I don’t mind weeding spotted spurge that much (I’m lying, but let’s pretend shall we?). But for some reason songs get stuck in my head. This morning it was “Peaches” by the Presidents of the US. Which then got me thinking about writing a blog post about annoying songs that could get stuck in your head. At which point a christian kids song that they play as the background to the yearly slideshows at Etta’s preschool got stuck in my head.

Dammit. Sometimes being alone with my own thoughts is detrimental to my mental health.

• xeric

We went out to Kreische brewery today. It’s a fantastic state park with a ruined brewery in La Grange. Tons of lovely plants. Lots of Lantana, Turk’s Cap, pecans, and live oak. And some plants I wanted identified. So I took some sharp photos of the ground beneath them. Here’s the one plant I succeeded in photographing.

Then we went out to Rohan Meadery and sampled some fantastic meads. I saw a gigantic spider and took a fantastic picture of the playhouse behind it.

We also saw a wasp dragging away a 2” spider. Which was super-cool. We couldn’t figure out who was winning the battle at first. 

Oh well. It was a fantastic day in nature. Remarkably cool for July.

• xeric

Right now, my front yard is swarming in termites.

This is a good picture of them eating a decaying leaf. They look a bit like dandelion seeds floating in the air. Going to have to investigate some more. Not sure if I should be concerned. They don’t seem too interested in my house currently…

UPDATE: Here’s a picture of the tube underneath that leaf

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So the kitchen is finally done (or at least as done as our budget will allow right now. More repainting and backsplash as money allows).

So finally back into the garden today. Also my first run in 2 weeks which has me feeling ill.

We had no milk. So no chocolate milk - my re-hydrating medium of choice.

But we had rain last night and today. So lots of lizards about.

And the weeds were incredibly easy to pull. I wish I could have taken a longer luch break to pull more.

While pulling out some nut sedge noticed a Pride of Barbabos volunteering in the middle of my Lantana patch.

Should I have pulled it? Almost certainly. But I suppose only time will tell.

Speaking of pulling things. You know that weed that looks like carrot, then baby’s breath, then transforms into horrible sticky burs? I decided to let that flower this year, because it’s a pretty flower. But then I got involved in the kitchen and didn’t pull it in time. 

Big mistake. I have been removing burs from dogs and myself and trying to clean them up. I really don’t enjoy pulling burs from my hair.

Ah well, I think I’ve got most of them.

• xeric

Some people down the block had the same brick as us. They’re selling the house now and decided to paint it green.
Don’t really get people who paint brick when it’s in good shape. So permanent. Plus my guess is they won’t end up with cool moths like this guy.

Moths like to sleep outside our front door during the day because they camouflage so well on the brick.

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The yard needs mowing so badly. Back and side yards.

Although the Mistflower in the front yard could probably handle a mow as well.

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I love Gomphrena. I do not get why this stuff isn’t everywhere.

I hope I’m not jinxing myself. Frequently when I fall in love with a plant it decides to look beautiful for a short time then die in spectacular fashion. 

Although this did nothing last year, and this year has become a riot, holding its own against the relentless onslaught of the Desert Mallow.

The Desert Mallow wants to consume everything. I think I mostly have it at bay. Mostly.

And finally, the reason I’m not doing much gardening.

We are currently remodeling our kitchen. I thought gardening left me sore. Turns out it was nothing compared to a day spent pulling apart cabinets held together with 5” long nails.

People think stuff was built better in the 60s. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it was definitely built to last forever. If the wood had cooperated. Frequently it was easier to break down the old wood than it was to deal with the screws. 

The wood falling apart being the main reason for this remodel. Well, and fashion of course.

This is just fair warning that this may become a remodel blog for two weeks. At which point it goes back to gardening.

• xeric

I finally got around to letting the soap aloe out. This was the one that was bulging alien style out of the decomposed granite, trying to burst out of the landscape fabric. I used my new weeding knife to let it free. It is a very, very pale green.

Went to Barton Springs Nursery yesterday with my mom. She bought me this for my birthday.

Julie likes it better than the stone Chihuahua I had my eye on. I may still have to get that Chihuahua. I love it.

Oh and they have gopher plant for $2.99 right now. First time I’ve seen small gopher plants.

And I got another Monterrey Oak. In 20 years my back patio is going to be a very nice place to sit. As long as I calculated my angles correctly. 

Fingers crossed.

Julie got a Laura Bush Petunia as thank you for being a Girl Scout leader this year. It’s a bookish plant.

But of course thanks to recent rains we are back to spotted spurge removal. *sigh*

• xeric

I got Pam Penick’s “Lawn Gone” for my birthday. 

I know I already said this. But look- photographic evidence-

EDIT: You’re the one supposed to act excited. I am excited. I realized that was not clear from the title.

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it looked like I had finally captured a pretty fantastic photo. But of course it ends up being blurry. Ah well. I definitely think I’m getting better.

This is yet another plant I have no clue about. It looks like I just let a shrubby weed grow out of control. I’d love to identify it so I can prune it properly.

• xeric