News And Pictures

First, I'm going to be a mother-in-law and a grandmother! Yep, my little Natalie is going to be wife and mommy. Her fiance is Bryan, and he is a wonderful man -- I could not ask for a better life partner for my baby. They are both VERY excited about the baby, which is due Christmas Eve but we all know that babies come when they want to and not when the doctor says they might! Now, this is not new news for me, at least not the mother-in-law stuff. Natalie and I had been looking at wedding gowns and making wedding plans:



They will probably do all of this later. For now, things will be simple, laid back and stress-free until the little bundle of stinky diapers arrives! This is, however, a lesson to all of you girls taking the pill. Antibiotics will screw with the effectiveness of your pills!

These are the photos I took in the yard yesterday. We'll start with the big weed that I did not want. We have a very sweet, octogenarian that T-man does odd jobs for. She lives over on Lake Austin, in a wonderful mid-century split level with nifty landscaping and lots of AGAVES! So T-man thinned them out and brought them back here. Then he just kind of dumped them to the side of the drive not realizing that they are like weeds. This one is also called a Lechugilla (Agave lechugilla) and is probably 12 years old, because that's the minimum age for producing the stalk. One day the stalk was not there. The next morning is was eight feet tall. Now it's about 15 feet tall.



These are the rain lilies (Cooperia pedunculata). They just pop up all over the place after a good rain.



This is our Fairy Rose. Everything about this rose is tiny. It has just started blooming, so there were only two blossoms yesterday.



These are Pink Evening Primroses (Oenothera speciosa), which we also call Buttercups. The pollen is powdery and sticks to your nose. If you hold a buttercup under your chin and your chin shines yellow, you'll be rich (or you like butter, depending on which old wives' tale you prefer).



We call this onion flower because of the way it smells, but I'm not sure what it's botanical name is.



I have no idea what this little vine is, but I have it all over the yard and the chickens love it. It makes little pea pods, too.

And I had to end with pictures of my neighbor's prickly pear (Opuntia lindheimeri - below), which is in their horse pasture. The shadow was actually caused by Zephyr, one of their horses, who really wanted to know what I was doing and why I was doing it from the other side of the fence.



Happy browsing, and I hope the sun is shining wherever you are. I'm going back to my beads!