Happy Easter - 2013

 It's bluebonnet season in Texas!  Maybe Lady Bird Johnson was behind this, back in the 60s.  She was into flowers & such.  At this time of year, along the roadsides, you'll see people plopping their toddlers in the middle of a patch of bluebonnets & taking gobs of pictures.  They really are quite pretty.

Here's a closeup - check out the bee, on the right, below.

Picasso went through his blue period in the early 1900's.  This blog is going through its blue period today.  Here's a blue house . It's cloudy today & doesn't show up too great, but it's blue all right.

 Next we have this very cool stand of crape myrtle trees.  Someone has painted the trunks blue to bring awareness to the drought, or deforestation - I forget.  Looks cool, though:

Here's a closer shot - they did a very nice & job & didn't spill all over the ground:

Finally, we have my cool retro bike - in blue - against the hazy Houston skyline:

 

Happy Easter to all three of you who still follow the blog!

Last year was a mast year

 As Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say on SNL, it's always something.  In 2011, we had the drought.  It was pretty brutal in Texas, and we're still having drought conditions, but not as bad.  The live oak trees, in an effort to propagate themselves in 2012, produced a billion acorns.  The garden columnist calls it a mast year.   We don't have a live oak, but our neighbor does - right on the fence line.  Guess where most of the acorns dropped?   On our patio.  Look at those little buggers.

 
 Gahhhhhh!  acorns out the wazoo.

 

Well, you can't really sweep them, or use the leaf blower, because among the acorns is gravel, and we don't want that flying everywhere.  What to do?  Pick 'em up by hand.  Lucky for me, it was a gorgeous, wish I still had a convertible kind of day.  There I am, picking up acorns.

 

Right about now, the deer who follow my blog are all, Oh man, why'd you throw them out?  Well, the squirrels didn't seem to want them, and I was sick of them crunching underfoot.    Here's the after shot - downright tidy out there now.

Meanwhile, what's this plant doing, hanging in the middle of the fence?

 

 
It's giving us something besides fence to look at through the kitchen window:

Finally, here's the ultimate thing you didn't know you needed, until you see it - a lighted hanging rod for the closet.  Now, my hub can see whether those slacks are black, gray or blue.  Sweet!

 

Happy New Year in the Jardin

 

 Hi Gang, it's January in Texas which means - it's nearly Spring!  It's been pretty warm this week, and I asked the fabulous landscaper to come over & do some heavy work.  Here's the side yard, "before" - it was awkward to mow around the air conditioner slab, and between the gate and slab.  Why did we need grass there, anyway?  Dump it.  The droplets on the photos are fog (not snow) - took these pix in the early morning, before I left for work.

 

Awkward, awkward, awkward.   Get rid of it!

 

 In the back of the photo below is our cassia tree.  It blooms in the fall and really looked great last year, but then it grew a bunch of seed pods, and got a little too big, and fell over.  I couldn't straighten it back up, so the landscaper did it. 

Here's the "after" - gravel between the gate & the AC slab - no more mowing there:

 Here is our new cutting garden - it gets the midday sun, should be a good spot:

 

I already had two roses, a hollyhock and a gardenia - planted 'em.   I'll probably add some wildflower seeds and sunflowers to the mix.

 

There's the gardenia, on the right.  We used to have a retired partner at the big law firm who brought us gardenias from his garden every year.  He is now in law firm heaven, so I needed my own plant:

Here is the cassia tree, all straightened up & trimmed.

The landscaper always trims back this muhly grass, and it's a shock, but it has already grown a couple of inches in the 3 days since he cut it:

 

 

 These are the roses along the back fence - year round bloomers.  They change color as the blooms mature.  But they aren't fragrant - bummer.

 The landscaper must have thought the roadrunner, below, looked a little thirsty.  He set him up at the birdbath for a drinkie.  I mean, if you don't have a sense of humor, don't come to work for us.

 

Every garden needs a gnome - ours used to be a rain gauge - he hugged a little test tube.  Well, klutzy me kept knocking it over & the tube cracked.  So now, he's just waiting for a gnome-babe to come along, visit the tadpole cafe next door, and he'll have someone new to hug.

Meanwhile, I went for a new rain gauge.  The guy at the garden center asked, what kind do you want?  "One I can read without glasses."   Check it out:

We'll be planting tomatoes soon!