Tall weeds and a new toy

Spring is just busting out like crazy now, and I have a new camera which I am still trying to get used to. It's got options for "special effects," which the old camera didn't offer. Here's one used to capture the Bottle Chandelier.

(Note: I put the bug pictures at the bottom of the post so you can bail out if you are phobic. On the positive side for fellow arachnopobes, there are no spiders, just a bee and another insect)

Yellow Columbine gets the "illustration" filter.

Maybe the most interesting filter isolates the color red, and removed color from everything else. It worked really well with the poppies. Another feature kicked in when I took this one - it informed me that it had detected a blinked eye. Ha ha! Very perceptive Ms. Camera, but he's not going to open his eyes any wider than that. Ever.

We got our first sunflower of the year, and it is a perfect beauty, even without this effect that is supposed to make it look like a painting.

No special camera effects on the rest of them, just some close shots of a HUGE black bee that has been visiting the milkweed. It's not a Bumble Bee, but a Carpenter Bee that goes by "Xylocopa micans."


Again, no special effects, but just a shot of a bug that is ALL OVER the milkweed. Turns out it's called a Milkweed Bug. Harmless, except to milkweed, which is a problem for us since the milkweed is much needed for butterflies. We are not going to discourage the MW bugs, but instead are headed out to buy some more milkweed plants - so maybe there will be enough to go around.

It's poppy time!

This zoomed-in view looks almost painted!

Winter beauty

The yard is so full of butterflies!! Mostly Monarchs Queens* but there are a few others I haven't identified by type. It has been very, very dry so there is not a lot for nourishment, so they are ganging up on the Tropical Milkweed. So beautiful.

* [correction] These butterflies pictures are Queens, which I discovered through a comment with this link.

Total tourists!

We are back from vacation, as of Sunday actually, and just now getting caught up with sorting pictures, unpacking, doing laundry, working 3 days and catching up on Breaking Bad before it kicks in for another season. Santa Barbara is a beautiful place and it was worth it to postpone a few purchases in order to visit it. The weather was wonderful and cool every day. Overcast every morning and most afternoons. The "No high heels" sign isn't a statement on the importance of being casual, it's a safety warning for anyone thinking of trying to walk on the old wooden pier wearing stupid and dangerous shoes... ... and in this clip form the 1966 Batman movie that was filmed at this very spot (Stearn's Wharf) you can see that there were several violations of the shoe policy, but Batman was still doing his best to keep the place safe.

The whole town of Santa Barbara (California) was like a botanical garden. I don't know how much of the beauty is the result of careful plant-mothering and how much is just from the cool sun and sea breezes, but everything looked healthy and non-distressed. I imagine it's a bit of both. Things seemed to be kept clean and tidy, and I was a bit surprised to have not even seen one stray cat in the whole 4 days.
We got there on the 4th of July in time for one of the longest parades I can remember, followed that night by fireworks at the beach. Here's a group of re-enactors having an opportunity to fire their muskets. Big noise, and the poor dudes seem to get a faceful with every shot.
This excellent sand sculpture was unofficial, and the artist was collecting tips. It was flattened by the next day.

We were the unashamed tourists in getting on the amphibious tour bus/boat. This one is called the Land Shark. Here it is from the pier with pelicans getting a free ride on top.

These were taken from the tour boat, a bunch of sea lions all snuggled and cuted up. They can pretty much guarantee that you'll see sea lions on your voyage, but we didn't see any dolphins, sharks or whales.


This was pointed out to be David Crosby's boat, his "wooden ship," the Mayan.

This is a famous Moreton Bay Fig Tree, supposed to be the largest of its kind in the USA. It was stunningly gorgeous. Trees are magnificent.


Santa Barbara's courthouse is a tourist attraction because of its architecture, tile decor, murals, stained glass, and tower view of the area. This is my "post card" view of one area, and below that is a partial view of the sunken gardens, basically its perfect lawn occupying a corner of the block.


We were back at the same location that night, and here is a night view of one wing of the courthouse, for a free outdoor movie to be shown.

One of my favorites... and a reminder that the peoples of Earth are never going to get their act together and make peace, regardless of all the convincing arguments that they should.

Just for grins, we priced some real estate listings in this area, and were not surprised to see that they are 3 or 4 times more pricey than where we are now. It's a wealthy area, not a good place to be poor... but you can always collect a few pennies on the beach if you have a creative blanket.

Labyrinth at Natural Gardener

This labyrinth update is for Debra. A couple of years ago, the labyrinth was in a transitional state. They had been trying to construct it in plant life, but that plan did not work out. Now it is back, and made of good, old stones. Take a look at the gate for it, which leads into a short path, in this older post.

The Natural Gardener is a nursery, a plant business, but it's such a wonderful place it's worthy of just visiting. We went there to buy some milkweed for the butterflies, and it is doing well in the backyard now.

The labyrinth is surrounded by beautiful wildflowers, a few garden sculptures, and on one side there is a teepee. Here's a nice view facing outward, and at bottom, Google's satellite version.

Night colors

These are called Four O'Clocks (Mirabilis Jalapa), a pic from the backyard.


They are appropriately named because they bloom from late afternoon through the night. A night-blooming flower, what a wonderful thing! So much intense color that is mostly not for the benefit of humans. They are supposed to be fragrant, but I have not experienced that. I tend to not sniff a lot of flowers because of wanting to avoid inhaling pollen and/or bugs.

Spring?

Well, there are actually roses all year, but this one was particularly pretty and perfect in the front yard, so I had to take a picture. There was a robin in the backyard last week, but in this area I don't know what the significance of that event. Birds are abundant but robins seem to be rare. The main sign of Spring's return seems to be the appearance of crane flies. A lot of people think they are "giant mosquitoes" or "mosquito eaters" or some such thing, but they are neither. They are only interested in some old dead wet leaves and mulch, and do not want to nibble on you or your pets in any way. When these guys show up, I think of Spring, and too soon they are gone and replaces with the mosquitoes of Summer. After the hellish Summer we had last year, I am not looking forward to this one.

Red weed

Someone gave MrB this plant awhile back and it's beginning to grow nicely. We just don't know what it is.

More flowers and stuff

We are deep into Spring! It's been warm a lot lately, generally in the 80-90° range. Last month's Blackfoot daisies are joined by a bunch of Shasta Daisies.

The emergence of the gorgeous Red Yucca blooms have brought at least one hummingbird back into our little habitat. I had been feeling sad knowing that both store-bought hummingbird feeders had been routinely maintained for some time without any "customers."

 

No hummingbird photographic evidence available (all the birds leave ASAP when we go outside), but here's a weird bug that looked a little like a bee or a wasp - but after looking at those eyes I decided it had to be a fly. Turns out this is some kind of a Hoverfly (a.k.a. Flower Fly), and is beneficial for gardens for pollination and aphid control.

"Don't swat me... please??"

Spring - I love you - stay

 Sunday was dominated by this monstrosity on the driveway. If we ever wanted to use the garage again, it had to be dealt with ASAP.

MrB did all the ugly part, shoveling the stuff into a wheelbarrow and hauling it into the backyard. Then I got to spread it around on the paths with a rake. The paths are not paved and are fast being overtaken by weeds... wildflowers... ground cover... so they got covered with crushed granite. Some things are allowed to stay, like these Blackfoot Daisies.

Trumpet Vines have bloomed, and in fact, they are past prime.

Here's a pic of our best batch of them. Not the best year for them at the Oasis yard but I've seen some fabulous ones out there.

Yellow Columbine is a beauty right now.

Here's a stubborn little Ash tree that wants to grow in the middle of the path and keeps growing back. It has won the battle and can stay.

Buddha and a garden solar light that is supposed to look like a rock.

We've had this metal sculpture for years and it finally has a bird nest in it.

It's a great spot for a nest, but we are still waiting for birds to move into some of the official birdhouses that are hanging nearby.

Wildflowers are getting near peak right now. Bluebonnets are covering the fields. It was close to 90° on Saturday, and it won't be long until the triple digits get here.

Summertime

This weekend was mostly spent getting household stuff done along with cleaning, shopping, and MrB doing yard work. Decided to take the plunge and replace our 13 year old mattress. It seemed OK to us, but I think all the mattress commercials we see have finally gotten to us - it was not so much the mentions of the dust mites but it was the dust mite feces grossout ads that gave us the willies and made us go shopping.

Also finally took down the last of 3 cat-ruined miniblinds in the bedroom and replaced it with another old-fashioned room-darkening vinyl shade (with sheers in front). I'll tell you what, those things have made a noticeable difference in reducing the heat levels in our poor unfortunate upstairs westward-facing windows.

You gotta either beat the heat, or embrace it. Here are some July scenes from this Central Texas backyard. I love love love the crape myrtle blossoms that are filling up the paths right now. Beauties.

This guy was flitting around everywhere. I don't know if he/she is alone. Best I can tell, it's a blue mud-dauber wasp (this one seems to be living in the ground in the garden path) of the type that likes to hunt spiders. Go for it girlfriend! What a beauty. I will give her a wide berth though, and plenty of room to stretch out.
This is a spiny fence lizard, the lizards are getting bigger around here now that there are fewer neighborhood cats.
And here's the sunflower harvester. Even after that many sunflowers are removed, it hardly makes a dent in them. I feel itchy just looking at him.