Captured moments

Fun Finds in Blanco, Texas – March 2017

/ coffeeandcapturedmoments / Leave a comment

I meet my best friend and sister of the heart for lunch occasionally in Blanco, Texas.  One of our favorite places for lunch is the Redbud Cafe.  After a leisurely meal, we visit  Brieger Pottery which is located next door.  (Click on the links in blue to see a blog post from a couple of years ago about The Redbud Cafe and Brieger Pottery.)

On this trip we, of course, had to see what was new  in the Brieger Pottery store.  They carry  a lovely mix of pottery, handmade creations from local artists and more.  You will find pottery, jewelry, clothing, cards, a great selection of oil cloth patterns, and wind chimes, just to name a few.  Today I am focusing on pottery.

One of my favorite pieces are these pottery balls.  I took a photo of them a couple of years ago and always look for more when I visit the store.  On this trip I found a wonderful selection of pottery by this artist.

Yes, there were my cute pottery balls, but I immediately zeroed in on the faces. They are adorable.

and this one


 

 

If you get a chance to travel to the Texas Hill Country , take time to visit Blanco.  It is a lovely town.  Have lunch at The Redbud Cafe and browse through the pottery store next door.  Be sure to walk around the square and visit the other great places to shop and eat too.

Happy traveling,

Melyna

 

The Gulf Fritillary butterflies have returned and their larvae are VERY hungry!

/ coffeeandcapturedmoments / Leave a comment

Earlier this year we had the Gulf fritillary butterflies come make themselves at home on my passion vines.  Their larvae pretty much defoliated my vines and it was a battle.  They seemed to have moved on during the summer, but are now back with a vengeance, once again happily eating my passion vines.  They also like flitting around the cypress vines and mist flowers, which is very pretty to watch.
gulf-fritillary-on-cypress-vine-1-back

gulf-fritillary-on-cypress-vine-2-facing

gulf-fritillary-on-mist-flower

two-butterflies-and-shell

gulf-fritillary-larvae

This year the vines produced fruit.  We counted eight passion fruit today.  I hope the larvae do not like to eat that too.

passion-vine-fruit

close-up-of-passion-fruit

Captured moments – wildlife camera

/ coffeeandcapturedmoments / 2 Comments

We have a lot of wildlife around our home.  We decided to set up a wildlife camera , threw out some scraps and waited to see who showed up.  This is what we found.

We had not thrown out any scraps when she came by.  I think she was a little surprised. 🙂

We also have a fox.  Well, we know we have more than one.  Before we realized that they would hunt during the day, we started losing chickens.  We soon found out that a fox had a den close to our house with four adorable pups.  Well fed pups.  We now have a different chicken coop and a more controlled free range schedule.

 

This possum, we have named One eyed Jack.  Here, he is chasing a bug.

 

This is a younger possum

 

We also  have raccoons.

I am happy that we have not seen any coyotes.  They tend to not come up near our property.  It has definitely been interesting to see what is happening when we are not around.

 

Operation Frog Rescue

/ coffeeandcapturedmoments / Leave a comment

We have had a very wet spring.  So much so that there were large mud puddles along our road that have held water for quite some time.  There was an especially large one in our cul-de-sac.  We have not had any rain for about a week now and with the high temperatures, the puddles are drying up.

My husband mentioned that he noticed a lot of movement in the puddles and suspected frogs.   Saturday we went for a walk and discovered that the puddle is getting very small.    We could see small frogs jumping away into the grass along side of the road, but there were more frogs in various stages of development clinging to the sides of the puddle.  Some with nubs of tails, still others in the tadpole phase.

We do not have any significant rain in the forecast, so I decided to rescue as many of these little guys as I could.  I asked my teen children if they wanted to go catch frogs and I was met with incredulous looks.  It was in the upper 90’s out there, so I could understand their reluctance.   So, I ventured out with my bucket of water, cooler and net to catch frogs, alone. 😉

Mud puddle drying up

Not much left of the mud puddle.

 

Tadpoles in net

Tadpoles in net.

 

Frogs in cooler

Frogs in the ice chest., ready for transport.

 

We have made it home. Here I am moving them to two of the small ponds that I have in the yard.

We have made it home and now I am moving them to two of the small ponds that I have in the yard.

I placed dry wood in the pond for the frogs to climb on. They found it right away.

I placed dry wood in the pond for the frogs to climb on. They found it right away.

One of the tadpoles. :-)

One of the tadpoles. 🙂

This little fellow did not like the small pond that I put him in at first. I transferred him to the larger tank and gave him his own log.

This little fellow did not like the small pond that I put him into at first. I transferred him to the larger tank and gave him his own log.

Ladybugs, butterflies and beetles

/ coffeeandcapturedmoments / Leave a comment

I recently shared a post about the ladybugs that have graced my garden this year.

Ladybug, Lady beetle or ladybird beetles. Whatever the name, they are welcome in my garden.

They have continued to thrive and their larvae are appearing in encouraging numbers.  They are welcome to feast on all the aphids and dill plants they desire.

Ladybug larvae at various stages

Ladybug larvae at various stages

Ladybug larvae and aphids

Ladybug larvae and aphids

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The dill has started going to seed and it looks like we will have plenty to re-seed for next spring.

Dill seed

Dill seed

We also have Blue Mist Flower for the butterflies.  This butterfly seems to be enjoying them.

Butterfly on Blue Mist Flowers

Butterfly on Blue Mist Flowers

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Plus this beetle with the pretty antennae.

Beetle on blue mist flower. Look at those pretty antennae.

Beetle on blue mist flower. Look at those pretty antennae.

Melyna

Texas Spiny lizard

/ coffeeandcapturedmoments / Leave a comment

Our gray cat is a hunter.  He was homeless until we rescued him when he was about four months old.  He still has the hunting instinct.  While we were working in the yard last week, my husband noticed the cat chasing a lizard.  It ran up a tree stump and we stepped into rescue it.

The Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus)  is common in our area.   They eat insects and are fun to watch.  This fellow was very calm when we approached him and let my husband move him to another, safer spot to continue his life free of meddlesome kitties.

Texas Spiny lizard.

Texas Spiny lizard.

Texas Spiny Lizard

Texas Spiny Lizard – closer

Rescued

Rescued (He is adorable)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

On his way to a safer location

Ladybug, Lady beetle or ladybird beetles. Whatever the name, they are welcome in my garden.

/ coffeeandcapturedmoments / Leave a comment

I scattered dill seed from last years crop all over the back of the garden area.  We had a very mild winter and the dill came up every where.  I had hoped for a good crop to attract butterflies.  One insect I had not considered I might attract were ladybugs.  I went to check the garden and noticed several lady bugs on my dill.  Then I noticed a large number of aphids.   I was thrilled to see the ladybugs happily working their way trough the pests.

Lady bug on dill flowers

Lady bug on dill flowers

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ladybug on dill stem

Melyna

Albert Phineas Drache

Butterflies and passion vines.

/ coffeeandcapturedmoments / Leave a comment

Last summer I planted passion vines on a trellis behind my raised bed garden.  It was an attempt to provide shade from the hot afternoon sun.  They did well, but froze back over the winter.  This spring they sent out runners and started climbing again, but this year we have an abundance of Gulf Frittilary Butterflies  that are seeking out these vines,  and their larva apparently love eating it.  I am torn between removing them from the vine by hand to save the plants or allowing them to happily eat to their heart’s content and hope the vines recover afterwards.  I have settled on doing a little bit of both.   If I can keep the vines alive, my hope is that in a few years there will be enough vines to host the butterflies and enjoy the beautiful flowers.

Below are several caterpillars that I picked off the vines with the leaves and flowers they were eating.

caterpillars on passion vine

Close up of a very hungry caterpillar.

gulf fritillary (Agraulis_vanilla) caterpillar

Gulf Fritillary pupa

gulf fritillary (Agraulis_vanilla) pupa

Gulf Frittillary butterfly on lantana

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Melyna

Albert Phineas Drache