Some garden stuff I wanted to share

Hello,  everyone.  It's been well into the 90's F since we got back. (30+ C) There is supposed to be a strong cool front rolling through this afternoon, possible day's highs in the 70's this weekend. I think fall (autumn) may finally fall into place.

Our friend the barrel cactus is still hanging in there, after moving house multiple times and finally being set into the St. Joseph garden. Over 46 years and counting.

This crinum lily was the last bulb package in the big box store bin a couple of years ago. She looks happy.

Right after getting back from our pilgrimage,  we got to work on the cool season garden. The radishes and amara (a kind of mustard green) are up and running already

The dragonfruit plants are blooming like crazy. In the morning before the flowers close, the bees are going insane trying to figure them out. 

It was good to be on pilgrimage  and it's good to be home.

After a few days with not much wi-fi, a post!

Hello, everyone.  I will do a quick recap. We left Monday early and walked to Pontedeum. As y'all can see from the name, there is a bridge to cross. 

After Pontedeum we walked to Betanzos. There, we stayed in a Xunta albergue. These albergues are sponsored by the province of Galucia. They are basic, but they get the job done. They usually don't have working kitchens, because the Xunta's reason for sponsoring the network of albergues is to support the local economy. They also have the standard 10pm albergue curfew and they don't accept reservations. 

A fountain and a bench along the way. You should always look carefully to check whether the fountain is "potable" or "apto para consumir humano" before filling your water bottles from it. 

The more modern version. Note that they're trying to discourage people from drinking directly from the tap.

This is a celebration mural about the lady who has a little, very busy, bar along the way. 

After Betanzos we walked to the area of Bruma. We actually stopped a little short, as we had located a room just before the town. We also very much enjoyed our snack at Casa Avelina, a bar in the area. Lovely wine, delicious pinchos, wonderful hospitality. And as we walked over to our room, it suddenly poured down rain! 

If there weren't any rain, we wouldn't be in Galicia.

Mists under the sunrise light this morning. 

After that, we walked to Sigüeiro. Yesterday's walk being a little short, today's began with catching up on the missed kilometers. We ended up having walked about 28 of them. Weather was cool but very nice.

There was rain a few days back

Hello, everyone.  There was indeed rain, over several days, and now it's normal June weather with sun. 

An unexpected plant came up after the rainy period. 

This is a turmeric that I started from a grocery-store tuber. Last year it looked ratty and sad, then it died down after fading for a while. I was about to give up on it, but on feeling in the dirt found a firm tuber with little "eyes" that might grow, so it stayed in its pot, got water up until the rainy spell, and got blown rain from the weather. Lo and behold! A fine leaf came up, then a second one appeared on the stem, and there is a tiny green nose poking up that should become another stem. It looks much better this year. I'm glad I didn't give up too soon.

The crinum bulb clump that was here when we came is also happy about the rainy spell.

Two stems of buds have come up.

I didn't photograph it, but the lemon grass clump has put on a flush of growth and is now over 3 feet tall. 

New Sewing Club Project

Hello, everyone.  We're in normal summer weather in this region: partly to mostly sunny, and if it doesn't rain, the day's high temperature will be in the 90's F. 

In this weather, what we call "air conditioning season" we enjoy indoor hobbies during the afternoons. Like sewing.

This large quilted bow was our meeting project at Sewing Club. I finished the ladt topstitching and assembly after getting home. This purchased pattern required tons of 4" squares to make the bow pieces. It also involved fusible fleece batting for the support of the "ribbons." 

In the execution,  I discovered that maybe the seams of the piecing should have been pressed open, instead of to the side for nested seams like I did. The seams did nest, but they were very thick. Also there was a lot of bulk in the bow tails; maybe leaving out the fusible there would have been wise. 

Topstitching the edges meant stopping to walk the needle over almost every seam. 

After completion, though, the bow came out pretty. I suppose I could see doing another in a different color assortment. It does clear out stash fabrics.

More flowers!

Hello, everyone.  Summer has arrived, with our typical temps in the 90's F. 

Salad of cucumber, tomato, and garden pepper

Very low carb, dressed with viaigrette and some onion-y green sprinkle and parsley. 

Another of the desert rose plants is now in bloom.

Spring has sprung! edited to add links

Hello, everyone. Spring is indeed here in South Texas. The daily highs are in the 90's F. The nights are leaving the low 70's as we go on, the tomatoes are about to stop setting fruit, and we have flowers.

The first year of bloom on the Desert Rose plants we got as tiny things...one white one bloomed earlier, but now a red one is on stage. 

 

The big pink one is glorious but I can't get the picture to be right side up.

The fig has responded well to the pruning a few months back.

The native ruellia...sorry, the app doesn't like tall photos. 

We love flower season.

After 34 years, still going strong

Hello, everyone. My cactus is coming into bloom.

Thanks to the Easter rain, and the followup rain the next Sunday, a lot of plants are waking up.

 

I was going to include my Indigo Spires salvia, with its deep blue blossom spikes, but the photo turned sideways when I imported it.

This is a miniature basil plant. It's about 4 inches tall. It smells lovely.

Rabbit attack?

Hello, everyone. It's been a little busy around the place and I forgot to post.

I went out to check on plants yesterday and was shocked to see this:

My alpine iris plant has been eaten down to a nubbin! And several rain lily plants are either gone altogether or chomped to a little thing like this! 

DH says he saw a rabbit in the yard a couple of days ago, which darted out under the fence. (Smart rabbit.) Maybe this explains a number of disappearances lately.

What can be used to repel rabbits? Especially since a lot of the grass they used to have for munching on has gone dormant or died because there's been no rain.

Spring feels like it's here...(edited for spelling)

At least, right now it feels like spring. (Last frost date probably 3 weeks away, but today is tee shirt weather.)

The fiddlewood,  the happiest of the three, is putting on a flush of blooms, while still having half ripe berries and some old, ripe, black ones. This fiddlewood is in partial shade. The others have at least 4 or 5 hours of straight sun every day, and they're less content. These are native to South Texas and are supposed to get around 8 feet tall with time.

Walked at Bentsen State Park today

Hello, everyone. Today started out cloudy and cool, but we went over to the park anyway. There were a lot of birds for a change.

The turkeys were hanging out on the access road for the canal, later they went farther into the park and started vacuumung up all the dropped seed at the feeders. The boys did some tail fan displays but the girls didn't care.

There was a lone white pelican near the boat put-in, and a solitary roseate spoonbill as well. (Think big pink bird, not a flamingo.) 

The weather was good for walking, not too hot or cold and not much wind. The park has upgraded one of their bird blinds to have a roof and seating like their premium on on the ring road. This newly upgraded blind is in the very middle, accessible to a walk or bike only path. We saw a lot of cardinals and waxwings there. Green jays, of course. On the way out we also saw some chachalaca. So it was a nice bird-seeing day.

We got in a little over 2.5 miles today, this was a training walk to maintain fitness.

It's early for planting but...

Hello, everyone.  It's a warm, "Chamber of Commerce" weather day today--about 80°F, clear, sunny, just nice to be out in. So of course I was wanting to mess around in the garden.

This appears to be a volunteer fennel plant, left over from garden salad mix seeding in the past. It looks too spikey to be dill, IMHO.

I planted some "summer spinach vine" seeds. Instead of loads of leaves, that we could pick for a vegetable,  we get these little flowers. 

And the runt of the litter has made berries!

A more optomistic thing: we have decided that a corner of dying grass would be better as a planting bed. Aloes to the rescue! Also our Porterweed, a poinsettia, and a volunteer flower. A few rain lilies have been tucked in as well. 

A pleasant walk at Bentsen Park

Hello, everyone. The weather today is what the local radio personality calls "Chamber of Commerce weather" which is lovely, partly cloudy, not too windy, and tee-shirt temperature. So we went over to the park for a little walk.

The park had scheduled a birding walk, and we were the only ones there so we walked over to the volunteer "bird guide" and invited ourselves along. He told us about birds, of course, and about the changes in wildlife and plant growth over time. It was very interesting. 

This little hawk was supervising the feeding stations. It doesn't need to be said that the small birds were a bit shy!

The wild turkeys were out and about and not afraid of anything. 

Fall gardening season is here

Hello,  everyone. It's fall, and the heat of summer is starting to moderate. The warm weather garden plants, after struggling earlier, are in their prime.

These five beauties are not the first, but there are enough to make a nice picture.

I like to cut them in 1/4" slices, salt them and drain them for a while, then saute them gently until there are little golden-brown speckles on both sides. Wonderful flavor! 

San Antonio Missions, The Second One

Hello, everyone. The weather around the home place has been its usual August self: hot, sunny, and dry. There might have been a few drops, but not enough to be an actual watering. And we planted fall seeds this week, in hopes that something will come from them.

But returning to the missions, after our visit to San Francisco de Espada, we drove back along the city streets to San Juan. 

Sadly, the Blogger app refuses to let this view of the surviving aqueduct display right-side-up.

Also at the aqueduct are some of the old terraces. The bottom of this little set of terraces has the river bank. The river flows under the aqueduct. These are on the way from San Francisco to San Juan, so we stopped to see them, too.

The missionary fathers built a church, as usual, 

The interior of San Juan Mission. The large figures at the side are carried in processions.

They also set up the Stations of the Cross outside so everyone who wanted to could participate in the devotion.

The Fourteenth Station: Jesus is buried in the tomb. As y'all can see, the later walkway was poured going around the stone markers.

After recent rains, beauty

Hello, everyone.  It has rained a few days back, and today I went outside to see what things look like. 

This little rain lily was part of an order I got from Plant Delights Nursery a whole back. The species lived, the hybrid plant in the same order died.

The fiddlewood has berries on it. It blooms with tiny white flowers.

I did mention that the lantanas we saw in Córdoba were a familiar plant. This one was a gift of the birds. 

Another rain lily. 

These rain lilies are sideways, I'm not sure why. (I did crop the photo to make it wider than it is tall, but that seems not to have worked.) They don't set seeds, they just make baby bulbs. Which means I have more just like them over time. 😀

We were studying the plants in Córdoba

Hello,  everyone.  We were taking a good look at the various plants around Córdoba,  because the climate there is like south Texas. We were looking for landscape ideas. To our surprise, many of the plants we saw were familiar from home. Citrus? Check. Lantana shrubs? Check. Palm trees? Check. Jacaranda trees? Check. 

There were some trees we didn't recognize along the streets.

This is sideways even though I cropped it. The tree has little white flowers that are shaped like tiny soup bowls.

You want to look up before you park overnight on some streets.

There were pink water lilies at the Botanical Garden. These are so sturdy in their structure that I thought they looked like plastic.

This is the close cousin of artichoke. They are raised for their stems.

This is the flower. There are a lot of little flower flies in there along with the bumblebee. 

If you look closely you can see a huge wasp or bee. There were lots of them around some white flowers. It was almost a feeding frenzy at that flower bed.

Córdoba is very historic

Hello, everyone. Our visit to Córdoba fell in the hot season, and this year we were able to readjust to Texas temperatures during our few days here.

We visited the Cathedral, the Alcazar which had been a royal palace, the Botanical Garden, the Archeological Museum, and various parks and eating places. We also were able to attend Mass at San Juan y los todos Santos, a beautiful Baroque church near where we stayed. 

A quick snapshot after Mass was over at San Juan parish church 

View of street trees (jacarandas) from the train station 

This impressive thistle, with its little buggy visitors, is a relative of artichoke, Cardo, which is grown for its stems. That bumblebee was really big!

People in Córdoba are really into potted plants as outdoor wall ornaments. These are geraniums (pelargoniums type) and someone comes around to keep them watered, so they're very nice.

The tower at the Alcazar. It has a good view of the royal gardens and the whole area. We went up there and the stairs are a real workout.