Spring Anole

I found this brown Green Anole while watering the garden this morning!  Anoles can change from brown to green and back again.  Factors that are attributed to the color change are temperature, camouflage, fright, and, territory disputes.  It's surprising to find reptiles out in February, but it did get up to 80 yesterday.

  

Isn't she a beauty!  She looks so old basking in the warm sun, but what you can't see from the photo is that she's only about 2 inches long; last year's baby.  An adult female gets to be about 5 inches and a hefty male can reach 8 inches including the tail according to the species profile.  

I've seen several juveniles this spring, but I haven't seen any adults.  I guessing juveniles need to get out earlier to grow faster, larger, and sooner than other sleeping juveniles.  Adults already large, and perhaps fatter since they are more experienced hunters can stay safe and sleep until it really warms up for good.  

Beautiful Trees

Over the last few weeks I've collected several photos of beautiful winter trees.  I love to see the striking branches, twigs, and bark during the winter.  What's your favorite tree, and what time of year do you love it the most?

An Elm- tall and slender reaching out of a draw

The fallen arm of a massive mesquite surrounded by young elms

Mrs. Bones, a Texas Persimmon Tree, a great tree to plant if you live in Austin.

Mrs. Bones- silvery and knobby bark

 

The young wobbly girl meets the old solid oak, Little Eliza and Live Oaks 

A tree in the Wildflower Center's new Arboretum 

Pecan forest

Red-bellied Woodpecker works on a hole in an old dead pecan.

I'd love to hear what you think!  What's your favorite tree?

Weeds or not to Weed

It's Spring in Austin, or so it seems with temps up in the high seventies and lows in the fifties.  For me, the warm weather is coming much too soon, but the plants don't agree.  New sprouts are popping up everyday, but which volunteer plants will turn into fun garden additions and which will turn into evil monsters?  I've learned to recognize several weeds (the hard way) that grow very well in Austin.  Here are some pictures of sprouts that are worth pulling out of your garden beds before they takeover, and a few weeds that I actually enjoy finding in my garden.  

Here's a good mix of weeds some evil, some good.  

A.  Giant Ragweed- Definitely Evil-  I once allowed it to grow because I didn't know what it was- Mistake!  It grew about 12 ft tall!  I waited and waited for the flowers, but of course they don't make flowers just green balls of pollen.  

B. Native Sunflower- Good and Bad-  I love sunflowers!  Check out last year's sunflower forest.  They completely take over my yard (I am happy about it, and the birds love it), but it makes it hard to walk in the yard (it's a very scratchy plant) and it competes with tomatoes and other things I also like to grow.  The birds miss a lot of the seeds so every year there are more and more sprouts.  

C. Woodsorrel (what we all thought as a kid was clover)-  Good Weed-  Who doesn't love lucky clovers?  It's nice to find this weed in the yard.  It makes nice ground-cover that doesn't choke other plants.  I've actually been moving it around so it will grow where I want it.  

D.  Prickly Lettuce- Evil-  This plant starts as a nice fresh green plant (that really looks like lettuce) but it quickly grows tough and scratchy, and makes millions of seeds.  It develops a tap root that can be a pain to remove if left to long.  Pull it up early!

E.  Beggars Tick or Beggars Lice-  Evil (anything named after parasites are bound to be bad.)  Starts out looking like a carrot top, then makes a pretty white Queen Anne's Lace like flower, but then the seeds come.  The seeds are very sticky, tiny, and numerous.  A walk through a field of dry beggar's ticks leads to an hour of picking off seeds (speaking from experience.)  Double the trouble if you have pets!  Don't make a mistake pull this weed even if it looks pretty now!

F.  A plant in the Geranium Family- not evil, not good.   I don't know the name of this plant, but it's a little boring.  I waited and waited for flowers since it appeared to be related to Geraniums, but it was a waste of time. It does have interesting leaves, but they stay pretty small.

G. Bedstraw/Velcro weed- Good  This plant can be great ground cover forming thick mats.  It is said that pioneers used to pile it up and sleep on it.  I love the leaf pattern and bright green color.  You will have to remove it from flower beds if you want wintering plants to come up.

Close up of Prickly Lettuce, Beggar's Lice, and Giant Ragweed sprouts

Sunflowers are on a mission to take over the world!

 Older Bedstraw 

Another weed ground cover, but I do't know it's name, but I love the tiny flowers!

Do you have any weeds to add to the Evil List?  
What mistakes good/bad have you run into?  
I'd love to hear from you!  Thanks for reading!

A Painting Emerges

For Christmas, I created a butterfly painting for my sister-in-law, Amanda, and thought it would be fun to share pictures of the progress.

As I was thinking about Amanda, I remembered Job, my brother/Amanda's husband, saying along time ago that Amanda liked fairies.  So, as I sat on the porch doodling I sketched some butterfly fairies.

However, I wasn't sure if Amanda's interests had changed, and I chickened out on the fairy idea, but kept the butterflies.  I choose to paint the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly since all summer I have been obsessing over it and my Passion-vine (check out the post here.)

Now onto the canvas and paint.

The first thing I did was a light sketch of the subject to make sure the balance and composition were good.  When I first started painting, I tried to sketch with a pencil, but I had trouble covering the pencil lines up when the background was light-colored for example; the sky.  Now, I sketch with the lightest shade of gray paint to get an impression of how the painting will look.

The background was the next thing to be added so you can paint freely, and then get good edges on the things in the foreground.

My paintings often go through an ugly faze.  In this case, the background was too busy and dark colored.  The movement of the background also distracts from the vine spiral which is the movement that I want your eye to follow.

Ah,  that's better.

More foliage.

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 Details, Details, Details!

Add caption

Ta-dah!  The finished Gulf Fritillary painting!

What do you think?  Do things you make go through 'ugly' fazes?  How do you over come these challenges?

Happy Birthday, Blog

Today's the one year anniversary of my blog, and I'd like to say 'Hooray!'  I've really enjoyed coming up with ideas each week, and writing and illustrating each post with photographs and sketches.  I'm proud that I have posted at least once per week this year. Thank you all for reading and commenting without you it would be difficult to continue putting in the effort to make interesting articles.  Thank you Jacob, my super husband, for edits, encouragement, and reading each and every post. I look forward to more trips through the woods, activities around the nature center, digging in the dirt, painting, and who knows what else.

Why I like writing my blog...

1. It's an excuse to take photos, and it makes me want to learn more photography techniques 
2. I am more thoughtful about what I see
3. It's way to share the things I do including art, nature activities, gardening...
4. I've learned of many other bloggers with great sites. 

Some popular posts from this year.

1. Sunflower Forest
2. Lizards in My Yard
3. Gulf Fritillary Fun
4. Bird Portaits
5. Summer is for the Bugs
6. Junior Naturalist Club

Foliage Follow-Up

Pam at Digging posts pictures of beautiful foliage to remind us that there's more to plants than just flowers, and that foliage adds to the garden all year long.  I decided to follow her lead with pictures of two of my favorite leafy January plants.  

Two years ago, I fell to temptation and bought a packet of Shasta Daisy seeds.  I realize now that there are many TX natives that would have been better choices, but I'm learning.  The blooms I got last year were pretty scraggly, and quickly over taken by sunflowers.  However, during the winter it's a different story, the daises' bright luscious leaves take center stage all winter when everything else is dull.     

I love my winter lawn of weedy grass and, well, weeds.  It's so soft and sweet just like a carpet.  It dries up just about the time my Elm tree is completely leafed out, and the sunflowers take over.  


What's your January favorite foliage? 
Post a comment or link to your blog/photos.  If you join in with Foliage Follow-Up on your blog please link back to me and Pam in the comments section of our blogs.  

Big Sister Museum

When it's rainy and cold outside, visiting a museum is a great option.  

I, along with several Nature Center co-workers and my brother Jack, got a tour of University of Texas' Natural History Museum also known as Texas Memorial Museum.  The informative tour was lead by Dr. Pamela Owen (thank you, Dr. Owen.)

The Great Hall

Jack pointing to Big Thicket National Preserve
where he'll be working this spring.

This Austin museum focuses on Texas Natural History.  It has 4 floors covering Paleontology, Geology, Native Animals, and Evolution.  Amazing treasures are on display throughout the grand building.

The Paleontology Floor hosts fossils from each time period.  Here's a saber-toothed cat,
a giant armadillo relative, and a swimming reptile in the background.

The Cretaceous Period Display- Central TX was under a shallow sea.
The Mosasaur, large marine alligator like animal, was found in South Austin

Some beautiful minerals

I think of UT's museum as the grownup sister to the Austin Nature and Science Center.  We have the Dino Pit where you dig up fossils; they have the actual fossils on display.  We have live animals; they have taxidermied animals. We have a minerals, insects, and skulls...they have them, too.  We have the Naturalist Workshop and Trade Counter; they have the Paleo Lab.  The nature center is hands-on, outdoors, and informal, whereas the Museum is a treasure vault, classic, and formal.  The two places are complements with different takes on the same theme.  Another bonus is that both UT's Museum and the Nature Center are free to visit. 

What do you prefer Nature Centers or Museums, informal or classic?  I'd love to hear from you.

 A meteorite is one of the few things that you are allowed to touch.
But, what an amazing thing to touch!  It was in Space!

Quetzalcoatalus northropi, the largest flying animal ever found