum

is in flower can comprehend the damage that has been caused to the native flora and fauna by this exotic Victorian introduction. It is a staggering sight when it is in full bloom. The large shrub is not native to Britain, but was first introduced from the Mediterranean countries in the late 18th Century. It became especially popular on country estates in Victorian times, providing ornamental value, as well as cover for game birds. The problem with it is that the plant has such a dense canopy nothing can grow under it. This effectively eliminates other competing native plant species which are unable to grow due to insufficient light. This in turn leads to the consequent loss of the associated native animals.

You can see the lack of vegetation underneath these spooky twisted limbs.

Once established it is as hard to eradicate as Bermuda grass, spreading by seed and lateral horizontal growth of the branches. A single plant may eventually end up covering many meters of ground, and if the branches touch the ground, they will root, continually extending the area of Rhododendron cover. Now that would be enough to make you…

…scream like a emu? I think this bird had some sort of emu “tick” because it kept doing this, perhaps it had some grass caught in it’s throat? Or perhaps it was in practice for the “Scotland’s got talent” show? If there is such a show?

Hoddom also houses some massive cheeky-monkey puzzle trees.

“Yeah baby”!

The origin of the popular English name Monkey-puzzle derives from its early cultivation in Britain in about 1850, when the species was still very rare in gardens and not widely known. The owner of a young specimen in Cornwall was showing it to a group of friends, and one made the remark “It would puzzle a monkey to climb that”; as the species had no existing popular name, first ‘monkey-puzzler’, then ‘monkey-puzzle’ stuck.

Another brisk walk after eating dinner at the local pub. Then it was…

zzzzzzzz

What?

Another egg delivery from the farmer,

another breakfast of champions,

a minor cardiac event, a few aspirin, then it was time to check out a couple of local gardens…

This hillside garden caught my attention with its seashell lined pathways and packed landscaping.

This one was also interesting with its brightly painted red branches and large boulders.

A little way down the road and sort of between houses, someone had obviously planted up this hillside here and there, to create a scene reminiscent of something from the movie Brigadoon. All this scene needs is Gene Kelly and Van Johnson hopping around the rocks singing some highly questionable Scottish songs.

This shot was taken at a local garden center, evergreens feature heavily in gardens in the Solway area.

With our trip drawing to a sad close we had time for one final beach combing jaunt before It was time to put my…

Dr Strangelove glove back on in preparation for the long flight back home.

As we drew up to the cottage one final time this little hedgehog froze in the headlights, strangely reminding me of our recent “Dude where’s my Tahoe” experience. Our two weeks in Scotland were sadly over, as this little chaps life will be if he continues to hang around on the road-side.

Thank you parental units for a fabulous and memorable trip, we all really enjoyed seeing everyone again. Glad you got to meet the smallest hobbit. Hope to see you next year. Much love from all in the patch.

As a side note… it appears that a faction of the Nabooboo tribe has made it across the pond. These European Naboos are a lot taller than their American cousins it seems…

Warning: “C ol orful” language alert.

Stay Tuned for:

“Purple Rain”

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

I knew there was one picture Bob, and only the one there was, taken by my eldest at Caerlaverock, she insisted that I held up the feather, this is my “anything for a quiet life” face.