Tuesday, October 13, 2015

LOTS TO LOVE

OK, let's be perfectly clear. This year's fall weather sucks, even for Texas! 96F here on our hill yesterday, and close to 100 in Austin, according to my hubby. In mid-October! Nevertheless, I still managed to find lots to love on my not-so-fallish walk this morning.


At the top of my list are my little "Halloween" lanterns (aka Physalis, Chinese Lantern, or Ground Cherry -- a relative of the tomatillo plant) which pop up at the entrance to our neighborhood around this time every year. Who knows how they got there? Everything that was intentionally planted in that bed has died, but these guys just popped up out of nowhere.

At the bottom of my list was the dead deer not far behind me when I was snapping those pics, the smell of which almost made me lose my breakfast. 

But, back to more positive things...there was this tiny bit of fall color framing the upended red canoe that washed down into our section of the creek during the Great Halloween Flood a few years back, and has been there ever since.


Then there was the sound which the giant sycamores make when their leaves have gone papery and are flapping in the breeze.


Plus there was the light coming through these moss-laden branches...


the huge oak that uprooted itself and fell over, but just refused to die...


and getting to visit with my neighbor's chickies and goats.



Last but not least, there is my little "grotto" that faces the road in front of our house...


and which goes all drippy after a rain. Looks like Hubby has started adding rocks around the base whenever he goes by.


All it needs is a statue, right? Well, that and some rain.

Yep, there's always lots to love, if you just look hard enough!

Hmmm...


Wonder what would happen if I planted some of these little Chinese Lantern seeds in one of the big pots outside my front door?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do try, it's such a great plant. Speak of plants, with that heat, do they ever get a rest and some downtime, just like you all need from the heat I am sure. It was 72 here on Monday, which is really warm for us and one of my rhodies started to re bloom in a couple of spots. Not good. I suspect we will go from overly warm to downright hide in the house weather and be buried with snow. Hope you get some relief. xox

Hill Country Hippie said...

Yes, that's the problem here. We have two distinct seasons, summer and winter, but in between it does nothing but swing back and forth from one extreme to another, getting the plants so confused that they don't know what to do! The water situation is the same. We went from horrific flooding in May straight on to total drought and blistering heat ever since. Not the best place for gardening!