Carrollton Yard – January 2024 (2)

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In the mid-1960s my maternal grandfather collected a dead tree – a snag – and cut it to fit from floor to ceiling in his living room. I was probably about 9 feet tall…with branches. One of my aunts decorated it with artificial ivy; other small items were collected and displayed there. When the house was sold after the deaths of my grandparents in the 1980s, my mother got the tree (I am not sure how she got it from Oklahoma to Texas) and it was installed on the covered porch at the front of my parents’ house…with fewer branches and a little shorter. Now that the house is being sold, it is uninstalled and going with a long-time neighbor to grace his family’s garden in New Mexico.

One of the branches that had to be cut off when the tree was installed on the porch has been in the front garden for a long time…decaying very slowly.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

There are rose bushes by the fence that were planted more recently. They were blooming profusely when the first hard freeze occurred…the blooms still colorful and dehydrated - fragile. Roses have been a popular plant with my family. I can remember by paternal grandmother loving the small in-town house they moved to from the farm in Wichita Falls; the previous owner had planted rose bushes – yellow, red, pink, white – that made many a great bouquet for my sisters and I to take to our elementary school teachers. My parents planted hybrid tea roses in the house they build in Wichita Falls; we each had a rose bush. Mine was the Granada. My dad’s was the Mister Lincoln.

Were the big rocks in the front a selling point? I always enjoy them in the front bed, that dramatically reduces the amount of mowing. They have been in place long enough to have lichen.

Of course – the red yucca are always a joy to photograph. This time of year it is all about the seed pods. My mother got a single plant in a pot and then propagated it to fill a significant portion on the sunny side of the front garden. My sister takes young plants that come up among the mature ones and has planted them in other yards…so the children of these plants are already thriving in family gardens elsewhere.

I realize that the yard will be forever changed with my parents no longer the owners of the place…it will be a place that exists only in memory.

2023 in a Carrollton Yard

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My parents’ yard in Carrollton is almost overflowing with plants. They have accumulated over the years. Many of them are from seeds/cuttings/gifts from extended family…my paternal grandmother’s sisters (pink maiden sage), my father’s cousin (a 30+ year old rose bush), my maternal grandparents gardens (cannas), sunflowers that started from a granddaughter’s kindergarten ‘flower in a cup’ project more than 20 years ago, and orange spider lilies that came up in one of my sisters yards when she bought her house more than 30 years ago. One of my sisters does most of the maintenance these days…to the joy of my parents. My dad helps with mowing the yard (this month is more ‘mowing the leaves’ rather than grass)!

The year started out very cold with heavy frost on the first mornings of the year.

The quince blooms early…a splash of color near the fence. The bird feeder attracts birds that can easily be viewed from the garden room. Bulbs and dandelions mark the warming temperatures of spring. The cosmos and red yucca bloom all through the season. The 2023 summer was challenging with a longer than usual period of very hot days with no rain. Some plants survived with the water from sprinklers, but others died back (hopefully will return next spring). The naked lady lilies put up their fonds early then bloom in midsummer. The spider lilies are late bloomers too. The cosmos lasted through most of November. And now in December – the seedpods of red yucca and chives provide texture as the winter begins. We are beginning to see some of the garden ornaments that were buried in foliage previously!

My parents have lived in their house for 33 years and the garden area of the yard has evolved over time. The rose bush purchased for my Grandmother’s 80th birthday in 1992 still blooms in the spring and fall!

Carrollton Yard – November 2023

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At the beginning of the month – the yard in Carrollton, Texas was still needing to be mowed almost weekly and the leaves were mostly green on the trees. The metal iris I bought last spring was still surrounded my growing vegetation – not the only focal point of the garden as it will be in the winter.

There are still some things blooming.

The pecan tree is shedding groups of leaves that are still green onto the pavers.

I cut the three millet seed heads that grew under the bird feeder. I’ll put them in the sunniest corner of my yard in Missouri. Maybe the seeds will come up next spring, grow as ornamentals, round the corners of the yard that I mow, and feed birds by the fall.

Carrollton is renovating the infrastructure in my parents’ neighborhood. The alley already has flags to mark where the gas line is located. The alley will be removed/replaced and plantings about 8 inches from the existing concrete will be destroyed.

That 8 inches includes some tiger lily and iris bulbs, sunflowers that have come back year after year from my niece’s kindergarten sunflower-in-a-cup planted there over 20 years ago, native hibiscus, and lots of chives. My sister cut the sunflowers and put the stalks further back in the bed (hoping the seeds will continue to mature there), dug up the lily and iris bulbs to plant elsewhere, and dug up/moved the native hibiscus plants.

In the front yard, there were mums planted in open spaces in ground cover…the red oak in that area is beginning to shed a few leaves.

Across the sidewalk, the red yucca has mature seed pods full of black seeds…but is still blooming as well.

Overall – a yard beginning a slow slide to fall.

Zooming – October 2023

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The optics of my camera allow me to capture images that are better than I can see with my eyes – flowers, insects, birds, cave formations and seed pods that fill the frame…driftwood isolated from the noise of other things around it….sculpture, glass, and fall gourds specially arranged….sunrises and a sunset….the beauty of a fall morning. Every picture is a memory moment – a visual that also serves as a reminder of a place and mood and relationship with the people that experienced it with me. The places were mostly close to home in southwest Missouri (art museum, meadow, caverns) but also St. Louis and along the route between home and Carrollton TX.

Carrollton Yard – September 2023

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There were no 100-degree days during the visit to my parents in Carrollton TX in late September; the yard was recovering – coping much better with the highs in the 90s. The sprinklers were able to make up for the lack of rain. The orange spider lilies were beginning to bloom. They were part of the landscaping in my sister’s house purchased over 30 years ago; she has propagated them into several other family yards. The red yuccas are still making seed pods, but the ratio has shifted to mature (and open) pods; those plants were the start of red yuccas in other yards as well.

We cut some of the spider lilies to enjoy inside. I did some high key photography of them – the vase in a window to create the bright background behind the flowers.

Carrollton Yard – August 2023

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Weeks of 100+ degree temperatures in Carrollton, TX were hard on the yard/garden. Frequent watering helped. Still - the hydrangea that is usually very lush green and blooming is drying out – hopefully it will come back from the roots next year.

There is still a lot of green in the garden areas of the yard. Crape Myrtles seem to thrive in the high heat if they get enough water.

The naked lady lilies are almost done for the season. My favorite picture of the morning was one of the last flowers – full of water droplets from the sprinklers.

There is a lot of seed production too. The red yuccas look as they always do but other plants seem to have more than the usual seeds…maybe a good strategy to survive to grow another year.

There was a large spider in the flower bed near the front door – a female Argiope aurantia (yellow garden spider). The first time I saw it, all was quiet on the web.

The next day, the spider was feeding on something! There were a few droplets of water from the sprinklers too. The web seemed to be very sturdy – and built in a good place.

Overall, attention to watering (sprinkler system and supplement in key areas) has sustained the yard. Many in the neighborhood look thoroughly dry…and dying. If this is what the summers will be like in the area from now on – then landscaping will need to change significantly.

Carrollton Yard – July 2023

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The temperatures were over 100 every day I was in Carrollton, TX in July; I spent most of my time in places with air conditioning. It was in the 80s when I ventured out not that long after sunrise…getting a bit of yard photography done before it got too hot. The naked lady lilies (pink) were the most spectacular flowers of July and my mother had brought some of them indoors to enjoy. There were plenty left amongst the greenery from cosmos (orange)…Crape Myrtle and Queen Anne’s Lace as back drop. The elderly mulberry trees are still healthy enough to sprout new leaves along their trunks. The toy truck, rooster, copper fountain, tractor windmill, and glass sphere are nestled among the plants. The red yucca is thriving. Many plants are growing seeds/pods already.

In the distance – the Carrollton water tower and the sun just above the horizon could be seen through the trees.

There is a sprinkler system that runs twice a week in the early morning….but my sister and father are supplementing that watering for the newer plants. There hasn’t been rain recently and the high temperatures are taking a toll. The hydrangea has not produced flowers at all this year and looks forlorn even with a lot of watering.

Carrollton Yard – June 2023

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June is the ‘getting hot’ month in Carrollton, Texas…leading into more frequent 100-degree-plus days in the following months. It is already obvious which yards in the neighborhood are getting watered. My parents have a sprinkler system that my sister keeps tuned to maximize the watering where it is needed most. In the backyard the Queen Anne’s Lace, cosmos, hibiscus, and day lilies are lush – flowers and lots of green. In the front yard there are dusty miller plants in bloom, the last of the daisies, and the red yuccas with blooms and lots of green seed pods. The red oak planted there is finally getting a lot of light and growing well since the ancient mulberry has been cut down.

There is still grass to mow and weed eating/edging – a continuing chore – even though the years of gardening have reduced the area maintained in that way. Pulling ‘trash trees’ that emerge in the flowerbeds requires more finesse by the person doing the work (distinguishing what needs to be pulled from the plants that should be in the flower beds) and is always on the ‘to do’ list for the yard!

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Wishing everyone an enjoyable 4th of July…Independence Day in the US…a day for fireworks, parades, and watermelon!

Two Plants in Macro

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I took some macro photos of two plants in my parents’ yard in Carrollton: dusty miller and red yucca.

Dusty Miller is known for it’s white, felt-like leaves but this time of year it might be blooming…and the flowers are yellow!

We cut a few flower stalks to bring indoors and that is where I took macro pictures of the developing flowers with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) using my Bluetooth remote shutter release. The unopened buds reminded me of powder-sugared donuts!

The red-yucca seed pods are frequent subjects for my photography in my parents’ front yard. When they are mature, they pop open to reveal and release papery black seeds. This time of year, there are pods from last year and new pods are that are still green/developing while the plant continues to bloom.

Some of the red yucca stalks were hanging over the walkway…had to be removed. I kept one of the green seed pods to take a closer look. The tip of the seed pod begins to dry first. I cut the pod in half. The seeds are not fully formed; they are white and very moist. The 6 compartments are well defined. The outer skin of the pod separates easily from the developing seeds. I separated one of the seeds; The tissue did not appear differentiated at all. I’ll try to take a closer look at one of the fully developed black seeds next time I am in Carrollton.

Overall – two very different plants that made for interesting mini-photoshoots!

Carrollton Yard – May 2023

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My parent’s yard was transitioning from spring to summer when I was there in late May. My sister had taken away the naked lady lily leaves that had turned brown; the bulbs have the stored energy for their bloom later in the summer. I put the stainless-steel iris I bought at the Springfield Artsfest in the hydrangea plot. It looked like it belonged there and will provide some color visible from the garden room during the winter.

The Queen Anne’s Lace is beginning to boom…and the cosmos. In the front yard the red yucca is the most colorful. The daisies are dispersing their seeds. The ferns are lush and there are still fiddleheads unfurling.

The lamb’s ear is blooming. When I got home, the ones in my yard were too!

Now I am beginning to think about whether I want to propagate some of these plants in my yard. My challenge right now is a lack of gardening space and the need to clear out plants that didn’t make it through the winter in some of the beds. On the plus side…that clearing could leave some places that I could plant some Carrollton transplants.

Zooming – May 2023

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So many photography opportunities in May…flowers are blooming, birds are out and about, we traveled to Pensacola FL and played tourist close to home when my sister visited. The first pictures are from Pensacola…then from Texas (Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and Carrollton)…then close to home (Lake Springfield, Fantastic Caverns, and World of Wildlife). It was a busy month!

I use the zoom feature on my Canon Powershot SX70 HS for almost every picture. My goal is to compose the image in a way that I don’t need to modify it later. The strategy saves time and focuses my creative energy while I am in the field when I can almost always try another shot – get exactly what I want.

Carrollton Yard – April 2023

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I took pictures between rain showers…tended to do zoomed images because it was too breezy for macro photography. The irises were past their peak…but there were still plenty to photograph.

What a difference light makes! The two images below were taken less than a minute apart with clouds moving rapidly through the sky.

The glass orb among the oxalis and Queen Anne’s Lace just missed being spotlighted in the same situation!

Other flowers were blooming as well. The white daisies were photographed with different lighting…but enough to freeze their movement caused by the breeze.

It was still cool enough for roses to be blooming too.

Of course – there were the ‘always there’ subjects…dandelions and red yucca pods.

Overall – lots of beauty in the yard to photograph…cool temps and rain made it a little harder to be out and about.

Carrollton Yard – March 2023 (2)

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Continuing the report on my parents’ yard….

It’s not just flowers that were blooming. The crane flies emerged while I was there. They seemed to be everywhere. One got in the house and stayed put near the door…posing for portraits. Later I saw one on a plant. These short-lived adults are eaten by birds (as are the larvae in the soil)!

Of course – there are still flowering bulbs, sage, wisteria, and daisies blooming around the yard too.

The pecan tree had tuffs of leaves and blooms. It’s a young tree…maybe this year I will make pecans.

The sweet gum was also leafing out. It is fruitless variety (i.e. no spikey seeds). The tips of its branches are still very complex.

My favorite picture of the yard this month was some red yucca seed pods from last year….still holding the black seeds….the old stalk bent almost to ground level so that the leaves of the plant form the background.

I am looking forward to seeing the changes that April brings…

Carrollton Yard…before a first frost

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It was fun to see so many flowers in the Carrollton yard – blooming into late October since there had been no frost. I enjoyed the colors and blooms realizing a lot will change soon.

Things could look very different by the time I am there in November.

I always enjoy photographing the red yuccas. My favorite picture from my time in Carrollton in late October is the flowers and seedpod together. The flowers might not get enough time to complete the cycle into seed pods, but the plants have already had a good year producing seeds.

Carrollton Yard (2) – September 2022

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A quick whirl around the front and side garden in Carrollton TX…

Then to focus on plants I looked at more closely:

Red yucca. This time of year the seed pods are always interested. As the seed pods dry, they tend to look burnt and black…the seeds inside are black as well.

After the sprinklers finished one morning, I took macro pictures of the Tradescantia pallida (purple heart or Wandering Jew) flowers.   The flowers act as small cups holding the water droplets.

Overall - most of the plants survived the severe weather earlier in the summer; it will be interesting to see how the fall progresses.  

Carrollton Yard – July 2022 (2)

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Walking around a familiar place….composing images of my favorite plants. In my parents’ yard, the red yuccas are always a big draw. This time of year, they are a mix of bids, flowers, and seed pods of varying maturity. I photographed them on a couple of mornings while I was in Carrollton. My favorite of the images I captured with my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) was the one with the black background…a flower hanging like a flower moving like a bell over the buds and very green seed pod.

With my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e), I used its digital magnification to capture macro images of the same plants. The developing seed pods always fascinate me. They were a few pods beginning to split open. By the time I am in Carrollton again (later this month), a few will be split open with visible seeds.

There were other things that were surviving the Texas heat – although more stressed than the red yucca. The kale that is multiple years old is probably too tough to eat!

One plant was so green in macro view that I couldn’t resist the macro shot – for the color and texture of the apex growth. It was benefiting from its proximity to a automatic sprinkler!

Finally – after the sprinklers one morning I enjoyed finding water droplets in the purple heart wandering jew…in the joint between two leaves where new leaves and flowers begin.

I’ve come to appreciate places I can photograph again and again….seeing them in a little different way each time and beginning to capture the specialness of the place that I associate with the longest relationships of my life.

Texas Macro

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I enjoyed two sessions of macro photography with my phone and clip on lens in the Carrollton, Texas. Getting very close to the vegetation with a magnifying lens provides a different perspective of the plants. Can you find the red yucca pod, the cosmos flowers, the rabbits ear leaf, the underside of a fern, hydrangea leaf, black seeds of the chives, cone flower seed pod and French flower? There is an occasional insect. Each image can be enlarged by clicking on it to pop up a larger version.

This is probably the last hurrah for summer type macro images. The subjects will shift to leaf color transitions and snowflakes …or indoors with store bought flowers for the holidays or holiday decorations.

Carrollton Yard – July 2021

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The back yard in Carrollton, Texas is a sunnier space that when I was here in May (a big tree had to be cut down). And it is summer. There are some cannas that are some of the tallest I’ve seen.

The hydrangeas are waning…the Queen Anne’s Lace is not as abundant as earlier…there are some round yellow-orange blobs of fungus in the shredded wood left from the big tree…they are almost the same color as the cosmos that are blooming in the newly sunny patch…a few Naked Lady Lilies and other shade loving plants are under the pecan tree which is growing rapidly now that the old mulberry is not overhead.

There are metal sculptures that I always notice among the plants – always there but looking different because of the changes of the plants over the season.

In the front yard, the ferns have spores forming on the underside of the fronds and there is only one daisy left.

The red yucca has seed pods developing among its flowers.

In a patch of dirt where some plant has died back, I found an large,empty snail shell…even though haven’t seen a snail in the yard before!

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Overall – the garden in Carrollton has changed quite a lot since May. Having the big tree gone has changed things more than the usual cycle…this next year will be one of transition for the corner of the yard that was very shady and is now full of sun.

30 years ago – June 1990

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Thirty years ago – June was a busy month. I had rejoined the work force part time and my daughter was adjusting to day care very well. The high with her in June 1990 was her enjoyment of a small swimming pool. The first time was a little too cool for her, but she still liked being outdoors and in the water. The next time was warmer and even better.

The low with her was a trip to the hospital early one morning when she had croup. I held her in the vapor tent, and she got better…enough that they didn’t have to medicate her. There were evidently other children with the same problem that night. We were all very hungry for breakfast when we go home.

I picked 7 pounds of strawberries at a farm that is now a housing development. It only lasted a couple more years after 1990.

We had a chipmunk that came up to our deck. My mother-in-law put out seed for it. The baby and the cat were intrigued by the rodent’s antics.

We were on the wait-list for a senior living facility for my mother-in-law…hoping that she would get in before I went back to work full-time and she would be alone in the house too much of the time.

We were primed for a bit of travel in early July….a weekend away for a road trip.

Unique activities for yesterday:

More pictures from Texas. Since I had yard pictures from 2 of my 3 sisters, I asked the other sister for a picture and she sent more than one: sunflower, lantana, hibiscus….and a bunny!

Then she realized that there was more she wanted to share: lavender hibiscus, blue salvia, dusty miller, and red yucca.

Her yard probably has less grass as the years go by! She has quite a riot of color.

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2020

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So many things to celebrate in February…I’ve picked my top 10 that are in roughly chronological order during the month.

I started out the month in Carrollton, Texas.

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Red Yucca. The seed pods always look interesting to me. I like their curves and points. The warm brown and burnt black colors.

Fried catfish and okra. Sometimes a high-fat splurge is OK….delicious.

A sunny and warm day. In February, the days are often gray and cold….so when the weather bucks the trend…it’s time to get outdoors to celebrate.

The Laredo Birding Festival was not that long…but there was something to celebrate every day.

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Roadrunner. What a way to start a birding trip…seeing an iconic bird of the area at a rest stop before we even got to Laredo!

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Great Horned Owls. We saw these owls on two days! What a thrill.

Sunrise on the Rio Grande. Celebrating the start of another day….the beauty of a river that draws life to a dry area.

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American White Pelicans ballet. I had never witnessed pelicans feeding together in a coordinated way. They were synchronized and graceful…the joy of watching the natural world in action.

Audubon’s Oriole. Celebrating a colorful bird that just appeared while we were relaxing on a veranda after lunch.

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And then we were home again.

A Day at home. I always celebrate being at home after I’ve been away. The view from my office window…fixing my own favorite foods…relaxing.

NISE Training. Robinson Nature Center provided a class on some kits they’ve purchased from the National Informal STEM Education Network. I enjoyed the gravity well (Exploring Universe Orbiting Objects) activity and hope there are opportunities to share it with visitors to the nature center. I also passed the information (here) along to my daughter since it had potential for physics related outreach activities her university does. So multiple reasons to celebrate this training!